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
Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade INLA, it was during this period that McCartan was OC the Belfast INLA moved into extortion and racketeering, damaging their popular support they had in the city. The INLA Belfast lost direction in the 80's & a feud with the newly created Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) weakend the group further. The IPLO was formed by former members of the INLA like Gerard Steenson & the new groups leader Jimmy Brown. Hugh Torney became OC of the INLA in Belfast during the feud, he was almost killed in an ambush set up by Steenson in which INLA men John O'Reilly