Paddy Whacked: The Irish Mob DVD Irish Documentary

This documentary traces the history of the Irish mob from its origins in the newly arrived immigrants fleeing the potato famine in the 1840s through the 'Whitey' Bulger scandal, in Boston, in the 1990s. Relying on the book of the same title, by T.J. English, the Five Points (Corners) area of New York City (ala Gangs of New York) is cited as the birthplace of the Irish mob and John 'Old Smoke' Morrissey as the first mob boss. It traces the links between gangster, lawman, and politician, so often shown in films like Angels with Dirty Faces, leading to the infamous Tammany Hall. Later the Westies would wax and wane in Hell's Kitchen. Next up Chicago, where Prohibition lead to competition with the Sicilians over the bootlegging trade. (Scarface and Some Like It Hot covered the Italian end of this war.) Finally Boston, home of Joe Kennedy and later the Bulgers, would become, according to T.J. English, the last bastion of the Irish mob in the US.