Dáithí Ó Conaill

Dáithí Ó Conaill (David O'Connell) (May 1938 – 1 January 1991) was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, and vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA, from its founding till his death.

Ó Conaill was born in Cork in 1938. His uncle Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the 1st Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, was bayoneted to death by British forces in 1921. After his vocational school education, he trained as a woodwork teacher in a college in County Wexford. He had a wife (Deirdre), a son (Feargal) and two daughters (Ciara and Díóg). He joined the republican movement at 17 years of age and took part in the IRA Border Campaign. On 1 January 1957 he was second-in-command of the Pearse Column which carried out the raid on Brookeborough Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Barracks in County Fermanagh, in which Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon were killed. He was arrested by the Garda Síochána and imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison for six months. Upon release, he was interned in the Curragh. On 27 September 1958 he escaped along with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and went on the run.