Charles McGuinness

Charles John "Nomad" McGuinness was born 6 March 1893. He was raised in Lower Road, Derry, Ireland. His mother, Margaret Hernan was of Irish descent from Donegal, and his father, John McGuinness, was a ship captain born in the United States. Margaret died when Charles was young. Charles had two brothers, Hugh and John McGuinness. Hugh was a headmaster of St. Eugene's in Rosemount, Derry, and John was a teacher as well. In 1908, at the age of 15, McGuinness went to sea on the schooner Vixen, the start of a trip which would take him away from home for several years. His first world trip was in 1909 on the ship Cedarbark. It went from Wales to Iquique in Chile and then on to New York. In 1910, he arrived in Sydney on The Pilgrim. The Pilgrim ended up shipwrecked off of the coast of Tahiti in 1910 and McGuinness was left stranded on a lifeboat for two weeks until rescued. He subsequently remained in the Tahiti region for a year, working as a pearl fisher. McGuinness would claim later in life that between 1913 and 1914, he visited the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, South and West Africa, Mexico, West Indies, Brazil, China, Japan & S. Africa before attempting to start gold mining in Australia. None of this can be verified. However, by 1914 McGuinness does seem to have made his way to Canada, where he was a beggar until joining the Canadian militia. ==Military career==

World War I McGuinness' time in the Canadian militia was brief. By August 1914 he had joined the Royal Navy where he served as part of Admiral Reginald Bacon's Dover patrol off the coast of Cameroon. However, McGuinness deserted in 1916 upon learning of the Easter Rising. Unable to find a way back to Ireland, McGuinness joined the South African Army and fought in the East African campaign. In 1916 McGuinness was captured by the German Schutztruppe of Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, but was later able to escape them. Irish War of Independence McGuinness finally returned to Derry in 1920, and upon arrival threw himself into the ongoing War of Irish Independence. Although McGuinness was viewed as an eccentric, having brought a monkey back from Africa to Derry, Following a failed bank raid in the Glenties in County Donegal, McGuinness was captured by British forces in June 1921 and charged with the murder of Inspector Robert Johnson in Glasgow, Scotland which had occurred the previous month. However, McGuinness was able to escape from Ebrington Barracks before any serious case could be brought against him. His guards thought he was too weak to escape so they paid little attention to him. A local Derry priest, Friar Coyles, claimed that McGuinness escaped by being smuggled out in a coffin After passing sentence, the German judge wished McGuinness, "better luck next time". The incident caused an uproar back in the United Kingdom. In July 1921, McGuinness was again sent to Weimar Germany by Liam Mellows to purchase more weapons. Gun-running with Frieda In November 1921, McGuinness jokingly claimed to have established the first-ever "Irish navy" after he successfully purchased a tugboat named "Frieda" in Hamburg, Germany with funds supplied by Robert Briscoe, Using the experience of the Frieda and Waterford as a template, or 1500 rifles, 2000 pistols and 1.7 million rounds of ammunition. Unfortunately for the Anti-Treaty forces, they were never able to make use of the shipment, as just one month after the landing Anti-Treaty IRA Chief of Staff issued a ceasefire order, bringing an end to the Civil War. The arms brought abroad by the Hanna would be seized by the National Army. ==1920s==

Following the end of the Irish revolutionary period, McGuinness did not end his restless ways. In 1922 he claimed to have been arrested in Berlin for conspiring with Bulgarian revolutionaries and released on the condition that he leave Germany. ==1930s==

Rum-runner In the midst of the now ongoing Great Depression as well Prohibition in the United States, McGuinness turned back to the life of smuggling cargo between countries, when in 1930 he began smuggling rum from Canada into the United States. However, his fortunes were quickly dashed when his ship and its cargo were impounded in the summer of 1931. Working in Soviet Russia For two years in 1932, McGuinness claimed to have gone to Soviet Russia to experience a communist-run country, where he worked as a harbour master in the port city of Murmansk. Spanish Civil War In late 1936, McGuinness arrived in Spain to fight in the International Brigades on behalf of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. However, his time spent fighting seems to have been brief and he soon deserted following disagreements with the authorities. Upon his return to Ireland in 1937, McGuinness wrote a series of articles for the Irish Independent entitled "I fought with the Reds". ==1940s==

Collaborating with Germany By 1942, McGuinness had converted his considerable maritime experience into becoming a chief petty officer with the Irish Naval Service at their base in Haulbowline, County Cork. It was that same year that McGuinness sent offers by phone and by letter to the German Foreign Office legation in Dublin, offering to give them information about Irish shipping. McGuinness was caught by Irish Directorate of Military Intelligence under Colonel Dan Bryan. At his court-martial, McGuinness was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to seven years in prison. However, he was released towards the end of "The Emergency", in 1945. ==Death (?)==

McGuinness is believed to have died on 4 December 1947 when he drowned alongside four other crew members of the schooner Isaalt that he was piloting off on Ballymoney Strand near Gorey in County Wexford. Two members of the crew survived, managing to swim ashore; the ship was a mere 100 metres from land. However, members of McGuinness' family expressed doubt over the years. A nephew claimed to have encountered McGuinness on the London Underground in 1955. Upon their glazes meeting, McGuinness is reported to have smiled and said four simple words: "You never saw me". ==Literary works==

Sailor of Fortune (Nomad) McGuinness' first book was published as "Sailor of Fortune" in the United States and published as "Nomad" in the United Kingdom. This eighteen chapter book, published in 1935 is an autobiography of McGuinness' and his travels. The memoir details his life in the army as well as his various adventures which include shipwrecks and imprisonment. McGuinness' publisher, Methuen Publishing, was sued by John William Nixon on account of the book. In Sailor of Fortune/Nomad, McGuinness makes reference to a thinly disguised Nixon and implies that Nixon was the former RUC detective inspector who, in 1922, led a gang in Belfast who carried out the McMahon killings. Irish Independent Spanish Civil War feature articles McGuinness wrote a six-piece article featured in the Irish Independent Newspaper in 1937. The introduction titled, "True Story That Will Thrill You," depicts McGuinness's account of his adventures at the time of the Spanish Civil War. The first piece, entitled "Adventures in War-Torn Spain," continues his account of this period. The second piece is entitled "Foul War on Religion." The third piece is called "Massacre in A Cemetery." The fourth piece is called "Under Fire by the Enemy." The fifth piece is called "Among those about to Die." These featured articles depict Charles "Nomad" McGuinness's adventures at the time of the Spanish Civil War. His articles mainly focus on the destruction, death, and corruption related to the war in Spain. ==Personal life==

McGuinness had three wives in his lifetime. His first wife, Klara Zuckerkandel (referred to as "Claire" in Ireland) was German, whom he married in Vienna then moved to New York where they had their son, Patrick Joseph. Little is known about his second wife, other than her burial in the City cemetery. His third wife was buried in Donegal. Tattoos As a sailor for much of his life, McGuinness engaged in the maritime culture of tattooing his body. According to Robert Briscoe, "from the soles of his feet to his neck, he was a picture gallery, with everything from mermaids to alligators". In addition to statements that almost his entire body was tattooed, a number of sources allege that McGuinness had the Union Jack tattooed to the soles of his feet so that he would forever be 'trampling on "the butcher's apron'". ==References==