Dr. John O’Dwyer Creaghe (1841 – February 19, 1920), also known as Juan Creaghe, was an Irish-born anarchist revolutionary.

Creaghe was born in Limerick

Limerick

Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

, Ireland in 1841, and in 1865 he graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...

 in Dublin, becoming a doctor. He opened up a practice in Mitchelstown

Mitchelstown

Mitchelstown is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3300. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains close to the Mitchelstown Caves and is 28 km from Cahir, 50 km from Cork and 59 km from Limerick...

, in the County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

. In 1874, he emigrated to the capital of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. It is not known how Creaghe came in contact with anarchist ideas, since the country's anarchist movement was small at the time, but he quickly became a follower of this idea. In 1890, he moved to Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, working in a poor working class district with many Irish immigrants. He became involved in the Socialist League

Socialist League (UK, 1885)

The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from...

, a Marxist group led by William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

, but he soon broke away to form an anarchist group in Sheffield. On the group's first public appearance, it sported a banner reading "No God, No Master" at the May Day

May Day

May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....

 demonstration. The group soon also founded a club and a newspaper, the Sheffield Anarchist, which did not survive for long as it became caught up in the Walsall Anarchists

Walsall Anarchists

The Walsall Anarchists were a group of anarchists arrested on explosive charges in Walsall in 1892.Although the British Home Office and the Metropolitan Police attempted to conceal the evidence for over 80 years, recent research into police files has revealed that the bombings were instigated by...

' trial. In 1892, he left Sheffield to go back to Argentina via Liverpool, London, and Spain. There he founded the newspaper El Oprimido, forerunner of La Protesta, which exists to this day. He was involved in the founding of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation

Argentine Regional Workers' Federation

The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation , founded in 1901, was Argentina's first national labor confederation...

, an anarchist trade union. He also contributed to the Free school

Free school

An anarchistic free school is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling. Free school students may be adults, children, or both...

 movement inspired by the ideas of the Spanish anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer. In 1911, Creaghe left Argentina once again, eventually arriving in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, where he collaborated with Mexican anarchists. He founded another newspaper, La Regeneración, and was friends with Ricardo Flores Magón

Ricardo Flores Magón

Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....

. In 1910, both were involved in the Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

 revolt; after the start of the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

, they supported the country's anarchist movement

Anarchism in Mexico

-Historical:Pre-conquest, some of the indigenous peoples of what is today Mexico had decisionmaking structures based on participation, discussion, and consensus, hallmarks of modern anarchism...

. Creaghe died on February 19, 1920 in a prison in Washington, DC.