MovieChat Forums > Judgment Night (1993) Discussion > Are there really Irish gangsters in inne...

Are there really Irish gangsters in inner-city Chicago?

posted 17 years ago by lutochris
11 replies | jump to latest

Love the movie, and LOVE Dennis Leary, but I just kind of find it hard to believe that there's any street-tough Irish guys running the streets in the black ghetto areas in Chicago. Maybe Boston or New York I'd find it easier to believe.

Like for instance the scene in the project building where they're busting down everyone's doors, it's just kind of hard to buy that there's no black or Latin gangs in those projects that they would fear retaliation from for dissing on their turf. I know he paid off the one black kid, but those were just a bunch of kids and he just wanted to know which building they went in.

It's just hard for me to picture these white Irish guys walking around the inner-city Chicago streets like they ruled the place, untouchable.

Even though I nothing learned,
With Strength I Burn...

[–] mvprince-1 17 years ago

I like this movie a lot, but yeah, I agree -- inner-city Chicago, especially housing projects like those shown in this movie, would probably not be the domain of Irish gangsters. Oh well. :-)

[–] maddog088 17 years ago

Not true, Canaryville which is a neighborhood on the south side of the city is predominately Irish. At least it was when I was growing up, and I am not that old only 28. But that is a pretty rough neighborhood, even to this day. They use to chase "outsiders" out with pipes and baseball bats, hell I remember people sitting on rooftops with shotguns. As well as Bridgeport which is very close to it. Both of those areas are not far from the housing projects. Hell Bridgeport was separated from the pj's by only an expressway, before they started tearing all of them down recently. Denis Leary's character being an Irish gangster in that area, isn't far fetched at all.

[–] batman18 15 years ago

do irish still run *beep* or the ghetto people are rasing

[–] arimor1 9 years ago

whats and whos ghetto people

[–] adamderbyshire 14 years ago

It's somewhat true...The south side of chicago has a very large population of irish...every year there's a very large "South Side Irish" parade...the biggest parade all year...many White Sox fans are south side Irish and there's projects right nex to their ballark and seeing as the movie setting is the southside while trying to get to the Rosemont Horizon(Allstate Arena) at the time it is acceptable. I agree that there would be more resistence from Black gangs and thugs though.

[–] Englandizer 13 years ago

It doesnt seem like the irish gangsters actually live there. Just went there to kill the thief who prehaps either lived there or was taken there to be executed.

[–] JohnECash 15 years ago

No.

[–] PartyBeachMonsterVictim 11 years ago

I didn't see any indication that the character had any Irish affiliation other than his surname and the actor portraying him. Ireland is the second or third most common country in the US from which the most surnames derive so it's not out of the question for a random up and coming gangster to have that ancestry in some part.

[–] mikeyg24 9 years ago

Well I think a lot of people took the impression they were an Irish American gang since not just Denis Leary but Peter Greene is also of Irish descent as is half of Erik 'Everlast' Schrody. I don't know about the fourth member.

Hey! You're not old enough to drink! Now go and die for your country!!!

[–] MrJasonFoster (407) 5 years ago

Completely fabricated.

[–] Tongue (496) a year ago

Agree I remember when I first saw the movie I just could not buy Denis Leary and Everlast being the top guys on a Chicago gang lol. Not sure why they casted it this way but it was a mistake