Bill and myself contacted Washington, where we got in touch with a Mr. Dingle who was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He recommended that a Mr. Tom Chawke of Detroit should handle the matter. Next, Bill telephoned Mr. Chawke, asked him to arrange for the defence of Sean Russell, and to get in touch with Joe McGarrity adding what Joe had told me, namely, "to spare no expense" to have Russell released. (Bill, Jim McGranery, and I all felt that Joe was actually behind this entire arrest incident. Joe knew the tremendous value of publicity and welcomed it at any time as long as it might help the cause.) Jim, Bill, and myself working closely together, did everything possible to gain Russell's release and soon succeeded. Later, Bill and I had to laugh when on meeting Joe McGarrity he remarked "the publicity we gained was worth One Hundred Thousand Dollars!'' (So, our suspicion that Joe had a finger in the pie was correct.) Jim McGranery was paid a very decent fee for his outstanding work. It must be mentioned too that Congressman Martin Sweeney of Cleveland played a significant part in the affair when, together with Jim McGranery he demanded to see President Roosevelt to protest against the presence of [157] Scotland Yard men in Detroit. On behalf of the Clan na Gael, Jim Brislane, H. McCarney, and M. McGinn offered congratulations to Bill Carroll, Jim McGranery, and myself. It was on Joe McGarrity's instructions that Jim McGranery was asked to handle the matter of the Russell Bond, because Bond money had to be given to Mr. Chawke. I was present when Joe handed Jim McGranery the sum of Four Thousand Dollars all in bills of One Hundred Dollars. Jim, very carefully had the bills checked with all the serials listed and then put away in a safe. (Note: This fact came up later as a very important defence item in the evidence of the Clan members when in Court.) Joe had delegated me to assemble the money for him, incidentally. a practice he followed in all financial matters. October 1939 - Joe McGarrity's return from Ireland. The War had started when Joe McGarrity returned to America late October, 1939. He was accompanied by four of his daughters, Deirdre, Rosemary, Betty, and Ann. Disembarking, very hurriedly, from the ship he travelled right on to his home in Philadelphia. His four daughters missed him and went to the Governor Audon(?) Hotel, New York. There I found them and arranged overnight accommodation in the hotel. Phoning Joe at his home in Philadelphia right afterwards, he was greatly relieved as he had been unaware that the girls had become separated from him at train departure time. The next day I took the girls to Philadelphia only to find Joe terribly disturbed and nervous, not at all his usual, easy-going self. He then told me that he was blamed in Ireland for the IRA activities in England and that by doing so "he had jeopardised the employment of many thousands who were working for British firms in Dublin." He also mentioned of having been substantially penalised financially, and he felt inclined to blame mainly two men whom he had always befriended and often helped; one of them right after 1916 and the other one in the early and mid thirties. He said he had been victimised by [158] these people through statements they made about his business and that he had been given no opportunity to reply to their charges, or to defend himself. Before that. and to my knowledge, Joe had never spoken bitterly of any person but on that occasion he was very bitter and deeply offended. He also brought up and reminded me of the fact that Bill Carroll had secured a job for the brother-in-law of one of those involved and that Bill, I, and he, Joe had given a loan of $1,200 each (totalling $3,600) so that the sister and her husband could buy a house but that this sum had never been repaid (which was true). After several days, as I watched and talked with Joe for hours each day, I met Bill Carroll and remarked to him that Joe was really terribly agitated more than I had seen him at any time during all the many years I had known him. Bill immediately agreed, he too had noticed it. --- Joe also spoke to me about his contacts in Germany and in Ireland, and sadly told me of the great differences of opinion existing in Ireland in the IRA as also in the Clan na Gael in America. What seemed to hurt him most was the bitterness some of the IRA comrades held against him. I did not know then that some of the very people whom Joe had befriended so loyally, people we had actually put on their feet, be it by securing jobs, helping financially, etc., had bitterly criticised Joe at a meeting of the Clan na Gael in New York. This bitterness was obviously caused by the friction existing at that time between Sean Russell, Jim Brislane and Sean Hayes (the latter had been Secretary of the Clan, but was superseded by Jim Brislane as will be remembered). Joe spoke of Sean Russell mixing with people in the U.S. who had never shown the slightest interest in Irish Republicanism; that the Clan was just a
73
Powered by FlippingBook