Pearse Kelly remembered him as being “a solid indestructible man who seemed to have a rock-like tenacity.” [2] He joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1934 Greencastle parish, County Tyrone before emigrating to London.

While still in Ireland McNamee took long journeys by bicycle on the narrow mountainous roads of Tyrone and Donegal, resulting in a mass of recruits for the IRA.

During this time period he, along with other IRA members based in England, were given a brief introduction into how to create explosives by Seamus O'Donovan and Patrick McGrath (Irish Republican).

[5] McNamee was recalled to Ireland in April 1939 and on 11 June 1939 he was arrested and charged with being a member of the IRA and sentenced to six months in Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast.

He moved first to Philadelphia before settling in the Chicago area, where he is supposed to have acted as the go-between for the IRA leadership and its weapons suppliers in the U.S.[13] McNamee never married, even after he had established himself in the United States.

[2] McNamee's dedication to the Irish Republican cause was remembered: "He surrounded himself not with children and toys but with fellow Irishmen and women whose devotion to Ireland’s full freedom equalled his own.