Young Maurice O’Neill

IRA Volunteer, Maurice O'Neill from Caherciveen, County Kerry, was called to Dublin in connection with a planned push against border targets following the execution in Belfast of Tom Williams on 2 September 1942. When this plan failed, the IRA leadership in Dublin, hunted and harried, lay low in safe houses across the city. It was in one such house in Donnycarney that Maurice O'Neill and Harry White, from Belfast, were surrounded by members of the Garda Síochána. Unaware of their predicament the two Volunteers emerged from the house into a hail of bullets. In crossfire a Garda Detective Officer named Mordant was shot and killed. To the horror and dismay of many people across the country, Maurice O'Neill was sentenced to death, although no case was made that he had fired the fatal shot. When his fate became clear O'Neill himself was stoic, calm and courageous. In a letter to his elder brother Sean from Arbour Hill Prison, he wrote: "I suppose you saw in the papers where I met my Waterloo last Saturday night. Well, such are the fortunes of war... There is only one sentence, death or release. So I believe it is the full penalty for me. There is no good in having false hopes, hard facts must be faced." He was executed by a military firing squad in Mountjoy Jail on 12 November 1942. There was little reporting outside of the legal proceeding. The Irish Press report on the execution was similarly brief: “The sentence of death was carried out yesterday morning on Maurice O’Neill (25), a native of Caherciveen, Kerry, who was found guilty on November 5, by a Military Court, of having fired at three detective officers at Donnycarney, Dublin, on the night of October 24, with the intent to prevent his own arrest and that of another person not in custody.” O'Neill's execution provoked widespread protests, as he was a popular figure in his native Kerry. Following his death the situation on the streets deteriorated rapidly and tensions between IRA Volunteers and the Garda Special Branch were understandably strained. More shootings followed, resulting in further deaths of both Gardaí and IRA Volunteers.

Source: Courtney Family (Private Collection), An Phoblacht, Art Mac Eoin, National Archives, Irish Press

All over Ireland there is sorrow and gloom

For young Maurice O’Neill is in his cold prison tomb

By the traitors to Ireland he is sent to his shroud

Like the kinsmen of Owen Roe and the great Seán the Proud

Shooting at IRA men a ‘tec’ was shot dead

But O’Neill did not shoot him all there present said

Like the Manchester Martyrs when Brett was laid low

Young O’Neill is condemned though his soul white as snow

Good luck to our priests and people so brave

They all did their endeavours his young life to save

But as callous and cruel as the Old Saxon crew

Were the Fianna Fáil puppets - young Maurice they slew

For reprieve tens of thousands 'round Ireland did plead

but the despots in Dublin to them paid no heed

The rumour soon spread, which with tears filled each eye

On November the eleventh young Maurice did die

But November the 11th was red poppy day

Since the First World War 'twas John Bulls gala day

So they postponed the shooting lest the people should see

Their rulers still danced to the tunes called Sean Buí

At dawn the next morning they marched him to die

With his smart soldiers step and his head held on high

With no slur on his name and no stain on his hand

He laid down his life for his dear native land

God help his poor father this cruel cross to bear

His mother, God rest her, she is free from earth’s care

His brother, the teacher, long jailing has seen

His crime, too, being faithful to Dark Rosaleen

Had he died like young Williams in Belfast’s black gaol

It’s what you'd expect in the new North-East Pale

But by once-trusted leaders- are they traitors or fools?

They changed and become the false Sasanach’s tools

The rulers before them under whom this land groaned

We see them today both despised and dethroned

The day is fast dawning - may the Lord speed the hour

When we'll hunt these new tyrants from place and from power

It’s a wise church that ne'er canonises its saints

Till they're long dead and buried and free from Earths taints

For the halo of glory we once saw o'er Dev's brow

Is all changed and replaced by John Bulls horns now

To the tune 'Law and Order' our martyrs all died

Through the centuries down as to free us they tried

Their roll is so long it makes my head reel

The latest, not last, is brave Maurice O’Neill

To down the Republic young Maurice they slew

But his place will be taken by men just as true

They'll be found while grass grows ‘round famed Beenatee

And the Ohermong River flows down to the sea.

Domhall Ó Curnáin (1888 – 1963)

Maulin , Dromid,

South Kerry.