M‘Neile received a private education. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1810, and graduated Artium Baccalaureus (AB), with a good degree in classics in 1815. He also began legal studies at The King's Inns in Dublin and, having served all his terms there, transferred to London's Lincoln's Inn in 1814. He almost completed his terms there as well when, around 1819, he decided to abandon the law as well as the political career that his family had anticipated for him and return to his studies in order to qualify for ordination. He graduated "Magister Artium", at Dublin University in 1822.