AN Irish-American author and former US marine jailed for IRA gun-running in the 1980s will be the guest speaker at this year’s Kilmichael ambush commemoration.
The annual commemoration will be held at the monument on Sunday November 24th at 1.30pm. The Kilmichael engagement between the West Cork IRA ‘flying column’ and British forces occurred on November 28th, 1920 was viewed as a turning point in the war for independence and a forerunner to other notable victories by the IRA column at Crossbarry and Rosscarbery.
The guest speaker this year is John Crawley, a former IRA volunteer. John was born in the USA to Irish parents and joined the US marines. In 1980, he came to Ireland and joined the IRA. He was involved in a shipment of arms from the US in 1984 and was captured off the Kerry coast on the boat Marita Ann with later Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris and other IRA volunteers. He served 10 years in Portlaoise prison. Following his release he continued his IRA role and was captured with an IRA unit in England planning a bombing campaign in 1997. He served a number of years in prison again and was released early following the Good Friday agreement.
In recent years John Crawley wrote a book on his involvement in the Northern conflict called The Yank.
At Castletown Kenneigh, earlier on November 24th, there will be a mass in Irish at 10am followed by a ceremony at the adjacent graveyard where the three volunteers – Mícheál MacCharthaigh, Seamas Ó Suilleabháin, and Padraig Ó Déisigh – are laid to rest, as well as Diarmuid Ó Mathúna, who was killed a few months after the Kilmichael ambush.
Following the main commemoration there will be dinner and traditional music in Creedons Hotel in Inchigeela at 3.30pm.
