US Marine Fighting for the IRA - John Crawley Tells His Story
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What is discussed at the start of this section?
Boom, we're on. Today's guest will be John Crawley. How are you, John? Great, James. Thanks a million for having me on. Pleasure to be here. Great to have you on. You just released a book, The Yank, a former Marine who then went on and worked for the IRA. That's right. Sam Muller read your book as well and he says you're the Jason Bourne. of diary that you are a recon of the marines as well born in new york and involved in some of the biggest that's a madness probably in life that people will be shocked to hear you get a 10 stretch you also got 35 years after that that's no mean feat like but you're still here to tell the tale here to tell the tale first and foremost how are you i'm great james thank you very much thanks for coming to glasgow brother and uh we'll get in about your story but first of all i'll go back to the
Well, I was born in Long Island, New York in May 1957 to Irish immigrant parents. My father was an immigrant from County Roscommon. My mother was from County Kerry. My father was in the US Air Force at the time. He was doing a four-year stretch to get some technical training and to accelerate his American citizenship. At about two years of age, we left New York. So I don't remember New York at all. Moved to Chicago. I grew up basically in Chicago. When I was 13, came back to Ireland for a full summer, loved it. And then the following year, when I was 14, I came back to live in Ireland for good and go to school here. I mean, to go to school in Ireland, yeah. How was it at school in Ireland at the time? Well, it was strange, you know, leaving an American high school, going to a...
A country school down at Roscommon that my father went to. In fact, one or two of the same teachers were there, you know. But I enjoyed it. I loved it. I took to it. You know, I had a sister who went to boarding school and didn't like it at all. Went back to America. But I just took to Ireland and I loved it. And I loved everything about it. the troubles weren't started when you were at school then the troubles had started but they i was done on roscommon so it didn't it had no effect on us whatsoever so you didn't really know anything about it i didn't know anything about it no when did you go back to america went back to america in 1975 at 18 years of age to join the u.s marines what gave you that idea to do that because of your father no no not at all i uh
I had developed very strong Republican sympathies. I had been reading a lot, studying about the struggle. I had some family involved. My granduncle was a senior IRA man in the Blankentown War. But his brother had been in the British Army and was killed with the Irish Guards in the First World War. So, you know, you had this typical Irish, different trajectories that Irish people went through. Some, you know, fought for Britain, some fought against it. But I developed strong Republican sympathies and it was... my own education and my own study, I didn't really have any, well, I definitely didn't have any Republican propaganda they got at home. I had no mentor. I had nobody telling me stories about the struggle.
It was just, you know, reading history. And I developed, you know, a strong sympathy with the Republican struggle in the North. Having grown up in the States, I had a strong Republican ethos anyway, because the United States is a republic. We grew up every day, you know, we say the pledge allegiance to the flag and we talk about things like the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And those words resonated with me. And I thought Ireland should have the same chance to be a united republic. And so I made up my mind when I was around 17 or 18 to join the IRA. Uh, trouble was I didn't know anybody in the IRA. It's not called the secret army for nothing. Um, so I basically decided what I would do was I would go and join the US Marines because I was an American citizen.
Uh, I would try to get into a special forces unit, get the best training I could and come home. And for two purposes, uh, basically to test my commitment that if I was, I knew that if I went away for four years and came back and still joined the IRA, then I was committed to doing that.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is discussed at the start of this section?
0:13–4:34
2
How did John Crawley transition from the U.S. Marines to the IRA?
4:34–15:07
3
What challenges did John Crawley face in joining the IRA?
15:07–56:57
4
What was the impact of the 1994 ceasefire on John Crawley's return to the IRA?
56:57–57:42
5
What operations were planned in England after Crawley’s release?
57:42–58:39
6
How did Crawley respond to attempts of recruitment by the CIA?
58:39–1:01:28
7
What are Crawley's thoughts on the future of Irish independence?
1:01:28–1:53:10
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Anything Goes with James English
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