The Yank

My Life as a Former US Marine in the IRA

By: John Crawley

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Paperback | 6 September 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
15.3 x 23.4 x 2.4

Paperback

$46.75

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April 1975. A young Irish-American from Long Island, NY, is on a mission to enlist in an elite unit of the US Marine Corps. His goal: to receive the most intensive and rigorous military training possible, and then move to Ireland to join the IRA and fight to end British occupation of the six counties of Northern Ireland.

In this powerful and brutally honest memoir of his extraordinary experience, John Crawley details the gruelling challenges of his Marine Corp boot camp; then not long after joining the IRA Crawley is sent to Boston to work with notorious American mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger to amass an illegal shipment of weapons for the IRA; then captured on the 'Marita Ann' gun running trawler off the Kerry coast, imprisoned, and upon release became one of the masterminds behind a campaign to knock out London's electrical system.

Crawley is blisteringly candid about the people he worked with, including fascinating portrayals of IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger. Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political, and through it all comes the steadfast voice of a man on a mission, providing an evocative and passionate account where that mission led him and why. To this day, he remains committed to the establishment of all-Ireland Republic.

Industry Reviews

'I read The Yank in one sitting . . . Crawley draws you in from the first line to the last and he doesn't go . . . he writes with a candour and clarity that is both absorbing and direct. This is a seminal book that should be read by everyone with an interest in Irish affairs'

* Richard O'Rawe *

'The Yank is the electrifying memoir and definitive account of guerrilla days in modern Ireland, by a man who refused to shy away from duty and love for this country. Powerfully written and relentlessly nerve-shredding, it's a modern-day masterpiece unlike any other book ever written about the war in the North of Ireland.'

* Sam Millar, bestselling author of On The Brinks *

'The Yank is an extraordinary piece of work. No sentiment or self-pity; hardboiled and disarmingly direct. A compelling read.'

* - Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy *

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