Pádraig Ó Caoimh
| Pádraig Ó Caoimh | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Patrick Joseph O'Keeffe 9 December 1897 Bellanagare, County Roscommon, Ireland |
| Died | 15 May 1964 (aged 66) Rathgar, Dublin, Ireland |
| Resting place | Glasnevin Cemetery |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Christian Brothers College |
| Alma mater | St. Mary's University |
| Occupation | Secondary school teacher |
| Employer | Gaelic Athletic Association |
| Known for | Secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1929-1964) |
| Parent(s) | Michael O'Keeffe Mary O'Malley |
Pádraig Ó Caoimh (Patrick "Paddy" O'Keeffe) was an Irish soldier and long-time administrator of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the home of the Cork GAA, is named after him.
Ó Caoimh was born in Roscommon in 1898.
He moved to Cork City at an early age; the 1911 census records him living at No. 13 East View Terrace on the Quaker Road. He lived with his father (an RIC Pensioner and Draper), his brother and his three sisters. One of these siblings, or some other relatives, would later live in Ballynoe, near Castlelyons, in County Cork.
He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Cork and was an active member of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
After leaving school he trained as a Secondary School teacher at Saint Mary's College in London, returning to Cork to teach at Presentation Brothers College.
In 1916, when he was 18, he joined the Irish Volunteers.
In 1919, at the age of 21, Ó Caoimh gave up school teaching to become a full-time Volunteer officer and secretary of the Cork County Board, G.A.A.
During the Irish War of Independence, Ó Caoimh served with A Company (University Company), 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, IRA.
His organisational talents impressed his superiors and in 1920 he was given another appointment as manager of the Employment Bureau (established by the First Dáil).
In November 1920, Ó Caoimh and about twenty other A Company Volunteers received orders to collect their weapons from the company arms dump and report to their headquarters in UCC From there the men were sent to a Fire Brigade storage shed on O'Sullivan's Quay to await further orders. After some hours word came that the British Forces they had been mobilised to ambush had moved and at 18:45 they were ordered to set off home. Volunteer Michael O'Donoghue, "Now we made our way home to our 'digs' in twos and threes carrying our guns, keeping them with us until we were instructed to return them to the dump. I went south up Sullivan's Quay alone, crossed over Parliament Bridge and back via Prince's St. and Oliver Plunkett St. to my 'den' in 31 Grand Parade. Paddy O'Keeffe came a few yards behind me with Captain O'Sullivan ["a pal of O'Keeffe's"], O'Keefe dallied a minute to drop into Peg Duggan's new flower and fruit shop just at the Bridge. (Peg was senior officer of Cork Cumann na mBan, and had been working two years earlier in my old 'digs' (Fitzgerald's at 104 Old Georges St.)). It was a few minutes to seven. Curfew zero hour. O'Keeffe merged, Four or five tall men in civvies with levelled revolvers order him to put up his hands. O'Keeffe resourceful, yet not quite realising the position, delays a little asking'"What's up, lads?", half-thinking them to be fellow I.R.A. men. A gun rammed into his back with a curse bring home to him the awful truth that they are Auxiliaries and that he is in deadly peril. On searching him, they find a hand grenade. Almost at the same time, he Sees O'Sullivan some yards from him at the bridge, being disarmed. Now O'Keeffe realised that the 'Auxies' would likely shoot him on the spot. A flash of desperate Inspiration: "Here", he says to the 'Auxies', the District Inspector down at Union Quay knows all about this, Take me there and District Inspector so and so will explain my job to you". The bluff worked. P. O'Keeffe was playing for time – a respite. He felt that if he was brought to Union Quay Barracks, he would be safe at least from being murdered on the spot; that he might get a judicial trial first, or court-martial, which would take him out of the murderous hands of the bloodthirsty 'Auxies'. Arrived at Union Quay R.I.C. Barracks, O'Keeffe was recognised as a wanted I.R.A. man The 'Auxies' were enraged and wanted to kill him on the spot in the day-room of the barracks, but the R.I.C. saved him to stand his trial and die on the scaffold, as they thought. He was court-martialled and charged with possession of a bomb. Sentence: 15 years penal servitude served in Parkhurst and other English prisons. He was lucky to escape the death penalty and so was his comrade, O'Sullivan, who got twenty years penal."
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