Republicans remember Diarmuid O' Neill
Republicans from Clonakilty, Bandon and Cork City gathered at the graveside of Volunteer Diarmuid O' Neill in Timoleague Cemetery in West Cork last Sunday to remember the 27-year-old on the fifth anniversary of his killing by London police.
Clonakilty UDC Sinn Féin councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin, welcomed everyone, especially Jimmy Murphy, a comrade and friend of Diarmuid who was arrested and imprisoned in England after O'Neill's killing on 23 September 1996.
He pointed out the irony of the 26 County government organising a state funeral for Kevin Barry and his comrades in a few weeks while at the same time, Special Branch Gardaí from the same state were monitoring events in Timoleague that morning. Kevin Barry and Diarmuid O' Neill, he said, fought for the same cause and against the same enemy and both died brutally at the hands of the same enemy. That there was over three quarters of a century between their deaths was irrelevant