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
Leader of Sinn Féin the aftermath of World War II. Tomás Mac Giolla became president in 1962 and served for over eight years as leader of the party. When the party split, Mac Giolla remained leader of Official Sinn Féin. Official Sinn Féin was later renamed the Workers' Party. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was elected as the new leader of the Provisional Sinn Féin in 1970. Ó Brádaigh's presidency was shaped by relentless violence between republican and loyalist paramilitaries and the British security forces. He was one of the republican representatives which met with the British representatives in hope of ending the Troubles. Ó Brádaigh