Career
Born in Shammer, Kilkelly, County Mayo, in western Ireland, Harrison emigrated to the United States to facilitate arms transfers to the Provisional Ireland Republican Army in Northern Ireland. He, Tom Falvey, Michael Flannery, Pat Mullin, and Danny Gormley comprised the North American branch of an arms-running network that is estimated to have provided more than 2,500 weapons and perhaps a million rounds of ammunition to the Ireland Republican Army. In 1981, the gun-runners were arrested in an Federal Bureau of Investigation sting code-named "Operation Bushmill". All five were acquitted in a criminal trial held in New York City, which lasted from December 1980 to June 1981.
Their acquittal was widely attributed to the unconventional efforts of Harrison"s personal attorney, Frank Durkan.
The men admitted to their activities, but claimed that they believed the operations had Central Intelligence Agency sanction. Although he had spent much of the previous decade involved in this operation, his acquittal marked the end of his active career as an Ireland Republican Army gun-runner.
Harrison broke with the Provisional Republican Movement in 1986 when Provisional Sinn Féin dropped the traditional Republican stance of not taking their seats in the Irish parliament. He was a patron of Republican Sinn Féin until he died.
He also took a number of controversial stances within the broader Irish-American community within New York City, including outspoken support for former Mayor David Dinkins and open defiance of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
He died in 2004 from natural causes at his home in Brooklyn, New New York
