The cross-section of the Church of Ireland Community which filled the pews of St Brigid's Church, Castleknock, Dublin on April 16th bore eloquent witness to the effect of Canon E. M. (Bertie) Neill's ministry in the Church of Ireland for nearly 60 years; and the many representatives from the wider community, including official representatives of the State, witnessed the extent of the respect and affection in which he was held throughout the nation.
I had the privilege of knowing him and his devoted wife Rhoda for a great part of those 60 years. Even as a divinity student in Trinity his arresting voice and his gentle, but persuasive, rhetorical style of presentation, marked him as a gifted preacher. His subsequent career fulfilled generously that early impression. His gifts were far wider than preaching and his capacity to make a strong evangelical appeal to people of all ages; he had gifts of organisation to a remarkable degree. He organised and conducted in every detail summer camps for boys at Lough Dan during the most restrictive years of the second World War. To obtain sufficient food, petrol, camping equipment, assistant staff and the various government permissions then required for the operation, would have daunted any one of less spirit and less faith than Bertie Neill. These camps were a great success and left a deep impression on those privileged to attend them.
Many a face from those camps of more than half a century ago were to be seen at the funeral in Castleknock. Boys from all over Ireland attended those camps and some also from countries in continental Europe who were seeking refuge from persecution and had come to Ireland. Apart from the usual activities of summer camps, games, swimming, mountain climbing, those camps had a specific purpose; the strong evangelical presentation of the Christian Gospel. Coming from a traditional Church of Ireland background, I was cautious in response to any emotional evangelical appeal, but the sincerity and the commitment of those who made the appeal left an enduring impression. There was an abiding gratitude felt by those who attended the camps which were organised under such difficult conditions and that gratitude developed into lasting friendship over the years.
From a strong evangelical beginning to his ministry, Bertie Neill developed into a mature, deeply spiritual minister of the Word and Sacrament comprehensively Catholic, while never losing the force and drive of his strong evangelical roots. He was a good priest and pastor and always a superb preacher.
Bertie and Rhoda were perfectly matched for their long life together and for their mission in the service of the Church of Ireland. Their love for one another found its source and its fulfilment in the devotion of each of them to the person of Christ and to the Church's Mission in the world.
After the War they extended their camp activity, holding camps for both boys and girls and establishing a permanent camping site and residence in Co Wicklow. Their fifteen years in St James, Crinken, gave them an opportunity to develop their ministry in many fields and they never lost an opportunity to do so. Their capacity for friendship was limitless, and their self-giving in the service of those who needed their help was prodigious. Mrs Neill for many years organised the meals in the Synod Hall for the members of the General Synod, with more than 600 persons to feed. This would have been a large undertaking for a catering firm, but for a private person with only voluntary help, it was a huge commitment and discharged with grace and generosity characteristic of Rhoda and Bertie.
Canon Neill was chaplain to the President of Ireland during the period of his incumbency of St Brigid's, Castleknock. In this large and growing parish he gave of himself so generously that he exhausted his strength and suffered a breakdown in health in 1975, necessitating his taking a lighter parish, St Andrew's Suffolk Street, in Dublin, until his health recovered; when again he pursued a flourishing ministry in the Diocese of Elphin, in the Parish of Boyle, Co Roscommon until 1987 when he retired form the active ministry. He was appointed a Canon of Christchurch Cathedral Dublin in 1972 and a Canon of the Cathedral Church of St May the Virgin and St John the Baptist in the Diocese of Elphin and Ardagh in 1982.
Canon Neill's devotion to his wife Rhoda in her years of declining health was an inspiration to all privileged to know them. Their faith and their mutual love and the loving support of their son John and his wife Betty and family and his daughter Rhodanne and her husband Michael and family, reaching to the fourth generation, made for a happy and fulfilled home for Bertie and Rhoda. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren "rose up and called them blessed".
The Neills are not only a Church of Ireland family: they constitute a Church of Ireland dynasty, with five generations of clergy in the service of the Church of Ireland; rivalling the family from which the first President of Ireland was chosen in 1937 - the Hyde Family. D.A.R.C.