Daniel "Sandow" O'Donovan (1890, in Cork (city) – 31 July 1975, in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland), was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. Early life Dan O'Donovan was an early recruit to the Irish Volunteers and paraded with the Cork Volunteers at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, in 1915, at which Patrick Pearse gave his famous oration ending with "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace". War of Independence He was later a prominent officer of Cork's No. 1 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. On 3 September 1917 he led a successful raid for arms at Cork Grammar School, a school for the children of the Anglo-Irish gentry, which maintained its own armoury for training potential British Army officers. O'Donovan acquired the nickname "Sandow" around this time because of his resemblance to famous German bodybuilder Eugen Sandow. O'Donovan led or participated in many daring raids against British forces in County Cork, including the capture of Blarney's Royal 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 Inspector Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth at the Cork and County social club on the evening of 17 July 1920. Some weeks earlier Smyth had gained notoriety when RIC Constables in Listowel, County Kerry mutinied rather than listen to his orders to "shoot to kill" all persons who were suspected of Irish 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." Under the command of Seán O'Hegarty, O'Donovan and others organised the Coolavokig Ambush near Macroom in February 1921. He was also involved in the seizure of a large cache of guns and ammunition from the British naval tender, Upnor, off the coast of County Cork, having commandeered a smaller vessel at Queenstown. 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." Civil War After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, O'Donovan