civil servant and diplomat (died 2017). Tom Garvin, political scientist and historian. Tom Walsh, Kilkenny hurler. Deaths 16 February – Mainie Jellett, abstract painter (born 1897). 19 February – J. J. "Ginger" O'Connell, officer in the Irish Volunteers and Irish Defence Forces (born 1887). 15 March – Thomas Byrne, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1898 at the Battle of Omdurman, Sudan (born 1866). 25 April – Tony Mullane, Major League Baseball player (born 1859). 12 May – Edel Quinn, lay missionary (born 1907). 10 June – Frank Ryan, member of the Irish Republican Army, editor of An Phoblacht, leftist activist and leader of Irish volunteers on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War (born 1902). August – Noble Huston, Presbyterian minister and dog breeder. 19 September – David Lord, Royal Air Force pilot, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry at Arnhem (born 1913). 6 November – Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, British politician and businessman, assassinated in Cairo by the Zionist group Lehi (Stern Gang) (born 1880). 28 November – Sir William Moore, 1st Baronet, Unionist MP and Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland 1925–1937 (born 1864). 30 November – Eoin O'Duffy, first leader of Fine Gael and the Blueshirts, leader of Irish volunteers on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War (born 1892). 1 December – Charlie Kerins, Chief of Staff of the IRA, convicted of murder of Garda Síochána officer and hanged (born 1918). References 1940s in Ireland Ireland Independent Ireland in World War II Years of the 20th century in Ireland