Banished Children of Eve

As with any historical fiction, it was the reader's task to differentiate fact from fiction, so I spent many days catching up on people and events I should have learned about in high school. The "real" people included Stephen Foster, General Wool, and Mayor Fernando Wood. But the character I found most intriguing and worthy of further study is John Hughes, first archbishop of New York and the force behind St. Patrick's Cathedral and Fordham University. Though Irish himself, Quinn did not spare the Irish when it came to describing the vileness of their actions before and during the Draft Riots. But like Archbishop Hughes, the author understands the sources that lead to the degradation of the Irish of the diaspora. In the course of retelling the story in a fictional setting, Quinn demonstrates his understanding of how the fight for a foothold on the bottom rung of the ladder led to an animosity toward black Americans that is still in evidence today amongst many Irish-Americans conservatives with names like Bannon, O'Reilly, and Hannity.