Thursday 24 January 2013

Montreal's Irish Mafia

The title of this post is also the title of this book. Written by the journalist D'Arcy O'Connor and Miranda O'Connor. It is a little known book of an often forgotten but important part of Montreal's crime history: the contribution to crime in general and organised crime in particular of the Irish community. I am not reading it just yet, as I read many books at the same time and still reading another crime history book. But I am eager to read this one, to further my (amateur) knowledge of crime history and learn more about our Irish community, even though it is its darker (and even bloody) side.

Crime history is also, as I mentioned (again) here, a source of inspiration for crime fiction. The Italian mafia has been maybe not quite done to death, but certainly used too often (I am not the only one thinking it). In Montreal, the mafia has been widely featured, in our TV series especially. Yet it is the Irish mob that traditionally controls the port of Montreal. Reading real crime stories, I wish some of them could make their way into fiction.

2 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Oh, those Irish.

Cynthia said...

Ça doit être pas mal comme livre!