Diarmuid O'Neill (also known asDermot O'Neill) (born 24 June 1969 inHammersmith, London, England – 23 September 1996), was avolunteer in theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). O'Neill was killed in London in 1996 during apolice raid on the hotel where he and two other IRA volunteers 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] O'Neill was the only IRA member to be killed by police in Great Britain.[2][3]
O'Neill was born and raised in London, the youngest son of Irish parents, Eoghan and Theresa "Terry" O'Neill who were originally fromCounty Kildare andCounty Dublin. O'Neill had one sister, Siobhán, and one brother, Shane. He was a former pupil of theLondon Oratory School, aRoman Catholic school inFulham, in London, where he was remembered as cheerful, well-behaved and outgoing. From an early age he took an interest inIrish culture andnationalism and spent much of his time betweenCounty Cork and London. O'Neill was also deeply involved in supportingBasque nationalism and had visited theBasque Country on several occasions along with hisBasque born girlfriend, Karmele Ereno. While he was known to have republican views, very few knew of his involvement in the IRA until a few days after his killing by the London Metropolitan Police.[4][5][6][7]
Soon after leaving school, O'Neill served nine months in ayoung offenders' institution for his part in a £75,000 cash fraud from aBank of Ireland branch inShepherd's Bush, west London, where he worked. Some of the stolen cash was siphoned to the IRA.[8]
O'Neill was shot and killed byLondon Metropolitan Police's specialist firearms unit,SO19, at Glenthorne Road,Hammersmith, London in September 1996, during a raid on suspected IRA weapons operations.
In the six weeks leading up to the shooting of O'Neill, theMetropolitan Police of London had kept O'Neill and fellow IRA Volunteers, Brian McHugh and Patrick Kelly, under intensive police surveillance including bugging of O'Neill's room and video surveillance. CommanderJohn Grieve, who was Head of theMetropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch at the time, stated that the extent of that operation exceeded that of others carried out in Britain by far.[1]
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. These surveillance tapes suggested O'Neill's unit was planning to detonate a large lorry bomb in central London, and that the IRA men were ready to shoot to kill if the police tried to raid them.[9]
At 4.30 am, on 23 September, the Metropolitan Police conducted a raid on the hotel with the expressed intention of arresting all three. O'Neill was shot six times by a police officer who was only identified as"Officer Kilo".[2][10][11][12] According to a report byAmnesty International, he was shot while trying to surrender and was then denied immediate medical care despite there being an ambulance at the scene. O'Neill later died in hospital. The results of thepost-mortem examination carried out on the body of O'Neill showed a "patterned" bruise on hisscalp which, in the opinion of thepathologist for the BritishHome Office, may have resulted from "an individual treading on his head".[1]
After the raid, media reports claimed that there had been armed violent resistance during the raid. However these stories were denied and withdrawn when it became clear that O'Neill was not carrying a weapon at the time of the shooting.[1] According toCAIN, ten tonnes of home-made explosives, two pounds ofSemtex, rifles and other bomb equipment were recovered at another location following the raid.[11]
The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Metropolitan Police, supervised by thePolice Complaints Authority, subsequently conducted an investigation into the incident. The investigation took almost two years and produced a report in 1999 which stated that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the police officers involved in the killing.[1]
In February 2000, an inquest was held into O'Neill's death. The jury atKingston upon Thames Crown Court took four hours to reach a majority verdict to rule that he was killed lawfully. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head ofNew Scotland Yard'santi-terrorist branch, said: "The decision by the jury supports the actions by Officer Kilo and others who were faced with dangerous terrorists who were planning to bomb London and had access to explosives and firearms."[13]
O'Neill was buried at St. Mologas' Cemetery,Timoleague, County Cork, Ireland.[7]
Every year since his deathSinn Féin has organised a commemoration in his memory and is attended by relatives.[4] Musician Gary Og wrote a song about him titled 'Diarmuid O'Neill'.[14]