{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/65670352d7b5d40012be7324/69c03e6c3bbfcfe8db1676a9?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Rory O’Connor: The Anti-Treaty IRA leader executed by his former friends","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/65670352d7b5d40012be7324/1774206321187-eed34ea7-5729-4967-9e9d-3795edbf998c.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>IRA leader Rory O’Connor was once a close comrade of fellow republican Michael Collins and Kevin O’Higgins - indeed he was O’Higgins best man.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>&nbsp;But just over a year later after the wedding, O’Higgins signed his friend’s death warrant.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;O’Connor’s execution along with Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey, added to the bitterness of Ireland’s civil war and made O’Connor a republican&nbsp;martyr,&nbsp;albeit&nbsp;a forgotten one.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>&nbsp;In&nbsp;‘To defend the Republic’,&nbsp;the&nbsp;first biography of O’Connor’s life, historian Gerard Shannon tells the story of&nbsp;this enigmatic&nbsp;IRA figure.&nbsp;</p>","author_name":"Belfast Telegraph"}