Charles Mc Guinness - Military Career

Military Career

The first known origins of McGuinness' military career came when he fought for the English in Africa. He was initially in the Cameroon region, but deserted in 1916 when he heard about the rebellion for independence taking place in Ireland.

He then joined the Afrikaners against the British. It was shortly after this that he is rumored to have been captured by the Germans. He convinced them that he was on their side and fought with them for a time in their East African Campaign.

McGuinness claims in his autobiography to have been the sole survivor of a ship-wreck in Delagoa Bay near Mozambique in November 1917. As the story goes, he was aboard the S.S. Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese steamer, when the ship wrecked and sank at the mouth of shark infested waters.

McGuinness finally returned to Derry in 1920. He became involved in defending the Catholics during the Derry Riots. He was made the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) Northern Capacity. He assisted in the escape of Frank Carty, the leader of the IRA, from Derry Gaol in February 1921.

Four months later, he was captured and wounded in Belfast. He was imprisoned in the Ebrington Military Barracks in Derry. His guards thought he was too weak to escape so they paid little attention to him. Friar Coyles maintains that McGuinness escaped by being smuggled out in a coffin, which is likely a fabricated story.

After his trips to Antarctica, Russia and a brief stint in China, McGuinness was back in the military for the last time. He traveled to Spain to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. More information about his experiences in Spain, can be found from the series of articles he wrote for the Irish Independent Newspaper.