Foreign Agent: The IRA’s American connection

By the 1990s, a faction of Irish republicans were turning away from militancy and setting their sights on peace. A political future for the campaign would require more money, more lobbying, and even deeper engagement with the United States – though not with Irish Northern Aid, now tainted by its long association with the IRA. Instead, Noraid was wound down, causing splits and divisions that linger to this day.

Yet the IRA’s American support group has had a strange afterlife, as Nate Lavey investigates in the final episode of Foreign Agent. With the Good Friday Agreement in the rear view mirror, did Noraid help the IRA on one last job?

The interview with Michael Flannery is part of the NYU Oral History Archive of Irish America. The interview with Brendan Hughes is from the film Voices from the Grave and is courtesy of Ed Moloney, and the interview with George Harrison was recorded by Matthew Siegfried in 2004.

Thanks to: Dov Weinryb Grosghal, Arielle Angel, Wilson Sherwin, Josh Nathan-Kazis, Sam McBride, Zach Vary, Donal Foreman, Colin Archdeacon, Chelsea Converse, Claire Devoogd, Corey Eastwood, Michael Casper, Steven Methven, Peter Smith, and Jess MilNeil

Hosted by Nate Lavey

Produced by Nate Lavey and Michael McCanne

Original music by Matt Huxley

https://novara.media/ForeignAgent

*Corrected file* Noraid has been portrayed on screen many times, usually in the background of stories about terrorism and gunrunning. While TV shows and movies like Columbo, Patriot Games and The Devil’s Own aren’t exactly high art, they do reveal how the class politics of Irish America were understood (and misrepresented) by Hollywood. In this bonus episode, Nate Lavey takes a look at on-screen IRA gunrunners and their federal agency enemies, as portrayed by the likes of Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Sean Bean.

Columbo was produced by Universal Television for NBC. Patriot Games was directed by Phillip Noyce and produced by Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme. The Devil’s Own was directed by Alan Pakula and produced by Lawrence Gordon and Robert Colesberry. Black Mass was directed by Scott Cooper and produced by John Lesher and Brian Oliver.

Hosted by Nate Lavey

Produced by Nate Lavey and Michael McCanne

Original music by Matt Huxley

https://novara.media/ForeignAgent

As the Troubles dragged on, IRA volunteers at the Maze Prison decided to go on hunger strike in 1980 and 1981. Their decision would change everything for the IRA — and for Noraid. The protest garnered sympathy from around the world and sparked outrage in the Irish American community. Noraid rallied outside the British embassy, burned Margaret Thatcher in effigy, and made new in-roads with the American media.

After a decade of losing momentum, they were back on the streets and squaring off against the American, British and Irish governments. But a split was emerging between the armed campaign and the political wing of the movement. Should the future be decided by Armalite or the ballot box?

Further reading:

Irish America and the Ulster Conflict by Andrew Wilson

Noraid and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1970-1994 by Robert Collins

“A Battalion of Spies” by Ed Moloney on thebrokenelbow.com

“‘It was networking, all networking’: the Irish republican movement’s survival in Cold War America” by Danielle Zach

The interview with Michael Flannery is courtesy of the Tamiment Library at New York University.

Hosted by Nate Lavey

Produced by Nate Lavey and Michael McCanne

Original music by Matt Huxley

https://novara.media/ForeignAgent

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.

For over 100 years, Irish revolutionaries hoping to drive the British out of Ireland looked to the United States for money and support. They also looked across the Atlantic for new technology that might give them an advantage, including homemade surface-to-air missiles and even the world’s first modern submarine. In this bonus episode, we explore two cases — a century apart — which show just how far Irish republicans would go to take the war into the air and below the waves.

Further reading:

IRA, the Bombs & the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity by A.R. Oppenheimer

Hosted by Nate Lavey

Produced by Nate Lavey and Michael McCanne

Original music by Matt Huxley

https://novara.media/ForeignAgent