Here’s a book by a former US marine John Crawley who on leaving the American army joined the IRA to go fight the British army in the North during the late 70’s.
American born but of Irish parentage though he attended secondary school in Ireland. He did his leaving cert at the age of 18 and left to go join the US marines in 1975. The marine corp training was gruellling and tough but he stuck with it and even got into marine recon. Eventually he was made a instructor. Offered a cadetship and a place in the intelligence community which he declined.
He returned to Ireland and worked for a builder who had republican sympathies. The Builder tried to dissuade him from joining the IRA saying they offered little but imprisonment and death, the builder also mentioned that the leadership in Belfast and Derry could not be trusted. Even back then the alarm bells were going off. Eventually he joined the IRA but he found the rank and file willing but very amateurish. During his time with the IRA he ambushed a British patrol with a possible fatality on the British side.
However he was frustrated by Martin McGuinness who blocked him from training the IRA in the ways of a professional soldier and any other skills, which might help defeat the British. Martin McGuinness he found militarily inept and seemed to sabotage the IRA’s campaign to remove the British army from the North of Ireland. “Bounced” out of Ireland by said McGuinness, he was told to go setup a arms supply network in the USA.
Arriving in the US with a small sum of Ir £8,000/9,000 he stayed with Irish Americans and had some dealings with “Whitey” Bulger a notorious South Boston gangster. He managed to amass seven tons of arms and ammunition and was unexpected told to bring them during Atlantic hurricane season, he was also told to be on the boat himself. Sounds like he was being “set up”.
After a perilous journey on a shrimping vessel called the Valhalla, they met up with a fishing trawler the Marita Ann. They transfered their cargo and set sail for the Irish coast. However they were boarded by a Irish naval vessel hiding behind the Skelligs so the Marita Ann’s radar couldn’t pick them up.
He served ten years in Portlaoise prison and upon release rejoined the IRA.
The book tells of a very dedicated soldier but ultimately it tells of another life wrecked by the troubles.
