<p>In March 1922, a relatively unknown member of the IRA was asked by journalists if they could take from his answers that Ireland would have a military dictatorship.</p><p>‘You can take it anyway you like,’ he replied.</p><p>On Free State today we look at the life of Rory O’Connor who was prepared to go to any lengths for the Republic of his ideals.&nbsp;</p><p>We talk to the author of a new biography of O’Connor Gerard Shannon about the fanaticism that drove him.</p><p>O’Connor became the public face of opposition to the Treaty but he also became the most human face when he was executed in December 1922, following a decision by the Free State cabinet including his great friend Kevin O’Higgins.</p><p>O’Connor had been best man at O’Higgins’s wedding a year before and now O’Higgins was part of the brutal decision to have him executed.&nbsp;</p><p>Shannon explains too why O’Connor faded from memory after his death and the extraordinary coincidence behind the killing of O’Higgins as he walked home from Mass in 1927.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>