Joe O'Connell (Irish republican) security wing of Portlaoise Prison, Ireland, in early 1998. They were presented by Gerry Adams to the 1998 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis as 'our Nelson Mandelas', and were released together with Brendan Dowd and Liam Quinn in 1999 as part of the Belfast Agreement. Joe O'Connell (Irish republican) Martin Joseph O'Connell (born 1951), better known as Joe, is an Irish republican and a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He is most noted for having been a member of the Balcombe Street gang. O'Connell was born in Kilkee, in rural County Clare, 'a stronghold of Gaelic-speaking inhabitants
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn Pádraig Mac Lochlainn Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (; born 12 June 1973) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel since April 2016. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal North-East constituency from 2011 and 2016. He lost his seat at the 2016 general election, but was subsequently elected to the Seanad in April 2016. Mac Lochlainn was born in Leeds, England on 12 June 1973, the son of two Irish parents, Réamonn and Mary Mac Lochlainn. He is their only child. His father was a Provisional IRA