Mike Flanagan (Irish-Israeli soldier)
Mike Flanagan (Hebrew name Michael Peleg) was an Irish soldier who helped start the Israeli armed forces. He was born on 15 May 1926 in Foxford, County Mayo, Ireland. At 16 he joined the British Army and fought in World War II, including the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. After the war he served in Berlin, India, and Syria before moving to Mandatory Palestine.
In 1948, Flanagan and Scottish tank commander Harry McDonald met a Haganah agent in Haifa and agreed to help Israel. They stole two Cromwell tanks and drove them to Tel Aviv. The tanks became a key part of the Israeli Armored Corps. Flanagan fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was wounded in Operation Yoav.
He settled in Israel, converted to Judaism, and took the Hebrew name Michael Peleg. He married Ruth Levy, a fellow soldier; they had two children, Dani and Karin. He worked as a mechanic and later on kibbutz Sha’ar HaAmakim, and served as a reservist in the Sinai Campaign (1956), the Six-Day War (1967), and the Yom Kippur War (1973), supervising the tank repair unit at Julis.
Flanagan studied agronomy at the Hebrew University in Rehovot and worked as an agricultural emissary in Africa. After retiring from the IDF and the death of his wife, he visited Ireland and Canada, where he married Shirley Swartz, the widow of a Canadian volunteer in the Israeli army. He lived in Canada for the rest of his life and died on 26 January 2014 in Toronto. He is buried at Sha’ar HaAmakim cemetery beside his wife and son.
Flanagan received recognition for helping Israel’s military, including a posthumous Medal of Valor from the Wiesenthal Center, and the IDF honored him for his important role in its formation.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 13:58 (CET).