Sinn Fein and their Nazi collaborator



McElduff & McGuinness hold the print of McGarrity

I must confess that I am not a regular reader of the various Sinn Fein constituency websites and it was purely by accident that I came across a post on the West Tyrone Sinn Fein website from 17 September 2010.

The report concerns the Sinn Fein cumann (branch) for the Carrickmore and Creggan area of Tyrone and its efforts to raise awareness of an Irish republican named Joseph McGarrity, who was born in Carrickmore.

 

According to the report: 'The Frank Ward Sinn Fein cumann which serves the Carrickmore and Creggan area has decided to add the name of Joe McGarrity formally to its title in recognition of his historical contribution.'

 

Then secondly the branch produced 110 framed prints of McGarrity and these were on sale at £40 each.

 

Sinn Fein also organised a talk on McGarrity, which was given in Carrickmore by a local historian, Damien Woods.  He had already given a talk on McGarrity earlier in the year at the local St Colmcille's GAA Club.

 

The article recommended a book entitled The McGarrity Papers, by Sean Cronin, which 'tells much about the life of Joe McGarrity (born in 1874) and his central role in pursuing the cause of Irish republicanism in the United States of America'

 

The picture above shows Sinn Fein MLA Barry McElduff handing one of the prints over to Martin McGuiness and indeed McElduff seems to be at the heart of this initiative for the commemoration and indeed glorification of Joe McGarrity.

 

Joseph McGarrity collaborated with the Nazis

Yes McGarrity was a central figure in Irish republicanism for many years.  He was born in Carrickmore in 1874 and emigrated from Tyrone to America in 1892 at the age of 18.  McGarrity settled in Philadelphia and the following year he joined Clan na Gael, the American sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood.  Clan na Gael provided support to the IRB in pursuing violent action to advance the republican cause of Irish separatism and independence.

 

For example Clan na Gael devised the Fenian dynamite campaign (1881-1885) when republican bombers attacked targets in Great Britain - a strategy that the IRA and then the Provisional IRA and Official IRA were to take up in later years.  Clan na Gael provided the IRB with money, arms and ideas.

 

However by the time McGarrity arrived in Philadelphia in 1892 republicanism was in poor shape.  In America Clan na Gael was stagnant and back in Ireland the IRB was moribund.

 

McGarrity certainly breathed life into Clan na Gael and remained the leading figure in the organisation and an unrepentant physical force republican for the rest of his days. 

He helped to finance the 1916 Easter Rising and later he continued to supply arms and ammunition to Irish republicans during the Irish War of Independence.  McGarrity is also remembered especially for his role before and during the Second World War.  In 1939 McGarrity worked with IRA leader Sean Russell in implementing the S Plan, a terrorist bombing campaign in Great Britain.  For McGarrity, Britain's difficulty was always Ireland's opportunity.

 

Hermann Goring

McGarrity also collaborated directly with the Nazis and sought their support for the IRA.  Indeed he was the initial link between Irish republicanism and the Nazis.  He met Nazi agents in America and travelled to Berlin, where he met the senior Nazi Hermann Goring.

This led on to Plan Kathleen, a plan for a German invasion of Northern Ireland, which would be supported by the IRA.  The plan came to nothing because the Nazis recognised that the IRA was a small, weak and incompetent organisation.  Nevertheless the IRA chief of staff at that time, Sean Russell, was another collaborator and so the IRA in Ireland and Clan na Gael in America were both controlled by men who were happy to collaborate with the Nazis.

 

While Ulstermen and Irishmen, Protestant and Roman Catholic, were fighting the Nazi war machine on the battlefields of Europe, Joe McGarrity and Sean Russell were happy to work with the Nazis and seek their support.

 

The way in which Sinn Fein has celebrated Sean Russell has been the cause of much criticism, because of his cooperation with the Nazis, but so far the parallel glorification of McGarrity has gone under the radar. 

However the decision by Sinn Fein in Carrickmore to name their cumann after a Nazi collaborator is now on the radar. 
 

The report on the Sinn Fein website ended by stating that 'The Frank Ward/Joe McGarrity Sinn Fein cumann has also pledged to undertake a commemorative project in the near future based on the historical contribution of another famous Carrickmore Republican, Dr Patrick McCartan' but that is a subject for another day.