Joe Cahill
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Joe Cahill (1920 - July 23 2004) was a controversial Irish republican and former leader of the Irish Republican Army. Although regarded as a terrorist by many outside Irish republican circles, that community considered him a hero.
Born in Belfast, he spent much of his life fighting against British rule in Northern Ireland. He was sentenced to death for killing a policeman in the 1940s, but had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment after the Pope called on the Northern Ireland government to grant clemency. He was released in the 1950s. Cahill was imprisoned again in 1973 (this time in the Republic), after being convicted of importing weapons from Libya.
In 1969, he was a key figure in founding the Provisional IRA and was the Belfast commander before becoming the IRA's chief of staff, serving on the IRA Army Council as late as the 1990s.
In his later years as honorary life vice-president of Sinn Féin he was a strong supporter of Gerry Adams and the Good Friday Agreement. In 1994 a controversial but central aspect of the IRA's ceasefire was the granting of a visa by then United States President Clinton to Cahill, in the face of strident opposition by John Major's government. This was to facilitate a trip to the United States to win support for the new Sinn Féin strategy from Irish American supporters.
Further reading
- Anderson, Brendan. Joe Cahill: a life in the IRA. Dublin : O'Brien, 2002.