Audiobooks by Mark Bulik

Ambush at Central Park: When the IRA Came to New York

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 blow to Ireland's struggle for independence: six of his IRA comrades were killed when he told police the location of their safe house. A year later, the IRA gunned him down before a crowd of horrified New Yorkers. 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. Author Mark Bulik delved through Irish government archives, newspaper accounts, census data, and unpublished material from the families of the main actors.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 story of a rebel ambush, a deadly police raid, a dinner laced with poison, a daring prison break, a boatload of tommy guns, an unlikely pair of spies who fall in love, and an assassination plot against the British cabinet. Here is a forgotten chapter of Irish and New York history: the story of the only officially authorized IRA attack on American soil. Contains mature themes.

Mark Bulik (Author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America's First Labor War

Sensational tales of true-life crime, the devastation of the Irish potato famine, the upheaval of the Civil War, and the turbulent emergence of the American labor movement are connected in a captivating exploration of the roots of the Molly Maguires. A secret society of peasant assassins in Ireland that re-emerged in Pennsylvania’s hard-coal region, the Mollies organized strikes, murdered mine bosses, and fought the Civil War draft. Their shadowy twelve-year duel with all powerful coal companies marked the beginning of class warfare in America. But little has been written about the origins of this struggle and the folk culture that informed everything about the Mollies. A rare book about the birth of the secret society, The Sons of Molly Maguire delves into the lost world of peasant Ireland to uncover the astonishing links between the folk justice of the Mollies and the folk drama of the Mummers, who performed a holiday play that always ended in a mock killing. The link not only explains much about Ireland’s Molly Maguires—where the name came from, why the killers wore women’s clothing, why they struck around holidays—but also sheds new light on the Mollies’ re-emergence in Pennsylvania. The book follows the Irish to the anthracite region, which was transformed into another Ulster by ethnic, religious, political, and economic conflicts. It charts the rise there of an Irish secret society and a particularly political form of Mummery just before the Civil War, shows why Molly violence was resurrected amid wartime strikes and conscription, and explores how the cradle of the American Mollies became a bastion of later labor activism. Combining sweeping history with an intensely local focus, The Sons of Molly Maguire is the captivating story of when, where, how, and why the first of America’s labor wars began.

Mark Bulik (Author), Josh Innerst (Narrator)

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