The IRA in NYC: April, 1922

About a year ago, I blogged about the forgotten wars of NYC, literal battles that have been fought on the streets of this city but that few, if anyone, remember.

The most memorable wars that have come to the five boroughs were separated by roughly 200 years -- the American Revolutionary War and the September 11, 2001/War on Terror. But other wars, like a pre-Revolutionary slave war or the 19th century Chinatown Tong Wars, have been mostly lost to history -- they were ugly, shameful, utterly lacking in the nobility of fighting for freedom and democracy. These wars weren't against a foreign enemy or terrorist group -- they were citizens fighting other citizens over money and turf.

But 100 years ago this month, another battle came to NYC and it had nothing to do with Americans or New Yorkers at all -- it was the continuation of a fight that had originated in Ireland as part of the rebellion against British rule there. Calling what happened "a battle" is really inaccurate -- it was a hit, a failed hit as it turned out, but nonetheless was part of a larger war raging between the Irish Republican Army and the British Empire ("The Troubles") that lasted in various forms until 1998. 

You must read this fascinating story about what happened on a lovely Spring night on the Upper West Side when an Irishmen out for a smoke nearly got, well, smoked himself. Although this incident involved the IRA and its fight with the British, it was actually due to the victim in this case being an informer, an IRA member who gave secret info to their Imperial oppressors, and was hiding out in NYC -- until he got caught. 

It's a fascinating story, a story about how the wars of the Old World always come to the New World -- and how NYC seems to be right in the middle of them.