Joseph McGarrity

Joseph McGarrity (28 March 1874 – 4 September 1940) was an Irish-American political activist best known for his leadership in Clan na Gael in America and his support of Irish Republicanism back in Ireland.

Early years McGarrity was born in the townland of Creggandevesky, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1874, the son of farmers John McGarrity and the former Catherine Bigley. His family grew up in poverty, motivating his need to immigrate later in life. He grew hearing his father discussing Irish politics, including topics such as the Fenians, the Irish Parliamentary Party, and Irish Home Rule. By the time he was an adult, he had developed a keen interest in politics himself.

He immigrated to the United States in 1892 at the age of 18. He is reputed to have walked to Dublin before boarding a cattle boat to Liverpool disguised as a drover, and then sailing to America using a ticket belonging to someone else. He settled in 4900 Wynfield Ave West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and became successful in the liquor business; however, his business failed on three occasions, twice due to embezzlement by his business partner.

Entry into Politics and Irish Republicanism In 1893 he joined Clan na Gael, an Irish organisation based in America committed to aiding the establishment of an independent Irish state. Clan na Gael had been heavily involved with the Fenian Brotherhood that McGarrity had grown up hearing about, and by the latter half of the 19th century had become a sister organisation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In the decade just before McGarrity joined, Clan na Gael and the Fenian movement had waged the Fenian dynamite campaign, where they attempted to force the British state to make concessions on Ireland by bombing British Infrastructure. However, this had caused a split within Clan na Gael that was not mended until seven years after McGarrity joined when in 1900 the factions reunited and pleaded to support "the complete independence of the Irish people, and the establishment of an Irish republic.". In the years that followed the 1880s and 1890s, McGarrity is, amongst others, credited with helping to stitch the organisation back together and bring it renewed strength. In July 1914 McGarrity became Chairman of the American Volunteer Fund. That summer military training camps were set up in many parts of Ireland financed by the Volunteer Fund.

McGarrity helped sponsor several Irish Race Conventions and founded and ran a newspaper called The Irish Press from 1918–22 that supported the War of Independence in Ireland. He was the founder of the Philadelphia chapter of Clan Na Gael.

During the First World War, while the US was still neutral, McGarrity was involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy; he arranged the Annie Larsen arms purchase and shipment from New York to San Diego for India.

When Éamon de Valera arrived in the US in 1919 they struck up an immediate rapport and McGarrity managed de Valera's tour of the US. He persuaded de Valera of the benefits of supporting him and the Philadelphia branch against the New York branch of the Friends of Irish Freedom organisation led by John Devoy and Judge Daniel F. Cohalan. He became president of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. He christened his newborn son Éamon de Valera McGarrity, although their relationship became strained upon De Valera's entry back into Dáil Éireann in the Irish Free State.

With the scope of Clan na Gael now narrowed, and Devoy and Cohalan removed from the picture, McGarrity became chairman of the organisation. He did not support the founding of Fianna Fáil in 1926 and opposed the party's entry into the Dáil in 1927. Even after the Irish Civil war, McGarrity still supported the idea that a 32 county Irish Republic could be achieved through force. in the spring of 1926, he received IRA Chief of Staff Andy Cooney to America. Cooney and Clan na Gael formally agreed that each organisation would support each other and that Clan na Gael would raise funds, purchase weapons and build support for the IRA in America.

Despite the trying times of both Clan na Gael and his personal life, McGarrity held fast in his belief in physical force Irish Republicanism. In 1939 supported the demand from Seán Russell for the "S-Plan" bombing campaign in Britain, which proved disastrous.

He was a lifelong friend of fellow Carrickmore native and avid Republican, Patrick McCartan. When he died in 1940 a mass was held in the St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. McGarrity remained an unrepentant physical force republican all his life.

A number of his papers are in the National Library of Ireland. He donated his personal Library to Villanova University.

The IRA signed all its statements 'J.J. McGarrity' up until 1969 when the organisation split into the 'Official' and 'Provisional' movements. Thereafter the term continued to be used by the Officials while the Provisionals adopted the moniker 'P. O'Neill'