Michael O’Callaghan was a member of the Irish Volunteers in County Tipperary at the time of the 1916 Easter Rising. He had mobilised at Galbally, County Tipperary and was standing to awaiting developments when he escaped an attempt by RIC to arrest him at his home on Tuesday 25 April. He then went to the home of a friend – Peter Hennessy- at Monour, Kilross, County Tipperary. When two RIC members - Sergeant Thomas Rourke and Constable John Hurley – came to the house he shot and killed both men.
O’Callaghan escaped to the United States of America and was involved in gun running there until his arrest and imprisonment in New York from May 1917 to January 1918. Liam Mellows (DP102000) was a fellow prisoner for a time and there is a letter from Mellows to O’Callaghan on the file. Michael O’Callaghan returned to Ireland in 1922.
