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
Aodán Mac Póilin Aodán Mac Póilin Aodán Mac Póilin (1948 – 29 December 2016) was an Irish language activist in Northern Ireland. Aodán grew up on the Norfolk Road in west Belfast with his two sisters, his mother who was an Irish speaker and his father who worked as a civil servant. He attended the New University of Ulster from which he obtained a BA (Hons) and an M.Phil. in Irish studies. He helped to establish the Shaw's Road Irish-speaking community where he and his wife Áine lived. He was a teacher for a period and then became Director of the ULTACH Trust