Having failed to identify the importance of their prisoner, in error the authorities released him early, on 18 May, to return to his family and job in the civil service. When Diarmuid came back to the Department of Agriculture, T. P. Gill sent for him. He had known that Diarmuid had been out in the Rising. ‘Take your holidays first, Hegarty,’ he said, ‘and report back. I hope you enjoyed the time you were fighting.’ O’Hegarty remained in office until 1918, when he was dismissed from the civil service for refusing to take the oath of allegiance.