Irish American novelist Denis Lehane’s tale of love and revenge in the Prohibition era - “Live by Night” is his finest achievement

In the 1920s, people did not view the bootleggers and gamblers as intrinsically evil. Booze and cards were vices to many and it was an inconvenience when Puritan Protestant hypocrites outlawed the vices. Being a bookmaker, especially when it came to horse racing, was viewed as a respectable occupation by many. I'm not seeing that piece of history here. And why would there be push back. The old Irish have forgotten their history, making iron and steel and building bridges, railroads and canals. Holy Cross College, in Worcester, not far from Lahane is a monument to the affluence flowing from those achievements. And the fresh Irish like Lahane, Dowd and O'Doherty never learned it, and probably thinking Dennis Hart Mahan was a precinct captain in the Bronx. They certainly would know that Tom Dewey was Aunt Margaret's boy or that the Great Gatsy and The Godfather are only pieces of a bigger story. And who would push back? The Catholic League for Civi Rights, that pathetic organization that's really just a one issue, political show.

You do know that the Great Gatsy in real life was Irish.