Daniel Joseph McNeill or ‘DJ’ as he was widely known, was born in Dundrum in 1906. He was educated at the local primary school and at Hughes Academy, Belfast. His teaching career began at St Malachy’s College, and the Christian Brothers School in Belfast, in the 1930s. He moved to Further Education, first at Stranmillis College, then Bangor, before coming to Downpatrick in 1944, where he spent the rest of his working life.
He married Mollie Fitzpatrick in 1937, and his three children, Dan, Elizabeth and Frances were born in 1940, 1942 and 1949. The family retained their close links with their Flynn and McNeill relations in Dromara and Dundrum, as can be seen in many photographs. Mollie died in 1983 and sadly, young Dan himself died in 1992.
DJ was totally involved in the community and was a member of many local organisations. These included the Downpatrick Hospital Management Committee, Quoile Yacht Club, Dundrum Regatta and Sports Committee, Lecale Historical Society, the local Young Farmers Club, Downpatrick Golf Club, Newcastle Field Club, the Downpatrick and Ardglass Railway Society and the ‘Woodbutchers’. He was also a member of the Institute of British Architects, a President of the Principals of Technical Schools in Northern Ireland and was on the board of the City and Guilds Examiners. As a result, he was widely respected as a teacher, administrator and historian. In 1966 he was awarded the MBE for his contribution to Technical Education and in 1986 the local community recognised his work by giving him the Down District Visual Arts Award.
He began taking photographs in his teens. The earliest in our archive were taken with a Box Brownie camera, bought from Mr Smiley, the chemist in Castlewellan, for 15s 6d, in June 1922 when he was only 15. From this beginning he went on to publish photographs regularly in newspapers, the first in the Irish News in 1947 and later in the Mourne Observer, Northern Whig, North Down Chronicle and Bangor Spectator. He began a life-long association with the Down Recorder in 1951 and contributed to local journals and magazines. In 1960, DJ was commissioned by the British Museum to take photographs of Killyleagh and the surrounding area for an exhibition about Hans Sloane. Throughout his adult life he took his camera everywhere and has left us an unparalleled record of life in our county from the 1940s to the 1980s. DJ also copied old photographs which people brought to him. From these sources he created lively slide shows, which many people remember with affection.
From its inception DJ supported the Museum, inspiring and encouraging staff and he was unfailingly generous with his time, information and photographs. After his death in 1988, DJ’s family gave the Museum his entire collection of photographs (over 30,000 in total), along with other items such as cameras and photographic accessories.
A selection of DJ McNeill’s photographs were published in the 2007 edition of the Down Survey. The publication entitled, ‘Our DJ – Photographs by DJ McNeill’, is available from the Museum for only £8.
Some of DJ McNeill's photographs are now also available to view online.
If you would like further information about the DJ McNeill collection, please contact the Museum on +44 (0)330 137 4049 or email museums@nmandd.org.
