The latest chapter of the O’Neill family saga came to a conclusion in a federal courtroom in Philadelphia yesterday.
Sean O’Neill Sr. entered a guilty plea to a slew of charges including gun violations, tax fraud and immigration raps. He is looking at some serious jail time and as part of his plea has agreed to leave the country when he gets out.
You can read the account here.
One of the factors behind the plea apparently involved O’Neill’s desire to avoid having his wife face similar tax charges.
Of course it is not the first time the O’Neill clan has been in the pages of this newspaper. Sean O’Neill Jr. has now done two different stints in a juvenile detention facility for his role in a fatal shooting of a friend and classmate at Cardinal O’Hara High School after a night of partying.
His sister Roisin faces trial in connection with a fatal DUI crash in which she is charged with going the wrong way on the Blue Route and slamming into another car, killing the woman driver.
These cases – and this newspaper’s coverage of them – have sparked a lot of response in the community. That’s one of the reasons I was a bit taken aback when word came out that O’Neill Sr. was taking a plea deal.
He had adamantly maintained his innocence. His backers went so far as to intimate an anti-Irish bias on the part of federal prosecutors. Some of those fingers also were pointed at this newspaper. I fielded several calls questioning my own Irish heritage for the way we were treating O’Neill.
And of course there was the old standby, that the newspaper was just once again showing its anti-Catholic, anti-O’Hara attitude in covering the story.
I don’t feel any redemption today. Yes, Sean O’Neill Sr.’s picture is on the front page of the newspaper again.
I just feel sad. I don’t wish what has happened to the O’Neill family on anyone, regardless of their ancestry, religious beliefs or otherwise.
One look at my face – and this nose – pretty much gives away my heritage. I just try not to let that show in the newspaper.
Sean O’Neill Sr. entered a guilty plea to a slew of charges including gun violations, tax fraud and immigration raps. He is looking at some serious jail time and as part of his plea has agreed to leave the country when he gets out.
You can read the account here.
One of the factors behind the plea apparently involved O’Neill’s desire to avoid having his wife face similar tax charges.
Of course it is not the first time the O’Neill clan has been in the pages of this newspaper. Sean O’Neill Jr. has now done two different stints in a juvenile detention facility for his role in a fatal shooting of a friend and classmate at Cardinal O’Hara High School after a night of partying.
His sister Roisin faces trial in connection with a fatal DUI crash in which she is charged with going the wrong way on the Blue Route and slamming into another car, killing the woman driver.
These cases – and this newspaper’s coverage of them – have sparked a lot of response in the community. That’s one of the reasons I was a bit taken aback when word came out that O’Neill Sr. was taking a plea deal.
He had adamantly maintained his innocence. His backers went so far as to intimate an anti-Irish bias on the part of federal prosecutors. Some of those fingers also were pointed at this newspaper. I fielded several calls questioning my own Irish heritage for the way we were treating O’Neill.
And of course there was the old standby, that the newspaper was just once again showing its anti-Catholic, anti-O’Hara attitude in covering the story.
I don’t feel any redemption today. Yes, Sean O’Neill Sr.’s picture is on the front page of the newspaper again.
I just feel sad. I don’t wish what has happened to the O’Neill family on anyone, regardless of their ancestry, religious beliefs or otherwise.
One look at my face – and this nose – pretty much gives away my heritage. I just try not to let that show in the newspaper.
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