He was born at 6 Cavendish Row, Dublin, home of his grandfather Dr. Edward O'Neill. His parents were Elizabeth O'Neill, daughter of Dr.O'Neill, and Timothy Charles Harrington, a NationalistMP, barrister-at-law and Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1901 to 1903. When he was 9 his father died so he moved to Nelson Street , Tralee, Co. Kerry to live with his uncle Dan, Timothy Harrington's brother. Dan Harrington was the printer and publisher of The Kerry Sentinel, a weekly paper which had been founded by Timothy Harrington in 1877. He attended the Christian Brothers' school in Edward Street, Tralee, and later Rockwell College in Co. Tipperary.
Military career
After being apprenticed in 1918 to James Barry's pharmacy in Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Harrington joined the IRA and the IRB. He became 1st Lieutenant in A Company, 1st Battalion, North Roscommon Brigade IRA. A beating and threats from RIC members encouraged his departure from the area. He was ordered to Dublin to deliver a dispatch and remained there on advice after a secret meeting with Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack, and later a note from Michael Collins. He lived at different addresses and did different jobs before transferring to C Company, 2nd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty he became a private in the Medical Corps of the Irish Army in March 1922, reprising his pharmacy practice. He was on duty in Dublin when the Provisional Government launched an assault against anti-Treaty IRA 'Irregulars' who had captured the Four Courts. Allowed a posting aboard the Lady Wicklow, he transferred to the Dublin Guard en route. The ship landed at Fenit, Co. Kerry, on 2 August 1922 as part of an attempt to overcome the anti-Treaty forces controlling the county. His intimate knowledge of the area was utilised in the planning and execution of the landing and the capture of Fenit and Tralee. He received a field-promotion to 2nd Lieutenant for bravery. In 1923 he became captain and gained experience through the ranks in different roles and counties. He graduated from the Military College's Infantry School in 1931, and the Command and Staff School in 1939 becoming Commandant, in roles attached to military archives and intelligence. His final military post was as Deputy Director of Intelligence at General Headquarters from 1952 to 1959, in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Union representative
Upon retiring from his military role, Harrington was appointed National Organiser of the Federated Union of Employers , remaining until 1973.
Harrington wrote and presented a number of different items on 2RN from the 1930s onwards, and his play, Resurgence – A Cavalcade of the Easter Insurrection, was broadcast in 1937. He also did pieces promoting the army. Amongst his many works for print, he sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms of Niall O'Neill and Brian Mulhern. His memoirs, entitled A fine day to die in Ireland, meant originally for the military archives, were expanded into the book Kerry Landing under the auspices of his friend, Dan Nolan, of Anvil Books. Nolan appealed for additional information from readers of the Kerryman. The book was eventually published in 1992, after Harrington's death in 1981 and Nolan's in 1989. In the book, Harrington referred to murders on both sides in the Civil War, including the notorious incidents at Ballyseedy Cross, Countess Bridge, and Bahags, all in Co.Kerry, where captured Republicans were brutally killed using landmines, bombs and bullets by Free State soldiers of the Dublin Guard. The soldiers were later officially cleared of any wrongdoing. Harrington, who was in the county having recently joined the Dublin Guard, said, "The facts are that the mines used in the slaughter of the prisoners were constructed in Tralee under the supervision of two senior Dublin Guards officers. "An alleged military court of inquiry into the occurrences was held in Tralee on 7 April 1923; the submissions made to the court and the findings brought in are, to my personal knowledge, totally untrue." This conclusion was supported by other accounts, some only released in the 21st century.
Legacy
The collection of Niall Harrington's papers relating to his career, and remaining papers of his father Timothy, were placed with the National Library of Irelandin 2001 and 2002 by his daughter, Nuala Jordan.
