Harrison, George, 1915-2004.

George Harrison (1915-2004) was a socialist and revolutionary Irish republican who spent his life supporting the causes of oppressed peoples around the globe. George Harrison was born in Shammer, Kilkelly, County Mayo, Ireland on May 2, 1915. As a youth he served with the East Mayo Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War. He immigrated to the United States in 1938 and served in the Pacific as an infantryman with the U.S. Army during the Second World War. In 1948, Harrison ...

George Harrison (1915-2004) was a socialist and revolutionary Irish Republican who spent his life supporting the causes of oppressed peoples. Harrison was born in Shammer, Kilkelly, County Mayo, Ireland on May 2, 1915. As a youth he served in the East Mayo Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War (1922-1923). He immigrated to the United States in 1938 and served as an infantryman in the United States Army in the Pacific Theater of World War II. In 1948 Harrison began working as an armored car guard with Brinks, Inc. but was suspended in 1981 because of criminal charges filed against him.

Harrison was arrested on June 23, 1981 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for violations of federal firearms laws. He, along with four others, was charged with running guns to the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the high-profile U.S. vs. Harrison, Falvey, Mullen, Gormley, and Flannery case argued in the Eastern District of New York Federal Court. Frank Durkan, also from County Mayo and a nephew of New York City lawyer and politician Paul O’Dwyer, represented Harrison, acknowledging that Harrison had shipped guns to Republicans in Ireland but arguing that American’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was complicit in the act. He was acquitted in 1982 and subsequently reinstated by Brinks with back pay in accordance with the order of a federal labor arbitrator (see folder Local 807 IBT vs. Brinks ).

He retired from the company in the mid-1980s, but remained active in political causes, including opposition to racism and apartheid, as well as providing aid to Palestinians, Chileans, and other victims of poverty or injustices. Through his life, Harrison was active in many charitable endeavors, like providing funds to build a new parish church in his native town during the 1950s. He supported Irish American organizations that advocated the union of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, and came to the aid of Irish Republican prisoners held in the United States, Ireland, or Great Britain. He supported socialist political causes, but was also active in the New York City mayoral campaign of David Dinkins and the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton.

George Harrison died at his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn on October 6, 2004.