They lived little more than 100 miles from one another, separated by the Border and by very different ideals. During the war he commanded the 61st Division for a period in Northern Ireland and had his HQ in Ballymena. As a boy, I would see this tall, quiet man walking straight as a ramrod on his way into the town. A member of the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in World War I, he was decorated for the stand he took against the Germans at the Somme. Then they were gone, McGuinness to resume the battle of the Bogside, O Conaill to slip back across the border into Donegal.

Source: Irish Independent July 05, 2020 01:39 UTC