Neville, Henry F. (1822–89), catholic priest and theologian, was born in St Finn Barr's parish, Cork, probably in February or early in March 1822 (he was baptised on 5 March). All that is known about his family is that he was related through his mother to Laurence Callanan (qv) and that the chief mourner at Neville's funeral was the Rev. Edmond Neville (1840?–1929), parish priest of Conna, Co. Cork. He was educated at the O'Regan and Moynihan School, Cork, before entering Maynooth College to train for the priesthood (1841). ‘In every branch of knowledge . . . he was always “first”, and brilliantly first’ (Healy). Ordained in 1847, when disease brought on by the Famine was causing the deaths of priests in Cork, he was summoned back to serve as a missioner in the North parish and there came to the favourable attention of the new bishop, William Delany (qv). Neville served as a curate in the Cathedral parish, then returned to Maynooth on being appointed professor of logic, metaphysics and ethics (15 October 1850). Two years later he was appointed professor of theology (20 January 1852) and in the years that followed was consulted by many Irish ecclesiastics on theological matters. As a teacher he was very lucid. At the synods held at Thurles (1850) he was a consultor, as he was at the Vatican council (1870) and at the national synod of Maynooth (1875). Neville incurred the wrath of the archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cullen (qv), for allegedly favouring (like Delany) the queen's colleges and ‘Gallicanism’.
He resigned his chair (21 October 1867) to become parish priest of the Cork suburbs of Passage and Monkstown. He built a fine church at Monkstown and dwelling-houses for priests. In appointing him a parish priest Delany also made him a canon. On the death of the parish priest of St Finn Barr's (March 1875), Neville was appointed to succeed him and was made dean and vicar-general of the Cork diocese. His eminence increased when he published a pamphlet, A few comments on Mr Gladstone's expostulation (1875). It was a reply to Gladstone's pamphlet on the Vatican decrees and was praised by John Henry Newman (qv). In October 1879 the catholic bishops appointed Neville rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. It had been founded by Newman in 1854 but was moribund, for which Neville sought a remedy in the Irish university act that received royal assent on 15 August 1879. Having been appointed (April 1880) one of the 36 senators of the new Royal University (mainly an examining body), he privately persuaded his senatorial colleagues to award 13 Royal University examining and teaching fellowships, in effect to the Catholic University. For their part the bishops, against Neville's judgement, made over administration of the Catholic University to the Jesuits. Early in 1883, he ceased to be rector.
Neville remained a parish priest in Cork and in 1880 suffered unpopularity for his opposition to Charles Stewart Parnell (qv) who stood (successfully) in the city constituency in the parliamentary elections (March-April). He was considered to be the guiding hand behind the elderly Delany in the transfer from the city to rural parishes of two curates who were vociferous supporters of Parnell, John O'Mahony (qv) and Denis McCarthy (1841–1901). As an able vicar-general he could only be expected to administer the diocese if the bishop were no longer active. When Delany sought a co-adjutor with right of succession (January 1884), Neville was his choice. The canons and parish priests of the diocese (who voted on the succession) were equally divided between Neville and Thomas Alphonsus O'Callaghan (qv). Neville was strongly opposed by the archbishop of the province, Thomas William Croke (qv), in whose opinion he was ‘a desperate West Briton, a Castle hack and probably the most unpopular man in Ireland’ (quoted by Larkin, 211–12). Neville's friendship with Sir George Errington (qv) was of no help. O'Callaghan was appointed (June 1884) and duly succeeded on Delany's death (14 November 1886). The new bishop found that Neville was living in a villa outside his parish and had said mass and preached only once during the previous two years. Henry Neville died 15 December 1889 and was buried in Blackrock graveyard. A learned, earnest priest, he was honoured by the pope, who made him a domestic prelate or monsignor (1880), but he was out of sympathy with the agrarian agitation of the Land League and Plan of Campaign during his final years.