Procure Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago Illustrated By Gillian OBrien Manuscript

would have been an excellent article, but as a book even a book of justpages there just wasn't enough meat to the story.
The author had to fill it with tons of characters and info that really had no importance to the story.
One reviewer used the word tedious to describe the book in her review, I wholeheartedly agree. That is the perfect word to describe reading this book, A large portion of this work concerns itself with the three Irish societies that held sway in Chicago during the Gilded Ages.
Clan na Gael, the secret Irish republican society founded in New York in, sought to bring about Irish independence from Britain with violence.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians, established in New York in, served as an Irish Catholic fraternal organization, The third, the Land League of America, founded in, vouchsafed support to the Irish Land League and,

later, the Irish Parliamentary Party.


Like other immigrant communities of the time, the Irish population in Chicago faced many challenges, but the Irish community shared both a strong religion and an antagonism toward England.
And, in a time when the populace was largely antiimmigrant and antiIrish, the secret societies were often places where the Irish could find friends, support, and even jobs.
Many men belonged to all three organizations and, at times, there were brutal conflicts between their highranking members and fractures within the groups themselves.


Although they each belonged to different sectors of Clan na Gael, Doctor Patrick Henry Cronin became a persistent, outspoken opponent of Alexander Sullivan.
Cronin believed that Sullivan was more concerned with promoting himself than with securing freedom for the Irish, As the split widened, Cronin feared for his life, believing some sort of a plot against him existed and, finally, allegations, published in the newspapers, became public.
Tensions mounted Doctor Cronin disappeared,

Weeks later, the body of Patrick Cronin surfaced, and it was determined that his injuries had been sustained during a prolonged attack with multiple instruments, including an ice pick.
The funeral of the murdered doctor brought Chicago to a standstill and sparked a widespread police investigation capped by a protracted trial.


Although the murder is, purportedly, at the heart of the narrative, there is much intriguing history detailed here.
Perhaps the extensive backstory regarding the secret societies and the history of Chicago are important for understanding the motivation behind the murder, but there are times that the reader may feel as if Doctor Cronins death is far less important than the actions of the societies.
The unfortunate result is that the backstory/history bogs down the telling of the tale and often relegates the murder to something other than the primary focus of the narrative.


Voluminous notes, a listing of organization and terms, and an extensive bibliography of both primary and secondary sources all follow the narrative, providing both information and resource information for readers.
A great look at a murder that captivated Chicago for decades, I had never heard of this murder, despite being born and raised in the Chicago area, so it was especially interesting for me.
Although she's Irish and lives in England, O'Brien seems to have a real sense of the culture of Chicago, This book is an accessible and interesting read, but don't go into it expecting a truecrime novel, It's nonfiction history written by a professional scholar, The description of the murder is not as great a part of the book as the analysis of its causes and consequences.


Overall, an enjoyable, interesting, and accessible read that gives a peek into lateth century Chicago, sitelink reddit. com/r/AskHistorian I like to read about Old Chicago and its history, I heard about this book on NPR and decided I had to read it, I must say I was disappointed, The author did a great job or research, but in the end the story behind the murder of Dr, Cronin was just not that intriguing a subject for a fulllength book, It is a good history of the American Irish Independence movement in the lates, but I kept waiting for something dramatic to happen and it never did.
I was expecting an Erik Larson type experience and this book doesn't come close to delivering it, Well researched tale. Entertainingly told This book did a nice job of walking the line between a scholarly book and a pop history one.
However, I do wish she had explained some of the Irish and American historical references a bit more, There were some with a bit of explanation where my curiosity was just asking for more, but there were also some names and events that were just mentioned without context.
I even have an Irish lit degree which involved some history classes and I was occasionally heading to Google, There were also a few typos, unfortunately, : "The story of the murder of Dr Cronin is a multifaceted one, It is a tale of identity and belonging, of striving to make a new life in a new world, It is also the story of corruption, deception, and conspiracy, At its most basic it is a murder mystery,
The story of Cronin's murder is also a story of Chicago, a city where many Irish immigrants flourished, "
Gillian O'Brien, Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago

This murder mystery has all the elements of a sensational story intrigue, secret societies, political cronyism, prominent citizens in the Irish community, possible ties to the Parnell case, a respected journalist married to a suspect, infighting within the Clan.
. . In this case, "Blood Runs Green" is a great research paper, but not a great narrative, I really wish that this book was better organized and had more of a story line, The best chapter is the one that discusses the newspaper business in Chicago in its heyday,

note the lastpages are notes, indexes and bibliographies Barely fair of me to review this because I straight gave up less than a quarter in.
Not at all what I expected, Less historical true crime and more just history, which IS FINE just not what I was looking for, I found this to have a TEDIOUS level of detail too many people and story lines introduced rapidfire,

After reading pages and pages of what felt like biblicalstyle soandso begat soandso i, e. NAMESNAMESNAMESTHINGNAMENAME I just don't care about the Clan districts and votes and meetings and who is appointed to what council.
This is just too in the weeds for me and I threw in the towel, On St. Patty's Day no less.

I may circle back to this some day but this was not at all what I was expecting.
A very interesting slice of Chicago history, during a time of unprecedented growth for the city, it's newspapers, and burgeoning immigrant populations with their inherent baggage.
So much is new to me in this very detailed book, based on a murder everyone knew about, not just in Chicago but nationally, and overseas.
This was a time of secret societies, obsessive smarmy characters, underhanded backroom deals and a press as motivated to create news as report it.


Maybe because it is such a dense plot with an extensive background necessary to understand as preface that it seems at times bogged down and heavy.
This is more the case in the first half which makes sense then does free itself up for some very exciting reading.
I would give it/if that were an option, I really did enjoy it, offering a detailed look at an incredible time in our history I'm from Chicago and loved the descriptions of long gone hotels and restaurants, and familiar intersections in their dirt road infancy, during a time when Lakeview was still a separate town!.
If you're interested in a portrait of this young buck of a city, centered around an Irish "Spy vs Spy", this is a bloody good read.
This is a wellwritten and interesting book about the murder of Dr, P. H. Cronin, yet another Crime of the Century that no one's ever heard of, Cronin's murder is inextricably bound up in the affairs of the Clan na Gael, so I learned a great deal about Irish Republicanism in Gilded Age Chicago.
I already knew about Gilded Age corruption, but this did certainly provide a number of new examples, O'Brien is very good at examining and explaining ramifications, both in the causes of Cronin's murder and in the consequences, and she keeps track the whole time of how the Chicago newspapers both reported the news and sometimes created the news they were reporting.
Thoroughly researched amp well written, Information about the Irish republican movement here and in Ireland and about secret societies and Chicago politics, not enough characterization to make me as interested in the murder or trial as some writers have managed devil in the white city, midnight in the garden of good and evil Secret Irish societies, political intrigue abroad and in America, murder, and a press that, much like today, is more concerned about headlines than reporting truth.
Some truths may never been know about Dr, Cronin's murder, and the press reports certainly helped to muddle information, Interesting read if you enjoy Chicago history, It was the biggest funeral Chicago had seen since Lincolns, On May,, four thousand mourners proceeded down Michigan Avenue, followed by a crowd forty thousand strong, in a howl of protest at what commentators called one of the ghastliest and most curious crimes in civilized history.
The dead man, Dr. P. H. Cronin, was a respected Irish physician, but his brutal murder uncovered a web of intrigue, secrecy, and corruption that stretched across the United States and far beyond.


Blood Runs Green tells the story of Cronins murder from the police investigation to the trial.
It is a story of hotheaded journalists in pursuit of sensational crimes, of a bungling police force riddled with informers and spies, and of a secret revolutionary society determined to free Ireland but succeeding only in tearing itself apart.
It is also the story of a booming immigrant population clamoring for power at a time of unprecedented change,

From backrooms to courtrooms, historian Gillian OBrien deftly navigates the complexities of Irish Chicago, bringing to life a rich cast of characters and tracing the spectacular rise and fall of the secret Irish American society Clan na Gael.
She draws on reallife accounts and sources from the United States, Ireland, and Britain to cast new light on Clan na Gael and reveal how Irish republicanism swept across the United States.
Destined to be a true crime classic, Blood Runs Green is an enthralling tale of a murder that captivated the world and reverberated through society long after the coffin closed.
.