Pádraig Ó Cuin (born Patrick Quinn; 1899 – 1974) was an
Irish Republican Army Quartermaster General in the
Fourth Northern Division in the
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
. He succeeded Aiken as commander of that division in the Civil War, where he took the anti-treaty side.
Born in
Liverpool, he was raised in
Newry where he attended the Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School. His father, John Quinn, opened the first supermarket in Ireland, The Milestone. He lived in the US and England for many years before returning to Newry to work as a
general practitioner. He later adopted the name Pádraig Ó Cuinn.
During the War of Independence he commanded a unit that operated against the
British in
Dublin city centre. He was involved in numerous operations in the field.
He fought on the anti-
Treaty side in the
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...
. On 27 July, he led a small unit that breached the Dundalk prison wall with dynamite, and in fifteen minutes captured the garrison of 300 men and arms for 400 and freed Republican prisoners without any casualties. In spring 1923, he succeeded Frank Aiken as commander of the IRA's 4th Northern Division. He was severely wounded in the conflict and interned in the Curragh, where he watched his brother, Sean, die from neglect in an adjoining hospital bed.
Quinn had tried to escape an ambush at a safe house in Co. Louth at the end of the Civil War before being taken prisoner.
After the war, he presided over the Newry Easter commemoration ceremonies in
St Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
's cemetery in Newry, on the border between counties
Armagh
Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...
and
Down
Down most often refers to:
* Down, the relative direction opposed to up
* Down (gridiron football), in American/Canadian football, a period when one play takes place
* Down feather, a soft bird feather used in bedding and clothing
* Downland, a ty ...
, for 30 years.
Profile
, tcm.ie; accessed 25 September 2015. He lobbied the Irish Government to recognize men who served under his command in both conflicts as veterans entitled to veterans' benefits.
Personal life
Pádraig Quinn married Marguerite Magennis of the Priory House (Chapel Street, Newry); the couple had 5 children: Sean, Ann, Deirdre, Felim and Niall. Quinn was also a co-founder of the Old Newry Society.
References
Sources
* Ernie O'Malley, ''On Another Man's Wound''.
* Ernie O'Malley, ''The Singing Flame'' (Anvil Books Limited, Ireland, 1978)
* ''The Newry Reporter'', Thursday, 25 August 2005, page 6.
* ''Newry Democrat'', Wednesday, 7 September 2005
* Old Newry Society, ''The Book of Newry'' (Old Newry Publications, N. Ireland, 2008)
* Brendan Hall, ''Dundalk Democrat'', 29 July 1922; "Dundalk Sensations: Jail Bombed and Prisoners Released"
{{DEFAULTSORT:OCuinn, Padraig
1898 births
1974 deaths
Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members
People from Liverpool
People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)
Date of birth missing
Date of death missing