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.

Family

Maria O'Neill 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 died on the high seas, on the Atlantic Ocean, on board of the General Osório, travelling from Brazil back to Portugal after giving one of her Spiritualist Conferences.

Marriage and issue

She married in Lisbon in 1890 António de Bulhões, a civil servant, and had four children: