Daniel "Sandow" O'Donovan (1890, inCork (city)[1] – 31 July 1975, inMallow,County Cork, Ireland), was a leading member of theIrish Republican Army during theIrish War of Independence.
Dan O'Donovan was an early recruit to theIrish Volunteers and paraded with the Cork Volunteers at the funeral ofJeremiah O'Donovan Rossa atGlasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, in 1915, at whichPatrick Pearse gave his famous oration ending with "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".
He was later a prominent officer of Cork's No. 1 Brigade of theIrish Republican Army during theIrish War of Independence. On 3 September 1917 he led a successful raid for arms atCork Grammar School, a school for the children of theAnglo-Irish gentry, which maintained its own armoury for training potentialBritish Army officers. O'Donovan acquired the nickname "Sandow" around this time because of his resemblance to famousGermanbodybuilderEugen Sandow.
O'Donovan led or participated in many daring raids against British forces inCounty Cork, including the capture ofBlarney'sRoyal Irish Constabulary barracks on 1 June 1920. O'Donovan was also in command of the six-man IRA unit that carried out the assassination of RIC District InspectorGerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth at the Cork and Countysocial club on the evening of 17 July 1920.[2] Some weeks earlier Smyth had gained notoriety when RIC Constables inListowel,County Kerry mutinied rather than listen to his orders to "shoot to kill" all persons who were suspected ofIrish republicanism. For this reason, O'Donovan is alleged to have called out before the hit team opened fire, "Colonel, were not your orders to shoot on sight? Well you are in sight now, so prepare." According to historians Tom Mahon and James Gillogly, "Smyth was the most senior police officer killed in the conflict."[3]
Under the command ofSeán O'Hegarty, O'Donovan and others organised theCoolavokig Ambush nearMacroom in February 1921. He was also involved in the seizure of a large cache of guns and ammunition from the BritishRoyal Navy tender,Upnor, off the coast of County Cork, after first commandeering a smaller vessel atQueenstown.[4] According to historians Tom Mahon and James Gillogly, "The IRA operatives seized so much arms and ammunition that they're reported to have needed 200 lorries to cart it all away."[5]
After the signing of theAnglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, O'Donovan took theanti-treaty side in theIrish Civil War. He was involved in an attack onRoyal Navy personnel at theTreaty Port atSpike Island, County Cork, this time using IRA men dressed inIrish Army uniforms in an attempt to start a war between theIrish Free State and theBritish Empire. Both Governments, however, realized almost immediately who had really carried out the attack. As a result, a reward of £10,000 was offered for information leading to the capture of O'Donovan and five other named republicans.[6]
On 22 August 1922, O'Donovan chaired a meeting of surviving IRA officers in Long's Bar (The Diamond),Béal na Bláth, County Cork. Present were senior national figures including Liam Deasy,Tom Barry andÉamon de Valera. Later the same day GeneralMichael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Army andChairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State was killed by asniper in an ambush a half mile away.
During the aftermath of the Civil War, in return for badly needed funding, the IRA's intelligence arm covertly acquired classified information in bothGreat Britain and theUnited States of America, which was then sold to theSoviet Union. The IRA's mainspymaster in America during this era was based inNew York City and is referred to only as "Mr. Jones" in recently decrypted IRA messages from the era. After careful research, historians Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly have identified "Mr. Jones" as O'Donovan.[7] According to both historians, while living in America, O'Donovan covertly acquired and sold to theSoviet Union'smilitary intelligence service, theGRU, "reports of thearmy’schemical weapons service, state-of-the-art gas masks, machine-gun and aeroplane engine specifications, and reports from thenavy,air service and army".[8]
Also according to Mahon and Gillogly, "Mr. Jones" was also involved in efforts to acquire the ability to build chemical weapons for both the GRU and for the IRA, which hoped to usemustard gas against themilitary andpolice forces of theIrish Free State. The Soviet Union was more successful than the IRA in using O'Donovan's information tomanufacture chemical weapons[9] andRed ArmyMarshal of the Soviet UnionMikhail Tukhachevsky was a pioneer in the use of poison gas against peasant uprisings.[10][better source needed] Despite this, historians Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly have praised O'Donovan as, "A true IrishJames Bond!"[11]
In later years O'Donovan worked with the Irish Sugar Company in North Cork where he managed Ballybeg Quarry, nearButtevant, which the company owned.
Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan died in 1975 and was interred in a family plot atSt. Finbarr's Cemetery,Cork City.
O'Donovan is often erroneously referred in history books of the period as "Donovan".