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
Workers' Party of Ireland Workers' Party of Ireland The Workers' Party (), originally known as Official Sinn Féin, is a Marxist–Leninist political party active throughout Ireland. The party originated with a split between factions of Sinn Féin (which was founded in 1905) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which took place in 1969–70, early in the Troubles. The faction that broke away became known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Provisional Sinn Féin. The Officials' leaders at the time the Provisionals left were Cathal Goulding and Tomás Mac Giolla. The party name was changed to Sinn Féin - The Workers' Party in 1977