Counterculture Analysis: Irish Mob

Gary Smith

A counter culture is a group of people that reject the values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns (Thomas). The Irish mob for example is considered one of the biggest counter cultures there ever was because of their organized crime. The Irish mob is also the oldest organized crime group and biggest. The Irish mob had gangs in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and even Chicago (City Data). The Irish Mob consisted of many different individual gangs that had some really big names in them.

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The winter hill gang was a gang founded by James “buddy” Mclean and consisted of mostly Irish and Italian Americans. Some of the biggest names of the Irish mob where in this gang at the times such as Buddy McLean, Whitey Bulger, Howie Winter, Johnny Martorano, Joe McDonald, and Stephen Flemmi. The winter hill gang got their name from a journalist and because they lived in the winter hill neighborhood in Somerville Massachusetts.

James buddy Mclean was a truck driver and the founder/leader of the winter hill gang (PRWEB). Mclean had a reputation for being a great street fighter which initially earned him his respect as being the gang founder and leader. Mclean and his gang (The winter hill gang) would soon begin to dominate Boston when it came to running numbers, loansharking, and even hijacking (PRWEB). Mclean was murdered in 1965 as he was shot in the head by Stevie Hughes which put Howie Winter in command of the winter hill gang however that didn’t last too long because soon after Howie Winter was sent to prison for 5 years putting Whitey Bulger in charge of the Winter Hill Gang (George).

Whitey Bulger took over the winter hill gang after the death of the former well respected boss James Buddy Mclean who was shot and killed in 1965. As well as being the winter hill gang’s leader he was also a FBI informant. In 1956 Whitey was sentenced to 25 years in prison for numerous bank robberies (Guest). Although he was sentenced to 25 years in prison he only served 9 years and soon after returned to his regular life in Boston where he would join the Winter Hill Gang. In 1979 Whitey took over the winter hill gang and began to control Boston’s drug dealing, bookmarking, and loansharking. As an FBI informant Whitey began feeding the police information on other gangs such as the Patriarcas which was a New England organized crime family. The police brought the Patriarcas down with the help of Whitey which made the Winter Hill Gang even more powerful that another family was gone. Whitey got into trouble with police and decided to go on the run which lasted until June of 2011 when he was arrested after 16 years. Whitey was sentenced to two life sentences plus five years in prison in November of 2013 (globe).

The Irish gang war was a war between the winter hill gang the McLaughlin gang. The dispute occurred after one of the member of the McLaughlin gang tried to pick up one of the Winter Hills gangs girlfriends and ultimately got beat up so badly for it they dropped him off at the hospital (Evan). When Bernie McLaughlin went to talk to the Winter Hills Gangs leader who was James buddy Mclean at the time to figure out what had happened and who was involved he became very frustrated when Mclean wouldn’t tell him exactly and he quickly made enemies with the wrong people which led to his in Charles town city square where he was killed by the winter hills gang leader himself James Buddy Mclean (ignatiev).

The Irish Mob was considered a counter culture because of the way of members chose to live their life. The Irish Mob was one of the biggest structures when it came to organized crime which put them outside of the norm. Constantly breaking the laws society saw them as an outcast and even feared them. Members of the Irish mob believed that they had to take apart in the organized crime so that they could take care of themselves and their families. Most members of the Irish Mob are brought in by family or friends. They know what they are doing is wrong but do it any way as a way of life even if it means killing somebody. Ethnocentrism is when one views its own culture and or group as superior to others (Thomas R13). Ethnocentrism existed in all organized crime and especially in the Irish Mob. Because every gang thought they were better than other conflicts constantly occurred between them which is whys gangs are always fighting each other.

The Irish Mob has their own ways of handling things which is cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards (Thomas R11). The Irish Mob behave and act the way they do because they believe that it is the only way to live. Individual members of the mob make it their job and there only way to receive income. Because this is the only way to take care of themselves and their loved ones they think that it is ok to commit these crimes.  Every Mob and or gang has their own way of handling situations and conflicts such as when somebody in their group decides to rat them out to the police some gangs might kill him on the spot while others torture him.

In my opinion the Irish Mobs way of life is not acceptable and should not be tolerated in the American society. The Irish Mob are held accountable for numerous deaths that took place killing other gang members and even innocent citizens whether it be on purpose or accident it’s not acceptable. The Irish mob also have been known for selling illegal drugs such as cocaine. The Irish Mob are known for being the oldest organized crime group and also one of the biggest and had some of the biggest Mobsters such as Whitey Bulger who is considered to be one of the biggest and feared mobsters who ever lived.

References 

City Data. 13 july 2013. 11 march 2017.

Evan, Andrews. History. 14 june 2014. 11 march 2017.

George, Hasset. Gangs of Boston. strategic media books, 2013.

globe, Boston. boston. 2017. 11 march 2017.

Guest, Emily. Irish Central. 4 Augest 2010. 11 march 2017.

ignatiev, Noel. The divide between blacks and irish. 17 march 2010. 11 march 2017.

PRWEB. PRWEB. 10 september 2015. 11 march 2017.

Thomas, W. “sociology the study of human relation ships.” Austin: Holt,winston, 2003. 39. textbook.