Maria O'Neill
Maria da Conceição Infante de Lacerda Pereira de Eça Custance O'Neill was a Portuguese writer, poet, journalist, and spiritualist of Irish descent.
Early life and family
Maria O'Neill was born on 19 November 1873 in Lisbon.She was the daughter of Carlos Tomás O'Neill and wife Maria Carlota Pereira de Eça Infante de Lacerda, daughter of José António Pereira de Eça and wife Maria da Conceição Infante de Lacerda, and paternal granddaughter of Carlos Torlades O'Neill and wife Adelaide Carolina Custance, daughter of Thomas Parsons Custance, an English subject, and first wife Antónia Eugénia Barbosa de Brito.
She had a younger brother Carlos Torlades O'Neill, Merchant in Lisbon, where he lived single, Company Administrator, Member of the Administration Council of the Companhia de Seguros Previdente, married to Laura Moreira, without issue, and two aunts, Adelaide O'Neill, unmarried and without issue, and Ethelinda O'Neill, unmarried, and without issue.
She was a great-granddaughter of José Maria O'Neill, the titular head of the Clanaboy O'Neill dynasty, whose family has been in Portugal since the 18th century, and wife Ludovina de Jesus Alves Solano.
Career
O'Neill was a writer, poet and journalist. She was also a spiritualist, member of the Superior Deliberative Council of the Federação Espírita Portuguesa and member of the Editorial Office of the magazine Espiritismo.She became a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, was a vegetarian, and was initiated into Theosophy, a mystical school or initiatory movement that proposed that all religions arose from common stem teachings while seeking knowledge about the mysteries of human existence, the beginning of life and nature, and later became interested in spiritism, to which she devoted a large part of her existence until the end of her days. She was also a vegetarian, and a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.
Personal life
She married in Lisbon in 1890 António de Bulhões, a civil servant, and had four children:- Maria Antónia Pereira de Eça O'Neill de Bulhões, married firstly to an English subject, divorced, without issue, and married secondly to Francisco de Sousa, without issue
- Luís Pereira de Eça O'Neill de Bulhões, married to French Madeleine Chayac, without issue
- José António Pereira de Eça O'Neill de Bulhões, a bank worker, and wife Maria da Glória Vahia de Barros de Castro, daughter of Dr. Alberto de Barros e Castro, Medical Doctor, and wife Maria da Graça de Sousa Vahia, and had two children:
- * Maria Amélia Vahia de Castro O'Neill de Bulhões, a Nun
- * Alexandre Manuel Vahia de Castro O'Neill de Bulhões, writer and poet
- Maria Francisca Pereira de Eça O'Neill de Bulhões, unmarried and without issue