PRÉCIS OF CHARLES ‘NOMAD’ McGUINNESS –
THE TRUE STORY OF A SAILOR OF FORTUNE


An historically accurate account of one of the most amazing Irish adventurers of all time.

Written by John McGuffin & Joe Mulheron.

Illustrated, documented, and copiously footnoted.


THE CHAPTERS


  WHEREIN:    we relate how McGuinness was born in Derry City, N. Ireland in 1893 and how he ran away to sea at the age of 15, rounding Cape Horn on one of his first voyages. We recount his travels in Chile, New York, and Australia. He is shipwrecked off Tahiti (1910).
  WHEREIN:    the reader learns of the pearl fishing adventures and tropical experiences of the seventeen year old Irishman in the South Seas.
  WHEREIN:    more seafaring adventures in Australia take place and our hero takes part in riots and mutinies on various boats. A visit to Java & to Easter Island. Shipwrecked.
  WHEREIN:    we learn more about gold mining in Australia before World War I and of voyages of discovery in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, South and West Africa, Mexico, West Indies, Brazil, China, Japan & S. Africa.
  WHEREIN:    is divulged details of Nomad’s experiences hoboing in Canada, riding the rails in America and a brief stint in the Canadian militia before his return to Europe and his incarceration in a Venice dungeon.
  WHEREIN:    the native returns to Derry just in time to enlist in the British Navy at the commencement of World War I. His service in the Cameroon campaign in West Africa.
  WHEREIN:    Nomad learns of the 1916 Rising back in Ireland. Deserts the British army and joins the S. Africans. Upon being captured by the Germans in East Africa he escapes and then fights with the Germans against the British. The East African jungle campaign.
  WHEREIN:    our hero is the sole survivor of shipwreck of the SS. Vasco da Gama in shark infested waters of Indian Ocean.
  WHEREIN:    we learn how McGuinness captained a pirate junk in the China Seas, engaged in scandalous romances with oriental princesses and of his escape to Canada (1919).
  WHEREIN:    the reader learns of Nomad’s return to Ireland to do his patriotic duty. Of riots and raids and the execution of a police Sergeant. Of the Donegal Flying Column, jail rescues, jail breaks and Nomad's musings on the nature of guerrilla warfare along with his own escape from the death cell, as well as his part in IRA activities including a daring escape from Derry jail while working for Michael Collins.
  WHEREIN:    for the first time, the full story of the 1922 gunrunning ventures of the IRA from Germany to Ireland are detailed and shown to be the work of Nomad McGuinness.
  WHEREIN:    we learn what happened to the mysterious McGuinness after the Irish treaty. His arrest in Germany for aiding Bulgarian revolutionaries. His retirement to a monastery and his marriage to a Russian girl. How he was recruited to help Chiang Kai-Schek but instead became a building contractor and moved to New York.
  WHEREIN:    our hero craves adventure once more and becomes the first Irishman to visit the South Pole with Admiral Byrd to Antarctica (1928-1929). Documented with his own scrapbook and copious contemporary photographs.
  WHEREIN:    are revealed secrets from the rum runners of Rockaway Beach (New York). His two years as a bootlegger and rum-runner (1930-1931).
  WHEREIN:    our hero grows tired of peacetime America and travels to Russia to experience first hand the Stalinist regime. Three years in Russia (1933-36) where he is appointed harbour master of Murmansk and Leningrad.
  WHEREIN:    Nomad hears the call to battle once more and travels to join the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Scandalously he deserts to the fascists and makes his way back to Ireland where he writes a scurrilous series of pro Catholic church anti-socialist diatribes (1936-1939).
  WHEREIN:    light is shed on the German spies in Ireland during WWII – Herman Goertz and the Stephen Hayes affair as well as details of Nomad McGuinness’ dealings with the Nazis and his incarceration in Arbor Hill jail during most of World War II.
  WHEREIN:    we learn of Nomad’s mysterious death, allegedly in 1947 in a smuggling ship in the Irish Sea. Serious questions are raised about this improbable ‘shipwreck’ and speculation is raised as to what may really have happened to Nomad with additional details concerning his offspring and grandchildren.
  Afterword WHEREIN:    The author lays to rest some of the existing rumors about McGuinness, confirms others and provides yet more inside information about the infamous NOMAD.




‘Charles ‘Nomad’ McGuinness’ by John McGuffin & Joseph Mulheron
Irish Resistance Books, £9.99/ €15.50, ISBN 0-9539482-1-8




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