Foreign Agent Episode 4: Lawyers, Guns and Money

Foreign Agent: The IRA’s American connection

For decades, a quiet armored truck driver living in Brooklyn ran thousands of guns to the IRA. He was born in Ireland and dedicated to the Republican cause. He was also a committed socialist, who believed the anti-imperial struggle in Ireland was connected to the struggle of African-Americans, Cubans and Vietnamese. When he wasn’t handing out flyers or walking the picket lines, he was running an international arms network which took weapons pilfered from US military bases and smuggled them to IRA volunteers.

But at the height of his success, a federal investigation forced him into the limelight. In the ensuing trial, Irish Republicans made him into a hero, but a question always lingered about his gun running: was the CIA in on it?

Further reading:
The American Connection by Jack Holland
Irish America and the Ulster Conflict by Andrew Wilson
The Trial of the IRA Five by Thomas Fox
Noraid and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1970-1994 by Robert Collins
“The Patriot Game” by Shana Alexander in New York Magazine

The interview with George Harrison was recorded by Matthew Siegfried in 2004. The interviews with Chuck Laverty and Michael Flannery are courtesy of the Tamiment Library at New York University.