Diarmuid O'Neill

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Diarmuid O'Neill (aka Dermot O'Neill) (born June 24, 1969 in Hammersmith, London, England – 23 September 1996), was a member (volunteer) within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish Republican paramilitary organisation outlawed and classified as a terrorist group in the United Kingdom. He was killed in London in 1996 during a police raid on the hotel where he and two other IRA members were staying. Due to the circumstances surrounding the killing, Amnesty International has called for a review of the police investigation into the killing of O'Neill.^[1][2][3]

Contents 1 Background 2 Death 2.1 Surveillance operation 2.2 Hotel raid 2.3 Criminal Investigation Bureau 3 References

[edit] Background

O'Neill was born and raised in London, the youngest son of Irish parents, Eoghan and Theresa "Terry" O'Neill who were originally from County Cork. He had one sister, Siobhán, and one brother, Shane. O'Neill was a former pupil of the London Oratory School, a prestigious Roman Catholic school in Seagrave Road, Fulham, London, and from an early age took an interest in Irish culture amd nationalism and spent much of he time between County Cork and London. O'Neill was also deeply involved in supporting Basque nationalism and had visited the Basque Country on several occasions along with his Basque girlfriend, Karmele.^[4][5][6][7]

[edit] Death

O'Neill was shot and killed by London Metropolitan Police's specialist firearms unit, SO19, at Glenthorne Road, Hammersmith, London in September 1996, during a raid on suspected IRA weapons operations.

[edit] Surveillance operation

In the six weeks leading up to the shooting of O'Neill, Metropolitan Police of London has he kept O'Neill and fellow IRA member, Brian McHugh and Patrick Kelly, under intensive police surveillance including bugging of O'Neill room and video surveillance. Commander John Grieve, who was Head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch at the time, stated that the extent of that operation exceeded that of others carried out in Britain by far.^[8]

The surveillance operation resulted in extensive video footage that reportedly covered the whole six weeks except the night of the raid on the hotel itself.

[edit] Hotel raid

On 23 September Metropolitan Police conducted a raid on the hotel with the expressed intention of arresting all three.^{[9][10][11][12]}

After the raid, Police had claimed that there had been armed violent resistance during the raid, however, evidence, which emerged later, showed the indicated that the three suspects complied with all the police's demands during the raid.^[13][14]

[edit] Criminal Investigation Bureau

The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Metropolitan Police, supervised by the Police Complaints Authority, subsequently conducted an investigation into the incident. The investigation took almost two years and produced a report which stated that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the police officers involved in the killing.^{[15][16][17][18]}

[edit] References