Michael Flannery

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Michael Flannery
Flushing, New York.
Political partySinn Féin/Republican Sinn Fein
Spouse
Margaret Mary Egan ("Pearl")
​
​
(m. 1969; died 1991)​
Military service
Branch/service
Anti-Treaty IRA
UnitTipperary No. 1 Brigade
Battles/warsIrish War of Independence
Irish Civil War

Michael Flannery (7 January 1903 – 30 September 1994) was an Irish republican who fought in the

Provisional Sinn Féin
split in 1986.

Irish revolutionary period

Flannery was born in Cangort, near Brosna, right on the border of County Offaly and County Tipperary, on 7 January 1903.[citation needed]

In 1916 he joined the Irish Volunteers alongside his brother Peter, although he did not take part in the

Anti-Treaty IRA until his capture by the National Army on 11 November 1922 in Roscrea, County Tipperary. He was imprisoned for nearly a year and a half in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison (C Wing). While there he witnessed the execution of Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Richard Barrett, Joe McKelvey, Liam Mellows and Rory O'Connor from his cell window. Following Flannery going on a 28-day hunger strike, he was placed in the Curragh Prison Camp until 1 May 1924 when he was finally released, a full year after the end of the civil war.[2]

Moving to New York

In February 1927 he immigrated to the

United States of America, settling in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City. In 1928 he married Margaret Mary Egan, a Tipperary-born research chemist, who had been educated at University College Dublin and University of Geneva.[2]

Following the creation of

abstentionist policy towards the Dáil and their refusal to acknowledge it as the legitimate government of Ireland. Sinn Féin tasked Flannery with drumming up support for the party in New York. However, following the start of the Great Depression Flannery found it difficult to focus on politics in the face of mounting poverty. By 1933 finding support for Sinn Féin and the IRA became particularly tough when Fianna Fáil expanded greatly the range of people eligible for military pensions, which under the previous government had been biased against members of the Anti-Treaty IRA.[2]

For the next 40 years Flannery would work for the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
.

During the Troubles

Upon the onset of

Irish Republicanism. In a response to the mounting violence, Flannery set up the Irish Northern Aid Committee, or as it became better known as NORAID. The official purpose of NORAID was to provide funds to the families of imprisoned Irish Republicans and victims of violence. However, opponents levelled the accusation against the organisation that it was also a front for the Provisional Irish Republican Army
by using donations to supply firearms.

In 1970 he travelled around America and set up 62 chapters of NORAID. In 1971 he said: "The more coffins sent back to Britain, the sooner this will be all over", referring to British soldiers.[1]

In 1982 he was indicted, with four other Irish immigrants (Thomas Falvey, Daniel Gormley, George Harrison and Patrick Mullin), for arms smuggling, but all defendants were acquitted after their legal defence was able to successfully argue their actions had been sanctioned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). There was no evidence the CIA sanctioned Flannery’s actions. During the trial, Flannery said himself that:

I came [to the US] directly from Ireland. I was a member of the Irish Republican Army until I left Ireland. When I came here, there had been a general exodus of young Irishmen and women from Ireland from 1924 to 1927 and I came here purposely to organise these people so they would be a help to the militant movement, to the IRA at home, to complete the freedom of Ireland.

In spite of the men's acquittal, the indictment led to severe disruption of the IRA arms procurement in America so the IRA focused much on importing commercial weapons from mainland Europe and the Middle East.[3][4]

Four months after the verdict of the arms trial, Flannery was named by the

Tip O’Neill, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Hugh Carey) and members of the Friends of Ireland, and U.S. Army and high school bands.[7][5][8]

In 1986 Flannery quietly resigned from NORAID following the decision by Sinn Féin to drop its abstentionist policy in the Republic of Ireland and to recognise Dáil Éireann as the legitimate governing body of Ireland.Michael Flannery joined with veteran Republicans, including Joe Stynes and George Harrison to form Cumann na Saoirse. [9]

He opposed the Northern Ireland peace process, believing that Sinn Féin and the Provisionals had "sold out", and believed the removal of British troops from Northern Ireland was the only starting point upon which negotiations could begin.[10]

He died on 30 September 1994, aged 91.[10] From 1970 to 1991, NORAID was estimated to have raised $3.6 million: $3 million by 1986 and $600,000 by 1991.[11][12][13][14] Historians, scholars, and IRA veterans said the total amount raised in America for the Provisional cause had been exaggerated and only formed a small portion of IRA income, pointing out that nearly all of the IRA money came from legitimate and criminal activities within the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.[11][15][16][17][18]

References

  1. ^ a b "Michael Flannery, an Advocate Of a United Ireland, Dies at 92". The New York Times. 2 October 1994. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Michael Flannery". Flannery Clan website. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  3. ISBN 9-7815-6833-1843
    .
  4. JSTOR 27041321
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 9780253108531
    .
  6. ^ Frieda Klotz (10 March 2012). "New York's Irish parade grapples with march of time". The Irish Times.
  7. ^ Ted Smyth (Winter 2020). "Journal of American Ethnic History".
  8. ^ Brophy, Éanna (24 March 2019). "The year the Archbishop refused to bless the NYC parade due to growing 'IRA influence'". The Journal.ie. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  9. LA Times
    . Retrieved 6 October 2019. The 41 signers included leading Irish dissenters, but the big surprise was the first name: Michael Flannery, at 88 still the most respected Irish nationalist in America. Flannery, it turned out, had quietly resigned from NORAID in 1986, after Sinn Fein declared itself willing to take seats in the Irish parliament, which he regards as the equivalent of the illegitimate Free State parliament.
  10. ^
    Independent.co.uk. 2 September 1994. Archived
    from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9-7817-8537-2476
    .
  12. ISBN 9-7811-3664-9387
    .
  13. ISBN 9-7808-2136-0507
    . Estimated to have sent at total of $3.6 million to Ireland from 1970 to 1991, NORAID's contributions represented a small, but not [politically] insignificant, part of the IRA's income, which is estimated to have amounted to approximately $10 million a year.
  14. ISBN 9-7802-3031-6935
    . From its founding in 1969 until 1991, NORAID raised approximately $3.6 million for Irish republican causes, through a combination of testimonial fundraising dinners and an extensive campaign to solicit donations through direct mail, dinner-dance benefits, and "passing the hat" in Irish American-owned businesses (such as bars) in major US cities.' This money was ostensibly to provide support for any number of causes related to Ireland and Irish republicanism, ranging from political activities to support to the families of imprisoned PIRA members
  15. ^ Isabel Woodford and M.L.R. Smith (2018). "The Political Economy of the Provos: Inside the Finances of the Provisional IRA – A Revision" (PDF). 41 (3). Taylor & Francis: 9-10. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ John Manley (6 April 2019). "Support in Republic during Troubles 'key for IRA', book claims". The Irish News.
  17. ^ Laura K. Donohue (2006). "Anti-Terrorist Finance in the United Kingdom and United States". 27 (2). Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation: 8. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ^ Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs - Part One: The continuing threat from paramilitary organisations. UK Parliament (Report). 26 June 2002.
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