Ambush at Central Park
When the IRA Came to New York
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A compelling, action-packed account of the only officially sanctioned I.R.A attack ever conducted on American soil.
In 1922, three of the Irish Republican Army’s top gunmen arrived in New York City seeking vengeance. Their target: “Cruxy” O’Connor, a young Irishman who kept switching sides as revolution swept his country in the wake of World War I. Cruxy’s last betrayal dealt a stunning blow to Ireland’s struggle for independence: Six of his IRA comrades were killed when he told police the location of their safe house outside Cork. A year later, the IRA gunned him down in a hail of bullets before a crowd of horrified New Yorkers at the corner of 84th Street and Central Park West.
Based primarily on first-hand accounts, most of them never before published, Ambush at Central Park is a cinematic exploration of the enigma of “Cruxy” O’Connor: Was he really a decorated war hero who became a spy for Britain? When he defected to the IRA, did his machine gun really jam in a crucial attack? When captured, did he give up his IRA comrades only under torture? Was he a British spy all along? Or was he pursuing a decades-old blood feud between his family and that of one of his comrades?
A longtime editor at The New York Times, author Mark Bulik delved through Irish government archives, newspaper accounts, census data, and unpublished material from the families of the main actors. Together they add to the sensational story of a rebel ambush, a deadly police raid, a dinner laced with poison, a daring prison break, a boatload of tommy guns on the Hoboken waterfront, an unlikely pair of spies who fall in love, and an audacious assassination plot against the British cabinet.
Gravely wounded and near death, Cruxy refused to cooperate with the detectives investigating the case. And so, the spy who stopped spying and the gunman who stopped shooting became the informer who wouldn’t inform, even at death’s door. Here is a forgotten chapter of Irish and New York history: the story of the only officially authorized IRA attack on American soil.
[A] harrowing account of how the IRA came to NYC to get vengeance on a traitor.---New York Daily News
A pacy, readable, historical thriller, extensively based on archival research. It brings to life the struggle for independence in Cork, the realities of the I.R.A. and British espionage war in the city and county, and the IRA’s trans-Atlantic reach.---Brian Hanley, Trinity College Dublin
A brilliantly written book about an unknown episode of the Irish War of Independence, with vivid characters caught up in the great events of history.---Terry Golway, historian, author, and journalist
Lively and colorful . . . Bulik’s brisk narrative is intent on maintaining the tension for as long as possible. Suffice it to say that he has done a fine job.---The Irish Independent
Introduction: Bloody Anniversaries | 1
1 The Ambush | 5
2 Feuds and Fights | 13
3 War and Rebellion | 20
4 The Battle for Cork | 33
5 The Doomsday Plot | 42
6 The Coolavokig Ambush | 53
7 Bloodbath at Ballycannon | 65
8 A Basketful of Poison | 73
9 The Spying Game | 79
10 A Boatload of Tommy Guns | 90
11 Passages | 102
12 The Hunt | 109
13 The Heel of the Hunt | 117
14 The Crux of the Matter | 134
Acknowledgments | 147
Notes | 149
Index | 165
Photographs follow page 86
