Editing Maurice O'Neill

{{Infobox military person|name=Maurice O'Neill|birth_date=1917|birth_place=Cahersiveen, Kerry, Ireland|death_date=November 12, 1942|death_place=Mountjoy Gaol, Dublin, Ireland|memorials=[[Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge]]|relations=[[Sean O'Neill]]|known for=|image=Maurice O'Neill.png|allegiance=[[Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army]]}}'''Maurice O'Neill''' was an [[Irish Republican]] militant and martyr from County Kerry, Ireland who was executed in 1942 for his role in a shootout that killed a [[Garda Síochána]] detective.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=ART Mac EOIN|newspaper=An Phoblacht|title=Remembering the Past
Maurice O'Neill executed|date=2001-11-15|url=https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/8082}}</ref>

== Early Life ==
Maurice O'Neill was born in 1917 in Caherciveen, County Kerry, Ireland to Maurice O'Neill Sr. and Catherine O'Neill.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=Irish Republican History and Remembrance|title=ÓGLACH MAURICE O’NEILL|date=2013-05-16|url=https://irishistory.blogspot.com/2013/05/oglach-maurice-oneill.html}}</ref> He came from a Republican family, with his brother Seán participating in [[Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army]] activities throughout his life and later becoming involved in [[Republican Sinn Féin]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Saoirse - Irish Freedom|title=Seán Ó Néill|date=1997-04|url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~eirenua/apr97/saoirse1.htm}}</ref>

== IRA Activity and Arrest ==
In the early 1940s the government of Ireland harshly repressed the IRA, with the [[Emergency Powers Act]] and the [[Offences Against the State Act]] both in place, leading to internment without trial and a 'shoot-to-kill' policy by the Garda Síochána.<ref name=":0" />

During this period, in 1942 Maurice O'Neill was called to Dublin after the murder of [[Tom Williams]] at the hands of the British government's occupation of Northern Ireland. The IRA was planning a push against targets on the Northern Ireland Border. This plan collapsed and IRA leaders and members in Dublin went into hiding.<ref name=":0" />

One of these leaders was [[Harry White]], then Quartermaster of the Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army. O'Neill and White were staying at an IRA safehouse at 14 Holly Road, Donneycarney, Dublin. On October 24, planning to meet with fellow Republicans in the North, the pair left the house and were fired at by, unbeknownst to them at the time, Garda officers including a detective named Mordant.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

These officers had taken positions outside the house and intended to murder the two under the 'shoot to kill' laws in place. The IRA men fired back, and by the end of the gun battle Harry White was injured by a shot to his leg, the detective was dead, and O'Neill was captured.<ref name=":0" />

White managed to escape through the back door of the house and climbed over the wall, lying in the thicket past it for two days, after which he got onto a bus and made his escape to a safehouse in Summerhill, Dublin.<ref name=":0" />

== Trial and Execution ==
It was immediately clear that Harry White had shot the detective, not O'Neill, and that it was likely O'Neill was completely unaware of the killing due to being in another part of the house. Regardless of this fact, under the Emergency Powers Act nearly any crime committed during IRA activity could result in a death sentence. O'Neill was charged with 'shooting with intent' and was imprisoned first in Dublin Castle, then in Bridewell, and finally in [[Arbour Hill Detention Barracks]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

His trial began on November 2. Former Chief of Staff of the IRA and future Nobel Peace Prize winner [[Sean MacBride]] was his defense attorney. The court consisted of 3 military officers and there was no option to appeal. He was sentenced to death.<ref name=":1" />

O'Neill was executed by firing squad on November 12, 1942 at [[Mountjoy Jail]].<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==
At the time of his death O'Neill was widely popular in his home County Kerry and throughout Ireland, and his judicial murder was widely protested.<ref name=":1" />

At the time of his death executed prisoners in the Republic of Ireland were buried within the prisons they were executed in. In 1948, after years of advocating for the return of the remains of IRA martyrs to their homes, the bodies of O'Neill and others were released.<ref>{{Web citation|author=MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA|newspaper=An Phoblacht|title=Remembering the Past: Executed IRA men reinterred|date=2008-09-18|url=https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/19125}}</ref>

On September 19, 1948 a funeral was held for O'Neill in his home of Caherciveen. It was attended by many people from throughout Kerry and Ireland, including his former comrades in the Anti-Treaty IRA, and representatives from [[Cumann na mBan]] and [[Fianna Éireann]]. Republican [[Sean Ryan]] delivered the oration at his grave.<ref name=":1" />

A number of songs and poems were written about O'Neill, including two by Irish Republican Poet [[Brian O'Higgins]], one by Irish Republican political prisoner [[Brid Ni Cuinneagain]] and one by [[Domhall Ó Curnáin]].<ref>The poems by O'Higgins on the Prolewiki library:

[[Library:They've Murdered Young Maurice O'Neill|They've Murdered Young Maurice O'Neill]]

[[Library:Poem on Maurice O'Neills's 'In Memoriam' Card|Poem on Maurice O'Neill's 'In Memoriam' Card]]The poem by Brid Ni Cuinneagain on the Prolewiki library:

[[Library:A Vigil|A Vigil]]

The poem by Domhall Ó Curnáin on the Prolewiki library:

[[Library:Young Maurice O’Neill|Young Maurice O’Neill]]</ref>

The bridge between mainland Ireland and Valentia Island in County Kerry is called Maurice O'Neill Bridge. A Republican Sinn Féin Cumann in Kerry is also named after him.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Republican Sinn Fein|title=Irish Republican Information Service (no. 323)|date=2014-02-24|url=https://republicansinnfein.org/2014/02/24/irish-republican-information-service-no-323/|quote=At a convention on February 13 in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, the Maurice O’Neill Cumann selected Pádraig Garvey to contest the South and West Kerry constituency.}}</ref>

== Further Reading ==
[[:Category:Library works about Maurice O'Neill|Library works about Maurice O'Neill]] on the Prolewiki library

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Irish republicans]]