An ex-IRA soldier can’t escape his past in 1994 New York.
Former IRA soldier and munitions expert Conor Murphy, released early from H-Block prison, is in Manhattan to win back his fiancé and the son he’s never seen. It’s 1994, with hope of a ceasefire finally ending “the Troubles.” Conor reluctantly agrees to do a one time pick up of weapons as “insurance” for his former compatriots, but at the midtown drop site he barely escapes a deadly explosion. The press believe it was an IRA bombing, forcing Conor to go on the run not only from the NYPD and the Feds, but also from hired British assassins and eventually the IRA itself.
The story was inspired by on my own research of IRA soldiers “on the run” in 1990s New York City, as well as my own unusual experiences. As a college summer courier from NYC to London, I was mistakenly interrogated in Wales where I was taking a midnight ferry to Dublin after an IRA bombing in London. Years later I was a young attorney representing Irish Civil rights groups in New England and was threatened by Irish Northern Aid – the front for the IRA in America – for not representing them. The original screenplay has been optioned twice (both options now expired) and continues to receive excellent competition and industry coverage.
Semifinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall 2020
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Feature Competition, 2021
“It’s difficult to nail those opening pages, and this script does it exceptionally well.
Everything that needs to be established is established, and the character of Conor shines
through as both a likable protagonist and a man with regrets. He is forced to make an
impossible choice which hooks the audience for the rest of the script. The script is a great
read. It flows nicely, and each character is distinct. The writer has blended the elements
of the IRA with a crime thriller but painted it in such a light that it is not glorified and is
instead presented as tragic and absurd.”
Judges’s Notes, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards
Here’s the opening act, set in Ireland:
