A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection

by Patrick Nee, Michael Blythe, Richard Farrell

Book Overview

A former rival and associate of Whitey Bulger tells all in this "profane, often brutal" true crime memoir about the inner workings of life in the Irish mob (The Boston Herald) After serving in Vietnam... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586421034
• ISBN13: 9781586421038
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Steerforth Press
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Good solid book

This is a solidly wriiten book on criminal activity in Boston and arms smuggling to Ireland. The author pulls no punches about what he did and offers no apologies to the lifestyle he choose. You can either love or hate him but he seems to be a respectable guy from this book. The co-authors do a pretty good job putting his voice into a readable manner.

Another bonkers avowed bad guy writes a page turner

You don't have to approve of the lifestyle choices of this thug to enjoy what is a great story. This is not really a morality tale per se although from the writer's warped perspective there is the redeeming aspect of the the whole in that Nee's passion was supporting the IRA terrorists by buying and shipping a huge magnitude of firearms for the "soldiers" to use to fight for their freedom. ( Great pains are taken to keep the arms dry so they are outfitted with plastic bags that the IRA soldiers store in the bogs ) A million dollars worth are shipped "free of charge" by the Boston irish patriots-I won't spoil all the fun for you readers. Whitey is only a supporting player in this particular shenanigans , but he does get artfully dissed which is a small pleasure... The bottom line is that all that honor and bravery aside, there was no small amount of criminal shake downs, thefts, and all sorts of nefarious doings that supported the criminals self and family , but then again- he never said he was a "good guy" !

An Irishman and a criminal

I absolutely loved this book. Richard Farrell captured the essence of Patrick Nee and put the words to paper beautifully. I read the book in three days, I couldn't put it down. It has already been stolen from me by my mother! Kudos' to a job well done.

Wow... just Wow.

Wow. This book was so captivating. Nee uses his talent as a refreshing to see that Nee wasn't one of those criminals that thinks he is the toughest thing to walk. (Unlike most authors to write about their gang related lives.) Nee was not more a criminal than an Irishman or a Southie gang member. He is an Irishman in blood, a Southie gang member by associations, and a criminal by occupation. The title suggests that he uses his criminal side to help in the aid of his fellow Irishman. And I think the book portrays that idea thoroughly. It does not just delve into one aspect of his life. He goes through his time as a boy growing up in Ireland and then to a criminal (seeking revenge for his brother's murder, robbing trucks, etc). The Southie gang member title, just connects all these theories. Southie is, traditionally, a completely Irish town. This connects Nee's Irish heritage to his Southie gang member title. Nee, Blythe and Farrell include this information in the book when you see Nee move from Ireland to Southie. Nee becomes friends with a group of kids his age, and thus his days as a gang member begin. Though the book focuses a lot on Nee's Southie life and the gang war between Whitey Bulger and himself, I think the main emphasis is how Nee tied all aspects of what he was into helping the IRA, who was in serious need of help. Not many American's knew exactly what was going on in Ireland, not even many Irish-Americans. What people knew was heard over the news or radios. Nee's book sheds a new light on what was really happening. And how, though his aid did not solve everything, it was help needed. To say this book doesn't focus on the 'Irishman' in this book, is to be completely incorrect and just to have proved, you did not read the book. The chapters of Nee growing up in Southie, fighting Whitey, allying himself with Whitey, was all preparation for his task in heling the IRA. So, in short, this book was an eye opener in so many ways. It's not a book about Nee vs. Bulger, or about Bulger's doings and inner gang workings, those books are everywhere and not very reliable. Of course, some guy is going to boast about how he was Whitey's right hand man, and over came the obstacles when Whitey ratted everyone out. They'll be a hero to people who don't know the true story. Nee's book is not to boast his ego, or roll around in money. The book is to let people know about Nee's life, what happened in it, and how he came back from it. Nee doesn't brag, he tells it how it is. I loved this book, and everything about it.

A Remarkable Achievement!

South Boston circa 1950-1985 is one of the hottest subjects to flood the new non-fiction book releases market at this moment. Titles such as popular columnist/talk show host Howie Carr's "The Brothers Bulger," Kevin Weeks's "Brutal," and John "Red" Shea's "Rat Bastards" all share display space with Patrick Nee's narrative of life as a prominent gangster in the renowned peninsula area of New England's hub city. "A Criminal and an Irishman," Nee's account of that lifestyle, is the best of the lot. Co-author Richard Farrell brings Nee's story to life in a formidable manner, resulting in a book that transcends the usual true crime format and offers readers profound insights about the environment of South Boston during that era, and how and why Irish nationalism played such a pivotal role to many of its residents, Irish-born Patrick Nee chief among them. Farrell is an astonishing wordsmith who crafts an intelligent and extraordinarily perceptive narrative based on Nee's intuitive account of events and characters that shaped his life in "Southie." Most notably, "A Criminal and an Irishman" presents non-South Boston residents with an accessible portrait in words of what that area was like to live in during the period addressed in the book, and brings it home to the reader in a way that makes the nature of its landscape and culture fully graspable. You feel as if you are there in South Boston during the decades in question. None of the other writers of books devoted to South Boston-related crime (including the masterful Howie Carr and the excellent Boston Globe reporters Gerard O'Neill and Dick Lehr) have captured South Boston's essence as Patrick Nee has through Rich Farrell's exceptional research and craftsmanship in weaving words. It is both history (American and Irish) and a very compelling story at once. This is Nee's account of events as they transpired-not the FBI's, the newspapers, or anybody else's. Co-authors Rich Farrell and Michael Blythe used no confidential informant sources or existing news archives in the book's narrative. It is first and foremost Patrick Nee's story. And his version of events diverge radically from those conventionally accepted, markedly so in two instances-who really assassinated long-time South Boston gang leader Donnie Killeen, and the inter-web of complexities involved regarding the South Boston Irish gang wars of the early 1970s. Nee gives readers new perspectives to consider, and they are all highly plausible. Patrick Nee is portrayed as a person who possesses an extraordinarily strong belief system-core values that are enduring. Nee's values, as conveyed in this book, shaped his behavior in every way. It causes him to be family-oriented, altruistic, and even spiritual, together with his choices to engage in criminal activity. Whereas Nee is a complex person, his beliefs make him dependable (you know where he stands) and easy to trust. They also produced conflict. Nee's core values are unchanging