Birth of Martin Galvin, Publisher & Activist
January 8, 2019 by Jim Doyle	Leave a comment
Martin J. Galvin, Irish American lawyer, publisher and activist, and former director of NORAID, is born on January 8, 1950 supposedly in Long Island, New York, although he may have been born in the Republic of Ireland as he once, during an interview with 60 Minutes, refers to the "partition of the country of my birth."
Galvin is the son of a fireman. He attends Catholic schools, Fordham University and Fordham University School of Law. He previously works as a hearing officer for the New York City Department of Sanitation.
Galvin serves as the publicity director for the New York-based NORAID, an Irish American group fundraising organization which raises money for the families of Irish republican prisoners, but is also accused by the American, British, and Irish governments to be a front for the supply of weapons to the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Galvin becomes a publisher of The Irish People in the 1980s. He is banned from Northern Ireland because of a speech he gives that seems to endorse terrorism. In August 1984 he defies the ban and enters Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland. The following year he returns to Northern Ireland to attend a funeral for an IRA member killed when a makeshift grenade launcher he is trying to fire at a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks explodes. In 1989 Galvin is arrested and deported for violating the exclusion ban yet again.
Galvin has criticised the Northern Ireland peace process as a betrayal of republican ideals, and characterizes the IRA's decision to open up its arms dumps to Independent International Commission on Decommissioning inspectors as a surrender.
On May 28, 2016, Galvin attends a commemoration for PIRA volunteer George McBrearty in Creggan, Derry.
Categories: Irish American, Irish History, Irish Republican Army, Northern Ireland | Tags: 60 Minutes, Creggan, Derry, Fordham University, Fordham University School of Law, Grenade Launcher, Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, Irish American, Irish Republicanism, Long Island, Martin J. Galvin, New York, New York City Department of Sanitation, NORAID, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Peace Process, Provisional Irish Republican Army, Republic of Ireland, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Terrorism, The Irish People | Permalink.