1. Joseph McKelvey was an Irish Republican Army officer who was executed during the Irish Civil War without trial or court martial.
23 Facts About Joe McKelvey
1. 2.
Joe McKelvey participated in the Anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the Dail Eireann, the civil government of the Irish Republic declared in 1919 in March 1922, and was elected to the IRA Army Council as Deputy Chief of Staff.
3.
Joe McKelvey was among the most hardline of the republican side and, briefly in June 1922, became IRA Chief of Staff.
4.
Joe McKelvey was born in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, the only son of Patrick Joe McKelvey, a Royal Irish Constabulary constable who later became a sergeant, and Rose O'Neill, a post office employee.
5.
Joe McKelvey died in 1919 in Belfast, due to a perforation of his stomach, at the age of 57.
6.
Joe McKelvey had a keen interest in the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish language.
7.
Joe McKelvey studied as an accountant and gained some of the qualifications necessary for this profession, but never fully qualified.
8.
Joe McKelvey worked for a time at the Income Tax Office on Queen's Square in Belfast and later found work in the city's engineering industry with Mackies on the Springfield road.
9.
Joe McKelvey joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, which during 1919 became known as the Irish Republican Army.
10.
In July 1920, during a wave of violence in the wake of the IRA assassination of a northern police inspector in Cork, Joe McKelvey was expelled from his job by loyalist intimidation.
11.
On 22 August 1920, Joe McKelvey helped to organise the killing of RIC Detective Oswald Swanzy in Lisburn.
12.
The killing itself was carried out by IRA men from Cork, but Joe McKelvey arranged a taxi to carry the assassins to and from the scene and disposed of their weapons.
13.
Joe McKelvey was forced to lie low in Dublin for some time after these events.
14.
In March 1921, the IRA was re-organised by GHQ into divisions, and Joe McKelvey was appointed commander of the Third Northern Division, responsible for Belfast and the surrounding area.
15.
Joe McKelvey feared that such actions would provoke retaliatory attacks on the Catholic and Irish nationalist community by loyalists.
16.
The IRA was then forced to try to defend Catholic areas, and Joe McKelvey feared that the organisation was being drawn into sectarian conflict as opposed to what he saw as the "real" struggle for Irish independence.
17.
In May 1921, Joe McKelvey's command suffered a severe setback when fifty of his best men were sent to County Cavan to train and link up with the IRA units there, only to be surrounded and captured by the British Army on Lappanduff hill on 9 May.
18.
Joe McKelvey wrote to GHQ at this time that his command was very short of both arms and money.
19.
Joe McKelvey was alone among the leadership of the Belfast IRA in going against the acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
20.
Joe McKelvey participated in the Anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the Dail in March 1922 and was elected to the IRA Executive.
21.
Joe McKelvey was held for the following five months in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, McKelvey was never tried or convicted of any offence.
22.
On 8 December 1922, Joe McKelvey was executed by firing squad along with three other imprisoned Anti-Treaty leaders, Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows and Richard Barrett.
23.
Joe McKelvey was a well respected Irish Republican leader and many Pro-Treaty Officers and men took his execution very badly.