Issue(s): Daredevil #205
Cover Date: Apr 84
Title: "The Gael!"
Credits:
Denny O'Neil - Writer
William Johnson - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue introduces Debbie Harris' niece Glorianna O'Breen. She's fled Ireland because her father was thought to be a traitor to the IRA.

The real traitor was actually the man the man that comes to kill Glorianna (a plot device is that her father etched the name of the killer inside her camera), who is known as the Gael.

Daredevil puts a stop to the Gael, of course.

Glorianna winds up staying at Matt's house, thanks to Debbie's increasingly arrogant behavior.

A simple, straightforward issue. Well told. Nothing earth-shattering. Just good. William Johnson is back on art and it's looking fine.

My favorite part of the story was when everyone thought info on the Gael was on one of the pictures in the camera, instead of literally in the camera, and for once Matt Murdock is unable to "see" the photos by "sensing the heat from the colors on the picture" or anything insane like that.

You'll also notice the repeated image in the above panels. It's a good technique that illustrates time passing very well (although i imagine some would say it's a space filler), but it's somewhat of a more modern technique and i don't think i've seen it in a Marvel book to date.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Glorianna O'Breen

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue is more or less standalone and there's no problem placing Daredevil's appearances in Marvel Team-Up #140-141 after it.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

this was my first exposure to the IRA. and the gael was scary

William Johnson was probably overshadowed by being replaced with David Mazzuchelli, but his art is quite good.

This was one of two comics published around this time that led to my giving up actually reading the comics I was buying ... for along time thereafter I just 'collected' the comics I bought.
The offending line? "He used to work for the IRA, and then he turned bad". I wonder if Denny O'Neil was contributing to American IRA fund raisers when they were bombing shops and offices on the British mainland

With the name "O'Neil," he was certainly aware of 'the troubles,' but he does keep a middle-of-the-road approach. Without supporting or condemning the IRA's acts of terror, Glorianna (and presumably her father) are presented as 'good' people, while the Gael is explicitly an IRA agent and the villain of a couple stories.

Debbie also appears in this issue.

I only noticed that because I've just discovered that I have all of O'Neil's post-#200 issues, so I've started re-reading the Synn storyline, and on page 7 there's a typo where the Gael is referring to "Debbie Whitman." I assume Spider-Man's old girlfriend didn't have anything to do with the IRA, but you can never be too careful, so I looked up Debbie's maiden name.

More than you really wanted to know, I'm sure.

Added Debbie (Harris). Thanks.

One other thing about this issue. If Matt can "hear a gnat blink at 100 yards" his life must be hell.