Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan

Daniel "Sandow" O'Donovan (1890, in Cork (city) – 31 July 1975, in Mallow, Co. Cork), was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.

Dan O'Donovan was an early recruit to the Irish Volunteers and paraded with the Cork Volunteers at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, in 1915, at which Patrick Pearse gave his famous oration ending with "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".

He was later a prominent officer of Cork's No. 1 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. On 3 September 1917 he led a successful raid for arms at Cork Grammar School, a school for the middle class Anglo-Irish ascendancy, which maintained its own armoury for training potential army officers. O'Donovan acquired the nickname "Sandow" around this time because of his resemblance to the American wrestler Eugen Sandow.

O'Donovan led or participated in many daring raids against British forces in County Cork, including the capture of Blarney's Royal Irish Constabulary barracks on 1 June 1920. He was also involved in the assassination of Colonel Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth at the Cork and County Club on 17 July 1920. Some weeks earlier Smyth had gained notoriety when members off the RIC in Listowel, County Kerry mutinied rather than carry out his orders to "shoot to kill" all persons with their hands in their pockets or who were suspected rebels.

...
Wikipedia