Family background
Cornelius O’Neill was born in 1898 at Sydney, son of Cornelius and Julia Ann O’Neill. In 1923 he married Anne Margaret Kumsay at Sydney. He died at Glebe on 22 June 1967, aged 69 years. Anne O’Neill died on 7 July 1965, aged 62 years
Occupation & interests
O’Neill worked as a labourer, and also as a driver for Sydney City Council. Manufacturing, heavy industry, transport and commerce were significant areas for local men at the 1947 census.
Community activity
Glebe Council under Mayor O’Neill, moved a motion in 1947 in support of the nationalisation of banking, commending Prime Minister Chifley on his action to preserve the nation’s economy in the face of sectional opposition. O’Neill is remembered in Coeill Place in Glebe.
Local government service
A senior member of the ALP, prominent in the branch and on Glebe Council, Con O’Neill was elected mayor in 1947. In his mayoral minute of 25 June that year O’Neill indicated Glebe Council recommended the authorisation of a loan of 100,000 pounds for home construction and slum clearance within the municipality.
References
Hogan, Michael 2004, Local labor: a history of the Labor Party in Glebe, 1891-2003, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1944, p. 6
Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June 1947, p. 7
Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 1947, p. 5
Sydney Morning Herald, 23 June 1967, p. 22