Finbar Cafferkey

Finbar Cafferkey ( – 19 April 2023

Biography Cafferkey was a native of Achill Island in County Mayo, Ireland. Politically, Cafferkey was an Irish Republican and socialist who was a part of the Shell to Sea campaign which occurred in the late 2000s and early 2010s. It campaigned against the building of an oil pipeline in north-west County Mayo.

Syria Cafferkey arrived in Syria in the late spring of 2017. According to his own account, Cafferkey was embedded in a heavy weapons platoon five weeks after he arrived, and part of the fighting around the city of Raqqa, then the de facto capital of the Islamic State, as part of the overall Raqqa campaign (2016–2017). In June 2017, a video on YouTube emerged in which Cafferkey, referring to himself by a Kurdish nom-de-guerre "Çîya Demhat", is interviewed. As part of the video, Cafferkey discussed his motives for fighting:

I came here because I admire the struggle of the Kurdish people. I admire the People’s Protection Units and the way they go about their fight. There are many similarities between the Irish and the Kurdish struggles. I have long admired the Kurdish people for standing up for themselves and I hope to help them do that. That is why I came. I see many parallels between the Kurdish struggle and the struggle in Ireland. Both are small countries who have fought against powerful enemies, very powerful enemies. Kurdistan is divided amongst four states all of whom are powerful, all of whom have treated the Kurdish people abominably. Between the [People's Defense Units] and the IRA, there are also many parallels, they have carried out a struggle against powerful enemies, and that's one of the reason I admire them, and one of the reasons I came here. Solidarity Collectives, a Ukrainian left-wing anti-authoritarian network, reported that he was delivering humanitarian aid and cars for frontline zones from Poland to Ukraine.

Cafferkey's presence in Ukraine only became public knowledge following his death, when it was confirmed he had been killed fighting near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast. Some reports have indicated that Cafferkey died fighting alongside Russian anarchist Dmitry Petrov (a founder of the Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists) and US citizen Andrew "Harris" Cooper (a former US Marine and left-wing organiser), in a battle for a vital supply road near Bakhmut.

They were killed while fighting as part of the Bratstvo Battalion which is affiliated with the far-right political party Bratstvo. An associate who survived the battle told The Irish Times that this was a pragmatic arrangement for training purposes and not due to sympathy with the unit's political views.

In 2024 he was the subject of the documentary "Caillte san Úcráin", an episode of the TG4 documentary series Iniúchadh.

Statement by the Russian embassy in Dublin Following Martin's tribute to Cafferkey, the Embassy of Russia, Dublin issued the following statement:

There was widespread disgust at the Russian statement, with the chairman of the Dáil Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Charles Flanagan immediately describing it as "threatening, intimidating and chilling" before suggesting Russian diplomats in Ireland should be expelled for such remarks. Members of People Before Profit Bríd Smith and Paul Murphy, who had both met Cafferkey via the Shell to Sea campaign, also expressed revulsion at the Russian statement but called for Irish politicians not to be baited by Russian rhetoric.

In response to the Russian statement, Finbar's brother Colm issued a statement: