Irish Wise Guys: Time for a history lesson when it comes to dealing with gangland crime
The Garda Technical Bureau remove the body of a gangland shooting victim. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie
A former high-flying business consultant in the UK insurance industry would not usually be your first port of call when looking for fresh insights into the causes and possible solutions to the problem of gangland criminality in Ireland.
However if the old adage which suggests we look to the past to better understand our future holds true, then perhaps John Joe McGinley is someone we should point an ear towards.
John Joe is the author of perhaps the most definitive account of the Irish men who rose to infamy in the world of Irish-American gangland.
"Irish Wise Guys" tells the story of 17 notorious Irish American gangland figures and the gangs they oversaw across the west and east coasts of America.
Its publication was the culmination of an intriguing journey that saw the long standing business consultant relocate a decade ago from his comfortable home and job in the UK to rural Donegal with his wife and four sons.
Reflecting on that journey this week John Joe revealed how shortly after his arrival in Gweedore he created a blog to reflect on life in - and the history of - his adopted parish and county.
This, he reveals, quickly morphed into 'Wild Atlantic Gweedore' - a website which he hopes "does my little bit to promote our little part of the Wild Atlantic Way".
In the course of this work, John Joe recalls how someone once told him how the infamous US gangster Vincent ‘Mad Dog’ Coll hailed originally from Gweedore.
"I did some research and wrote a blog on him for my website." The blog, he reveals, was picked up by several media outlets.
"I then became fascinated by other Irish characters like Owney ‘the killer’ Madden, infamous bootlegger Bill Dwyer, Frank Sheeran (recently played by Robert Di Nero in the Irishman), Jack ‘legs’ Diamond and many other Irish American gangsters in New York, Boston and Chicago.
"I decided to write a series on these men, which I then expanded into my book, 'Irish Wise Guys'".
'Irish Wise Guys' not only sheds new light on a darker side of the Irish immigration story but also, and perhaps most importantly, manages to capture the untold human story behind the 17 gangsters profiled.
"The first thing to understand is the brutal up bringing of virtually all of these men. Many were orphans, most were institutionalised at an early stage and almost all recounted tales of abuse.
"This is not an excuse for the brutality of their later lives, but it has to be factored in when considering why these men turned to crime and could explain the barbaric nature of some of those crimes.
"The second thing that struck me was just how intelligent and charismatic these men were.
"Finally, I was intrigued how diverse the Irish mob was. While the Italian mafia was more insular and, in many areas, restricted to regional groups the Irish mob was open to all with many from the Polish, German and Jewish immigrant groups being highly valued and influential members of the Irish mobs leadership structure."
The book has coincided with renewed concerns here at home that gangland criminality is being glamourised in certain sections of the media.
The most recent example, a broadside against RTÉ by a former Dublin Lord Mayor who dubbed its most recent gangland drama, 'Kin', “a disgrace".
Dublin inner-city politician, Christy Burke, went on to suggest the scourge and human cost of gangland criminality does not require "any further glamourising which without a doubt impacts on young people’s behaviour.”
The author of "Irish Wise Guys" also has strong views on the societal and human carnage wrought by gangland criminality but begins with some sage advice for any young men or women on the fringes of gangland criminality.
"Of the 17 men I wrote about in Irish Wise guys only one man died content in his bed. The others died violent deaths or went to the grave hounded by the authorities having lost fortunes and in many cases family.
"Bill Dwyer - the king of the rum runners - was at one time one of the richest men in America. He decided to diversify by fixing the heavy-weight boxing championship of the world. The US authorities could stomach bootlegging, but they came after him once he damaged American sport. Bill would die penniless.
"It’s an old adage but while crime may pay for a while, eventually the authorities will always prevail."
John Joe concludes, most poignantly perhaps, with some advice for those involved in and funding the ongoing battle against gangland crime in Irish society.
"I passionately believe that no one is born a criminal but that upbringing and adversity can steer people in the wrong direction.
, buythebook.ie and Amazon.
Turned bootlegging and crime into a business. Bill hated violence so he left this to his partner Owney Madden.
He imported illegal booze from the Caribbean using speed boats with modified ex WW1 plane engines to ensure his men could evade even the fastest coast guard vessels. He made a fortune but was eventually brought down by the US tax authorities.
Famously played by Robert Di Nero in the Irishman. Sheeran was a man brutalised by his childhood and over 400 days of combat in WW2.
He confessed to the murder of his great friend Jimmy Hoffa in his death bed video confessional. He said he only carried out the hit to ensure Hoffa was spared any pain from the Mafia who would have carried out the killing if he did not agree to do it himself. He wore Hoffa’s watch until the day he died.
He also claimed that he supplied the guns that shot JFK!
Rose from poverty and incarceration for murder at an early age to dominate the New York gangster scene of the 1920’s but when he saw the rise of the Italian Mafia, he created a new career for himself becoming the hotelier to the mob.
He was also one of the first gangsters to face Robert Kennedy in the famous organised crime hearings and became an icon as he took the fifth and frustrated Kennedy at every turn.
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