Description
On 8 December 1922, Rory O’Connor was executed alongside three comrades in Mountjoy Gaol. It was a moment that shocked Ireland, a bitter turning point in the Civil War, and one of the most infamous reprisals in modern Irish history.
An unlikely revolutionary, O’Connor worked as an engineer on the Canadian railroad before returning to Ireland in 1915 and throwing himself into militant republicanism. He fought in Easter Week 1916, helped rebuild the shattered movement, and rose to become the IRA’s Director of Engineering, working closely with Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy. Devoted and uncompromising, he spearheaded IRA operations in Britain and plotted audacious prison escapes, including his own. O’Connor became the face of resistance to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, diverging forever from his onetime friend Kevin O’Higgins, who sat in the cabinet that would ultimately sanction his execution.
In this, O’Connor’s first biography, historian Gerard Shannon draws on rich archival sources to capture the enigma of his life, the tangled friendships and betrayals of Ireland’s revolutionary period, and the captivating story of a man whose death propelled him into the pantheon of Irish republican martyrs.
Contents
Prologue: 11 January 1922
1: 1883–1915
2: 1916
3: 1917–18
4: 1919–20
5: 1921
6: January–April 1922
7: May–June 1922
8: 28 June–6 December 1922
9: 7–8 December 1922
10: 1922–2022
Epilogue
About the Author
Gerard Shannon is a public historian who specialises in the Irish revolutionary period of the early 20th century. He has written numerous articles and done public talks primarily on leading revolutionaries. His first major publication, Liam Lynch: To Declare a Republic, was released to critical acclaim in 2023 and made the non-fiction bestseller lists. Gerard also works as a civil servant and is a resident of Skerries in north county Dublin.
