Pearse Kelly

Pearse Kelly (1916 or 1917 – 6 April 1974), also known as Paul Kelso, was an Irish journalist and republican activist.

Born in Dungannon in County Tyrone, Kelly began working as a journalist at the Dungannon Observer, before moving to the Tyrone Courier and then working as a freelancer for the Irish Press. A group of his friends from school had bonded over Irish language lessons and, inspired by seeing British troops readying for action World War II, they considered forming their own republican paramilitary group. However, they decided in late 1939 or early 1940 to instead all join the local Irish Republican Army (IRA), in the hope that this would reinvigorate it, and that its name and tradition would prove useful. Kelly, personally, was also inspired by attending future IRA Chief of Staff Eoin McNamee's trial as a reporter.

Following training, Kelly's friends burnt down a hall which was being used to drill British troops. Kelly was quickly marked out as a leader, establishing a "Republican police" locally to crack down on local nuisance behaviour. They beat up a group of people involved in this, increasing local regard for the IRA. As a result, he was ordered to Belfast, where he was appointed as the Officer Commanding its Belfast Battalion early in 1941. There, he obtained a code being used by British forces, which they had carelessly left in a chemists' shop run by an IRA sympathiser. This was then returned to the troops without arousing suspicion, enabling the IRA to crack British messages for some time, although it did not ultimately lead to any useful results for the organisation. A few months later, he was called to Dublin to take part in the IRA's investigation of its Chief of Staff, Stephen Hayes. In July, he was selected as Hayes' replacement, but in November, he was arrested and subsequently interned at the Curragh.

...
Wikipedia