1. Joe Cahill was a prominent figure in the Irish republican movement in Northern Ireland and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
32 Facts About Joe Cahill
1. 2.
Joe Cahill joined a junior-republican movement, Na Fianna Eireann, in 1937 and the following year, joined the Irish Republican Army.
3.
In 1969, Cahill was a key figure in the founding of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
4.
Joe Cahill served as the chief of staff in 1972, but was arrested the following year when a ship importing weapons was intercepted.
5.
Joe Cahill served on the council that called a cessation on 21 July 1997.
6.
Joe Cahill attended several of the talks that finally led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998.
7.
Shortly after the agreement was made, Joe Cahill resigned as treasurer of Sinn Fein.
8.
Joe Cahill served the republican movement in Ireland all his life, as one of the longest-serving political activists in Ireland of any political party.
9.
Joe Cahill was born above his father's small printing shop at 60 Divis Street on 19 May 1920 in West Belfast.
10.
Joe Cahill was the first child of eleven siblings born to Joseph and Josephine Joe Cahill.
11.
Joe Cahill was arrested in 1932 for printing illegal material, but was acquitted for any crimes.
12.
Joe Cahill's childhood was marked by hardship and his family was very poor.
13.
Joe Cahill's grandparents were neighbours of the Scottish-born Irish socialist and Easter Rising leader James Connolly, who co-founded the Irish Citizens Army.
14.
Joe Cahill was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers' School, then located on Barrack Street.
15.
At the age of seventeen, Joe Cahill then joined Na Fianna Eireann, a republican-orientated Scouting movement.
16.
In 1953, Joe Cahill had an accident on the job when he was hit on the head by scaffolding.
17.
Joe Cahill subsequently spent time recovering in a convalescent home.
18.
Joe Cahill was arrested and interned in January 1957 with several other republicans.
19.
Later that year, Joe Cahill was a key figure in founding the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
20.
Joe Cahill served as the second-in-command to Billy McKee, OC of the Belfast Battalion.
21.
Joe Cahill authorised the beginning of the IRA's bombing campaign as well as attacks on British troops and the RUC.
22.
Joe Cahill based himself in a house in Andersonstown and toured the city, co-ordinating IRA activity.
23.
The day after the British Army mounted Operation Demetrius, designed to arrest the IRA's leaders, Joe Cahill held a press conference in a school in Ballymurphy and stated that the operation had been a failure.
24.
Joe Cahill said, "we have lost one brigade officer, one battalion officer and the rest are volunteers, or as they say in the British Army, privates".
25.
In March 1972, Joe Cahill was part of an IRA delegation that held direct talks with the British Labour Party leader Harold Wilson.
26.
Joe Cahill went on hunger strike for twenty-three days and was released due to lack of evidence.
27.
In November 1972, Joe Cahill became the IRA's chief of staff and held this position until his arrest the following year.
28.
Joe Cahill was then put in charge of importing arms for the IRA.
29.
Joe Cahill was sentenced to three years imprisonment by the Irish Special Criminal Court.
30.
Joe Cahill stated at his trial that, "If I am guilty of any crime, it is that I did not succeed in getting the contents of the Claudia into the hands of the freedom fighters in this country".
31.
Joe Cahill was deported from the United States in 1984 for illegal entry.
32.
Joe Cahill served on the IRA Army Council as late as the 1990s.