He was working as a Solicitor's Apprentice, could read and write as well as speak both English and Irish, and was single.

He was not a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood as he believed that soldiers should not be a part of secret societies.

[1] In 1918 he was again arrested and interned, spending time in Wandsworth Prison with Arthur Griffith for the alleged involvement in the fabricated German Plot.

[6] In the IRA split after Dáil Éireann ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty, O'Connell took the pro-Treaty side.

[1] Following the Civil War, the National Army was reorganised, and as part of that O’Connell was demoted from general to colonel.

[1] He subsequently held a variety of positions: chief lecturer in the army school of instruction (1924–1929); director of no.