Rory O\' Connor
Rory O' Connor (1883 - 1922) was a republican activist Irish. He is especially known for his role in the Irish Civil war (1922-1923), which leads to its execution.
O' Connor was born with Dublin in 1883 and in its youth worked as railway engineer in Canada.
On its return in Ireland, it was implied in the Irish nationalist policy and was imprisoned after the Insurrection of Easter 1916.
During the War of independence (1919-1920), it was made director of the engineering of the Irish Republican Army (WILL GO) - the guerilla who fought the British forces at that time.
It did not accept the Anglo-Irish Traité of 1921, which established the free State of Ireland but which abolished the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1919, to which O' Connor and its comrades had lent allegiance. March 26th, 1922, the officers anti-treaty of WILL GO held a convention in Dublin, during which they rejected the treaty and repudiated the authority of the Dail, elected Parliament of Ireland. Questioned by a journalist, who asked to him whether that meant that they proposed a military dictatorship in Ireland, O' Connor answered: " You can take it as that if you voulez."
In April 1922, O' Connor, with 200 other men anti-treaty of WILL GO under its other, seized Law courts of Dublin (Four Courts) per challenge towards the new Irish government. They wanted to cause the troops British, always present in the country, and to push them to attack them, which according to them would have redéclenché the war against the British to join together WILL SUIT it against their common enemy. Michael Collins hopelessly tried to persuade O' Connor and its men to leave the building before the engagements do not burst.
In June 1922, after the garrison of the Law courts had kidnapped JJ O' Connell, a general of the new Army of the free state, Collins bombarded the Law courts with artillery borrowed from the British. O' Connor capitulated after two days of engagements, was stopped and imprisoned in the Mountjoy prison. The incident put fire at the powders and started the Irish Civil war - the confrontations bursting everywhere in the country between factions pro and anti treaty.
December 8th, 1922, accompanied by three other republicans (Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Joe McKelvey) captured after the capitulation of the Law courts, Rory O' Connor was shot in reprisal of the assassination of the member of the Parliament of the free State, Sean Hales. The order of execution was given by Kevin O' Higgins, which, less than one year before, had indicated O' Connor like best man to his marriage, symbolizing the violence of the division which the Treaty caused. O' Connor, as well as the 76 other republicans carried out, was consequently regarded as a martyr by the Irish republican tradition.