About Juan Creaghe
Lived 1841 – 1920 (aged 78–79). Juan Creaghe was an Argentine and Irish surgeon.
John O’Dwyer Creaghe (1841 – 19 February 1920), also known as Juan Creaghe, was an Irish-born anarchist.
Background Creaghe was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1841, and in 1865 he graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, becoming a doctor. He opened up a practice in Mitchelstown in County Cork. In 1874, he emigrated to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
In England In 1890, he moved to Sheffield, England, working in a poor working class district with many Irish immigrants. He became involved in the Socialist League, a Marxist group led by William Morris, but he soon broke away to form an anarchist group in Sheffield. On the group's first public appearance, it sported a banner reading "No God, No Master" at the May Day demonstration. The group soon also founded a club and a newspaper, the Sheffield Anarchist, which did not survive for long as it became caught up in the Walsall Anarchists' trial.
In 1891 Creaghe wrote "give me Anarchists willing to die NOW if necessary for Anarchy, and if you can find me 15 or 20 to join me I promise you we will make an oppression of the enemy"
Return to the Americas In 1892, he left Sheffield to go back to Argentina via Liverpool, London, and Spain. There he founded the newspaper El Oprimido, forerunner of , which exists to this day. He was involved in the founding of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation, an anarchist trade union. He also contributed to the Ferrer free school movement inspired by the ideas of the Spanish anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer, and director of the Rationalist School in Luján, Buenos Aires. In 1911, Creaghe left Argentina once again, eventually arriving in Los Angeles, where he collaborated with Mexican anarchists. He founded another newspaper, La Regeneración, and was friends with Ricardo Flores Magón. Both were involved in the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in Baja California; after the start of the Mexican Revolution, they supported the country's anarchist movement. Creaghe died on 19 February 1920, in a prison in Washington, DC.
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Important facts
People in Juan Creaghe's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Juan Creaghe's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Juan Creaghe?
Irish revolutionary
When was Juan Creaghe born?
Juan Creaghe was born in 1841 in Limerick.
When did Juan Creaghe die?
Juan Creaghe died on 19 February 1920 in Washington, D.C..
What was Juan Creaghe's occupation?
Juan Creaghe was a surgeon.
What nationality was Juan Creaghe?
Juan Creaghe was Argentine and Irish.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Juan Creaghe. https://biography.guide/juan-creaghe/
MLA: "Juan Creaghe." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/juan-creaghe/.
Chicago: "Juan Creaghe." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/juan-creaghe/.
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