Law Enforcement Officer, Musician, Music Collector, Author. He was an Irish-born police officer in Chicago, Illinois, and a well-known collector of Irish traditional music. He was born into a musical family one of six children as Francis Daniel O'Neill (another source says Daniel Francis O'Neill), in Tralibane (another source says Caheragh), now in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, to John O'Neill (1801-1867), and his wife Catherine O'Mahoney O'Neill (1812-1900), on August 28, 1848. He was educated locally and attended the National School in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. While growing up and from a young age, he heard the music of local musicians, among them Peter Hagarty, Cormac Murphy, and Timothy Dowling. When he was sixteen years old, he found work as a cabin boy on an English merchant vessel and traveled to Sunderland, England, while the ship did trade work in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea. He even did some walking, in various locations, before boarding another ship named, "Emerald Isle" in 1866. He continued his adventures to such locations as the West Indies, South America, Japan, and Honolulu, Hawaii, on ships with such names as 'Minnehaha' which was later wrecked off the coast of Boston, Massachusetts, at Baker's Island in the Pacific Ocean. He also visited Mexico, and San Francisco, California, and then went to Edina, Missouri, where he taught school for a while before eventually doing some more traveling. While on a voyage to New York, he met soon to be wife, Anna Rogers O'Neill (1849-1934), also an immigrant to the United States. The couple were married in Bloomington, Illinois, and they soon moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he first worked as a clerk for the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company in Chicago, Illinois, for a year, and then took an interest in policing and law enforcement and he joined the Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois, in 1873. On one of his first patrolman jobs, he was shot in the back during an encounter with a notorious burglar. He ended up having to carry the bullet in his back for the rest of his life but he was eventually able to continue his policing and overtime he quickly rose through the ranks of the police department and was named as a replacement for the outgoing Chief Joseph Kipley (1848-1904), Superintendent, which was also referred to as Chief of Police or General Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from 1901 to 1905. He also had the rare distinction, in a time when political "pull" counted for more than competence, of being re-appointed twice to the same position by two different Mayors of Chicago, Illinois, including Carter Henry Harrison IV or Jr. (1860-1953), and Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne (1853-1937). During his time as a police officer in Chicago, Illinois, he found time to be part of a vibrant Irish community of musicians. He was a flautist, fiddler, and piper, and because of his early love of music, he recruited many traditional Irish musicians into the police force, including Patrick O'Mahony, James O'Neill, Bernard Delaney, John McFadden, and James Early. He also collected tunes from some of the major performers of the time including Patsy Touhey, who regularly sent Chief Francis O'Neill wax cylinders and visited him in Chicago, Illinois. He also collected tunes from a wide variety of printed sources. He retired from law enforcement and the Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois, in 1905, after thirty-two years of dedicated service. After his retirement from the Chicago, Illinois, police force, he still devoted much of his energy to publishing the music he had collected. His musical works include, "O'Neill's Music Of Ireland" (1903), containing 1,850 pieces of music, "The Dance Music Of Ireland" (1907), sometimes called, "O'Neill's 1001," because of the number of tunes included, "Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby" (1910). Appendix A contains O'Farrells Treatise And Instructions On The Irish Pipes, published 1797-1800; appendix B is Hints To Amateur Pipers by Patrick J. Touhy, and "Irish Minstrels And Musicians" (1913), biographies of musicians, including those from whom he collected tunes in Chicago, Illinois. He continued his interest in collecting music in his retirement years until his death. He passed away from heart disease in Chicago, Illinois, on January 26, 1936, at the age of 87. His funeral service was held through the N.J. Hanley Funeral Home in Chicago, Illinois, and the St. Thomas Apostle Church in Chicago, Illinois, and he was buried in the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, and his name is also inscribed on the O'Neill Celtic cross gravestone of his parents in Caheragh Old Burial Ground in County Cork, Ireland. He had personally traveled back to his native Ireland and had the O'Neill Celtic cross gravestone commissioned in honor of his parents who are buried in the cemetery in 1906. His wife Anna predeceased him by two years on May 7, 1934, at the age of 84, and she is buried with him in the O'Neill Family Mausoleum at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. The couple had four daughters together, one of whom Julia, married a police captain named James L. Mooney. On an interesting note, he left an estate valued at the amount of $21, 390, that went to his surviving daughters. The author Nicholas Carolan who described Chief Francis O'Neill as "the greatest individual influence on the evolution of Irish traditional dance music in the twentieth century," published a biographical work about Chief Francis O'Neill, entitled, "A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill And Irish Music In Chicago." In 2008, Northwestern University Press issued Chief Francis O'Neill's "Sketchy Recollections Of An Eventful Life in Chicago," a non-musical memoir edited by Ellen Skerrett and Mary Lesch (a descendant of Chief Francis O'Neill), with a foreword by Nicholas Carolan who wrote his biography and who is a member of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. In his memory, a life-size monument of Chief Francis O'Neill playing a flute was unveiled next to the O'Neill Family Homestead in Tralibane, County Cork. Ireland. The monument, which was made by the sculptor Jeanne Rynhart, and a commemorative wall were erected through the efforts of the Captain Francis O'Neill Memorial Company. He was also memorialized in the musical play "Music Mad: How Chief O'Neill Saved The Soul of Ireland," which premiered in Chicago, Illinois, in 2012. The stage play which was written by Adam B. Whiteman with the approval and acceptance of Chief Francis O'Neill's great-granddaughter, Mary Lesch, the stage production of the play contains both dramatized content and material from Chief Francis O'Neill's own writings. The inaugural Chief Francis O'Neill Traditional Music Festival took place in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland just a few miles from Tralibane, County Cork, Ireland. The event held in 2013 marked the centenary of the publication of Chief Francis O'Neill's work, "Irish Minstrels And Musicians" (1913). The event has taken place annually since and the Chief O'Neill's Pub and Restaurant," in the Avondale neighborhood bears his name and displays related memorabilia. Also, Peter Hagarty and Francis O'Neill are memorialized in the song, "Píobaire Bán," written by Tim O'Riordan and recorded by Patrick O'Sullivan on the CD "One More Time."

Cenotaph here