Frank O'Beirne

John Francis O'Beirne (1897 – 7 February 1978) was a farmer, businessman, Irish republican activist and Fianna Fáil politician in County Sligo. He refused to post bail and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In June, he organised an aeraíocht (outdoor cultural festival) in Collooney.

The Irish War of Independence was escalating, and O'Beirne was Officer Commanding of the Collooney Battalion of the Irish Republican Army (the "Old IRA"). After the local elections of May 1920, O'Beirne was chairman of Sligo rural district council (RDC), leading the council to accept the authority of the First Dáil. As RDC chairman, he was ex officio a member of County Sligo county council, which passed a similar resolution when it met in June. When Major Bryan Cooper refused to pay the "IRA rates", O'Beirne took two bullocks in lieu. On 26 June, he helped to spring Frank Carty from Sligo Gaol. In July, he was an adjudicator at the Dáil Courts which sat at Sooey Creamery and later at Sligo Courthouse.

O'Beirne sometimes used Major Heather's Knockadoo House near Coolaney as a safehouse. He led a raid on the British Army barracks in Carrick-on-Shannon. He did not participate in a raid on Collooney RIC barracks in March 1921 as he was sick. He was captured on 27 May 1921 and court-martialled for involvement in the killing of RIC constables in Ballisodare, but escaped from Sligo Gaol in June 1921 before sentence could be passed.

Anti-treaty activity O'Beirne was a close friend of Éamon de Valera, and took the anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War. Soon after he was taken prisoner along with forty men after Seán Mac Eoin launched a surprise attack on the town. In his concession speech, O'Beirne said there were "two things he held narrow views on; one was pride in his Catholic Faith, and the other was his pride in his Irish Nationality. [...] priests and bishops [...] were not infallible as far as politics were concerned."

The following November, O'Beirne was one of two men convicted in the Central Criminal Court for 'being concerned in the organisation of an illegal organisation "The Irish Republican Army"'. The jury suggested the men should not be treated as criminals, while the judge said their fundamental crime was treason, which at the time was punishable by death.

Fianna Fáil O'Beirne spent time in the United States, "reporting" to the New York IRA co-ordinator Connie Neenan in January 1927, and attended prominent Clan na Gael functions in 1930–1932. Moss Twomey, the IRA chief of staff, had a low opinion of O'Beirne. He returned to Ireland in the 1930s, working as a farmer and businessman, and was active in Fianna Fáil's industrial policy promoted by Seán Lemass. and Flemings Fireclays. He was a founding director of the Sligo Industrial Development Corporation in 1953. In 1955, he bought from Major Clarence H. Hillas "Sea View", a country house previously owned by the Atkinson family, near the Sligo–Ballina road at Doonecoy, Templeboy. He was a member of the Racing Board from 1965 to 1970. He was killed in a car crash on the N7 near Kill, County Kildare, aged 81.