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.
Mark Bulik is the author of Ambush at Central Park: When the IRA Came to New York and a longtime editor at the New York Times. He has delved through Irish government archives, newspaper accounts, census data and unpublish material of the families involved. His book covers the forgotten chapter of Irish and New York history, the story of the only officially authorized IRA attack on American soil. This lecture is part of our The Irish And... Series.