Ireland
All The Stories From Home
McGurks Suicide Hall – The Bowery
McGurks Suicide Hall located at 295 the Bowery in New York was a notorious dive bar and hotel run by John McGurk a native of County Antrim, Ireland. McGurk owned a string of saloons, each one closed down by the police, however his saloon at 295 Bowery would become his...
Big Tim Sullivan – As corrupt as the rest of Tammany Hall
Big Tim Sullivan was just as corrupt as you would expect from Tammany Hall whose influence back then reached deep into the corners of city government. Big Tim Sullivan along with his brother Paddy "and a truck full of Sullivan cousins" controlled everything, including...
The Ballymount Bloodbath
The Ballymount Bloodbath is an incident that happened between two groups in a warehouse in Dublin on the 6th October 1999 and would lead to a series of tit for tat revenge killings between the groups. The Ballymount Bloodbath was a day when six men were kidnapped,...
John McKane Brooklyn’s very own Boss Tweed
John Y. McKane became Brooklyn's answer to Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed although McKane wouldnt be as quite well known, but his exploits were just the same. Back in the 1800's in the days when New York's Five Boroughs were still separate John Y. McKane was known as the...
Veronica Guerin – A Reporter Killed Doing Her Job
Veronica Guerin was a crime reporter for the Sunday Independent before she was murdered by gangsters who controlled the drug trade in Dublin. In 1996 she was fatally shot while stopped at a traffic light. The shooting caused national outrage in Ireland. Investigation...
Wild Bill Lovett – Brooklyn’s White Hand Gang Boss
William "Wild Bill" Lovett was a gangster and leader of the White Hand Gang from the Red Hook area or what was known at the time "Irish Town" due to the amount of Irish people that lived in that part of Brooklyn in New York in the 1910's and 20's. Born in Lixnaw,...
The Five Points
The Five Points was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York. The neighborhood was bound by Center Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The Five Points stood on what is now Park, Worth &...
Martin Cahill “The General” – Godfather of Crime
"The General" Martin Cahill was a criminal from Dublin, a burglar, armed robber & art thief, who was eventually assassinated in 1994 by the IRA. This story was the subject to a book by Paul Williams and a highly acclaimed 1998 movie starring Brendan Gleeson and...
The First Gang – The Forty Thieves
The Forty Thieves were formed in 1825 and said to be the first known and oldest New York City criminal street gang. At least officially they were the first ones to have an established leadership and to be caught and recorded. The Five Points was a neighborhood in the...