Republican News · Thursday 10 October 2002

Diarmuid O' Neill remembered in West Cork

IRA Volunteer Diarmuid O'Neill, who was gunned down by London Metropolitan Police on 23 September 1996, was remembered by republicans in Cork on the sixth anniversary of his death in a wreath-laying ceremony at his grave in Timoleague Cemetery, West Cork.

Clonakilty Sinn Féin Councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin welcomed the large gathering, and especially Diarmuid's father Eoghan, who was in attendance. Also present was Jimmy Murphy, a friend and comrade who was arrested in the aftermath of Diarmuid's death.

Ó Súilleabháin said that Diarmuid O' Neill, who grew up in London, had been conscious from a young age of the Irish struggle for justice and freedom. He was a thinker and a reader and was influenced very much by the sacrifices of the 1981 hunger strikers. Rather than sitting back and being a spectator, Diarmuid decided that he wanted to become involved in the struggle. That decision cost him his life.

"The British establishment dealt with Volunteer Diarmuid O'Neill just as they have done with Irish revolutionaries for centuries," said Ó Súilleabháin. "Like many of them, Diarmuid O'Neill could easily have been arrested when the police ambushed him in his own house in the middle of the night six years ago. We salute his contribution, and send our solidarity to his still grieving family."