IRA Invasion at Central Park

Ambush at Central Park is a gripping recount of the sole I.R.A. sanctioned attack ever carried out on American territory. In 1922, three of the Irish Republican Army's most skilled marksmen arrived in New York City in search of vengeance. Their objective was “Cruxy” O'Connor, a young Irishman who had switched allegiances multiple times as his homeland was engulfed in revolution following World War I. Cruxy's final act of betrayal had devastating consequences for Ireland's fight for independence: he disclosed the whereabouts of his IRA comrades' safe house near Cork to the police, resulting in the deaths of six fighters. A year later, in a shocking display witnessed by appalled onlookers at the corner of 84th Street and Central Park West, the IRA gunned him down in a barrage of bullets.

Drawing mainly from firsthand testimonies, many of which have never been disclosed previously, Ambush at Central Park delves into the mystery surrounding “Cruxy” O'Connor: was he truly a decorated war hero turned British informant? Did his machine gun genuinely malfunction during a crucial operation after he defected to the IRA? Did he reveal the whereabouts of his fellow IRA members only under duress after being captured? Was he a covert British operative from the beginning? Or was he driven by a longstanding vendetta between his family and that of one of his comrades?

Mark Bulik, a seasoned editor at The New York Times, sifted through Irish government records, newspaper articles, population data, and unpublished materials sourced from the families of the key figures involved. These elements contribute to the sensational tale of an insurgent ambush, a lethal police raid, a poisoning at a dinner gathering, a bold prison escape, a cache of tommy guns on the Hoboken docks, an unlikely romantic pair of spies, and a daring plot to assassinate members of the British cabinet.

Despite suffering grave wounds and teetering on the brink of death, Cruxy remained tight-lipped in his interactions with the interrogating officers. Thus, the informer turned silent even as death loomed. This account uncovers a forgotten segment of Irish and New York history: the narrative of the solitary I.R.A. assault permitted on American territory.

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