Biography
Patrick O’Neill is an American Catholic peace activist and co-founder of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in North Carolina. He has spent many years engaged in nonviolent direct action opposing nuclear weapons, war, and social injustice, and has previously been jailed for similar civil disobedience actions.
O’Neill was one of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who on April 4, 2018, entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in southern Georgia to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons there. He and his co-defendants recorded their action, poured their own blood on base insignia, and hammered on symbolic displays of missiles before willingly submitting to arrest. For this action, O’Neill was convicted on federal charges and sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution; he has served time in federal custody as part of his protest witness. Patrick M. O Neill, age 62, KBP7 defendant; 14 months federal prison. Patrick O Neill is a North Carolina Catholic Worker peace activist and co-founder of the Father Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, North Carolina. On April 4, 2018 he was one of the seven Catholic activists known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia to symbolically disarm the Trident nuclear submarine fleet. He was convicted by a federal jury on October 24, 2019 of conspiracy, destruction of government property, depredation, and trespassing, and was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.
The November 12, 2019 NYC Anarchist Black Cross compilation reproduces reporting on the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 jury verdict of October 24, 2019: conspiracy, destruction of property on a naval installation, depredation of government property and trespass. It describes the defendants other than Stephen Kelly as free at home awaiting sentencing, while Kelly remained jailed. The reported twenty- or twenty-five-year maximum was a possible penalty, not an imposed term or actual service. Later dispositions remain separately recorded. Source: https://nycabc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/updates-12-nov-2019-1.pdf#page=2
Pershing Plowshares: custody episodes distinguished
The original May 1984 newsletter dates the action and initial detention to April 22, 1984 and reports continued detention while the eight refused bond. The August issue establishes sentencing on July 26, 1984. However, Jim Perkins subsequently described a period of freedom before the trial ended. The initial detention and later sentenced imprisonment are therefore recorded separately; the exact intervening release and later remand dates remain unresolved. The July 26 sentencing date is not silently treated as a new prison-admission date, and no arrest-to-final-release continuous total is inferred.
The sentence was three years for depredation and five years probation for conspiracy, with restitution. Christin Schmidt expressly corrected the earlier newsletter account of an extra suspended five-year term, and Perkins independently describes the same sentence.
Sources: Nuclear Resister 25, May 9, 1984, pages 1 and 3; issue 26, August 2, 1984, page 1; issue 27, December 3, 1984, page 10, Schmidt correction; Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Spring 1986, Perkins firsthand account pages 4-5.
The omitted 1984 Pershing prosecution is added independently of the existing 2018 and 2026 cases, which are untouched. The March 1986 newsletter reports transfer from prison to a Florida halfway house, but its page 3 roster says February 20 while its page 6 update says February 21. February 1986 is recorded at month precision, bounded to those two days; the stored first-of-month value is not an assertion of February 1. This is departure from prison, not final completion of halfway-house supervision. Source: Nuclear Resister 38, March 10, 1986, pages 3 and 6.
O’Neill’s March 27, 2026 Pentagon charges were dismissed a week before the June 4 hearing.
