George Harrison | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1915-05-02)2 May 1915 |
| Died | 6 October 2004(2004-10-06) (aged 89) |
| Occupation | Gun runner |
| Organization(s) | Provisional IRA Continuity IRA |
| Political party | Sinn Féin (until 1986) Republican Sinn Féin |
| Military Service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  US Army |
| Years of service | April 1944 to February 1946 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
George Harrison (2 May 1915 – 6 October 2004) was a primarygun runner for theIrish Republican Army andProvisional Irish Republican Army from the 1950s until 1981.
Harrison was born in May 1915 inShammer,Kilkelly,County Mayo, Ireland to parents Tom ‘Yank’ Harrison and Winnie McDermott. The Shammer Harrison grew up in has been described as fiercelyIrish Republican, and it was there that the young Harrison experienced the chaotic years of both theIrish War of Independence and theIrish Civil War. In one incident that stayed with him for the rest of his life, he remembered a visit by theBlack and Tans to his mother's shop that ended with them assaulting him. During the Civil War a cousin of Harrison, Michael Duffy, was shot while fighting as a part of theAnti-Treaty IRA. Both these incidents contributed to his growing belief in Irish Republicanism.[1]
At age 16 in 1931, Harrison joined what remnants remained of theIrish Republican Army. However, by this point, the IRA was at a low ebb and his unit never saw any actual fighting. By the mid-1930s, he had emigrated toEngland where he worked as a farm labourer. He briefly returned to Ireland in 1938 before emigrating again, this time to theUnited States, settling inNew York City. Between April 1944 and February 1946, he served with the US Army in World War II in thePacific Theatre.[2] Following the war, he became active in Irish-American political organisations such asClan na Gael and the James Connolly Club. It was during this time Harrison became affiliated with Liam Cotter, a fellow Irish immigrant fromCounty Kerry who had also spent time in the IRA.
At some point in the mid-1950s, the IRA approached Cotter and Harrison about supplying them arms for theirBorder Campaign, a request which the pair accepted, beginning agun running career which would last for several decades. Harrison was able to source arms for the IRA through George de Meo, an Italian-American neighbour of his who had connections to theMafia as well as gun runners who were supplying rebels inCuba.[1]
In 1962, Cotter and Harrison cut their ties with the IRA as it became apparent the Border campaign was a failure. However, after the start ofthe Troubles,Dáithí Ó Conaill was able to convince them to support theProvisional IRA in 1970; once again, they began supplying arms to the IRA. Almost all smuggled guns went through the network run by Harrison.[3] In 1975, Harrison appeared before a grand jury investigating arms trafficking; however, he was released without charge.[2]
By 1975, theUnited States Department of Justice started to significantly weaken the Harrison network by prosecuting dozens of IRA arms trafficking cases since the start of the Troubles in 1969, and as early as 1973, the IRA already found more lucrative sources of funding and weapons from foreign states, including Libyan dictatorMuammar Gaddafi.[4] The prosecutions of IRA gunrunners in America were so great that according to Belfast authorJack Holland, "Harrison was not aware of any major shipments of arms that had successfully reached the IRA from the U.S. since the late 1970s; that is, before his network's destruction [in 1981]."[5] U.S. House SpeakerTip O'Neill told Northern Ireland Secretary of StateRoy Mason in mid-October 1977 that "[t]he flow of guns and money had been greatly reduced."[6]
In 1981, Harrison was arrested by theFBIJoint Terrorism Task Force during a sting operation called "Operation Bushmill".[1][7] Harrison, Tom Falvey,Michael Flannery, Pat Mullin, and Danny Gormley, all Irish immigrants, were acquitted in a criminal trial held in New York City, which lasted from December 1980 to June 1981. Their acquittal was widely attributed to the unconventional efforts of Harrison's personal attorney,Frank Durkan; the men admitted to their activities but claimed that they believed the operation hadCentral Intelligence Agency sanction.[8][9] During the trial, a number of people spoke on the defendants' behalf, includingBernadette Devlin.[1]
Although he had spent much of the previous decade involved in this operation, his acquittal marked the end of his active career as an IRA gun-runner as well as the IRA's considerable source of American arms supply (by 1980, the IRA was already importing a large number of weapons from mainland Europe and the Middle East).[10][11] Throughout his life he would devote his time to other various left-wing causes, including support for theAfrican National Congress, theSandinista movement, theCuban Revolution, theSecond Spanish Republic and theIndependista (Puerto Rican nationalist) campaign againstPuerto Rico's status as an American Commonwealth.[12]
Harrison broke with the Provisional Republican Movement in 1986 whenProvisional Sinn Féin dropped the traditional Republican stance of not taking their seats inDáil Éireann. He joinedRepublican Sinn Féin and was a founder and activist of the Republican support group Cumann na Saoirse/Irish Freedom Committee in the US. He was a patron of Republican Sinn Féin until he died.[citation needed]
He also took a number of controversial stances within the broaderIrish-American community in New York City, including outspoken support for former MayorDavid Dinkins, support for the inclusion ofLGBT marchers in theNew York Saint Patrick's Day Parade[13] and his open defiance of theAncient Order of Hibernians.[citation needed]
He died at the age of 89 in October 2004 from natural causes at his home inBrooklyn, New York City.[14][better source needed]