Antony MacDonnell, 1st Baron MacDonnell
[2] His main area of study was the field of modern languages, and he graduated with first class honors in 1864,[3] winning the Peel Gold Medal.
On leaving university in 1864, MacDonnell successfully sat the entrance examination for the Indian Civil Service, and was posted to Bengal, arriving in Calcutta in November 1865.
In that same year, the viceroy, Lord Elgin, requested that MacDonnell again take charge of Bengal as Lieutenant-Governor, an offer he declined due to fatigue and the frail health of his wife.
His position had been achieved through intellectual ability and dedication to each task set before him, yet he was looked down upon as his background was certainly not that of a 'gentleman,' lacking the familial connections of this contemporaries.
"[citation needed] MacDonnell was sworn of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom on 11 August 1902,[6] following an announcement of the King's intention to make this appointment in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published in June that year.
MacDonnell entered into lengthy negotiations with Lansdowne and the Chief Secretary, George Wyndham, regarding the terms under which he would accept the position; he was not content to occupy the traditional role of an administrative civil servant, with little input into the formulation of policy.
He eventually accepted the office of Under-Secretary on the explicit understanding that he would be given "adequate opportunities of influencing the policy and acts of the administration".
Following on from these administrative reforms, MacDonnell entered more politically dangerous territory, by collaborating with several liberal landlords led by the Fourth Earl of Dunraven in drawing up a plan for the devolution of some governmental authority from the Westminster parliament to an elected council in Dublin, albeit in a manner consistent with the Act of Union 1800.
The landowners involved formed a group known as the Irish Reform Association, and published the outline of the scheme in a 1904 manifesto; Lord Dunraven requested that MacDonnell formulate the plan in greater detail.
The events precipitated a political crisis; Wyndham repudiated the scheme in a letter to The Times, but by March 1905, due to repeated Unionist attacks, his position as Chief Secretary had become untenable and he was forced to resign from Cabinet.
He was also helped by the fact, known among prominent government figures, that he enjoyed the strong support of King Edward VII, to whom he was quite close.
On the fall of the Balfour government in 1905, James Bryce replaced Long as Chief Secretary for Ireland in the new Liberal administration.
One of the most colourful incidents of his later career was the crisis surrounding the theft of the regalia of the Order of St. Patrick, known popularly as the "Irish Crown Jewels", from the Office of Arms in Dublin Castle shortly before a royal visit to Ireland in 1907.
His relationship with Birrell was never comfortable, and, frustrated by the lack of progress towards a workable scheme of devolution for Ireland, he resigned his post in July 1908, at the age of 64.
He returned to his alma mater, by then known as University College Galway, in 1911, to address the Literary and Debating Society of which he had been a distinguished officer in his student days.
After a speech setting out a proposal for a workable solution to Irish agrarian demands, he finished with the patriotic lines: "Oh brave young men, my pride, my hope, my promise/It is on you my heart is set/In manliness, in kindliness, in justice,/To make Ireland a nation yet."
