Books: Cops and robbers in the Big Apple...

Irish emigrant's tale of life in the NYPD has it all

From Finglas to the Big Apple: Dubliner Luke Waters crossed the Atlantic to pursue his crime-fighting ambitions

Darragh McManus

NYPD Green opens with an explosive prologue. Luke Waters is nine years old, growing up in Finglas and at the moment heading to the Johnston, Mooney & O'Brien bakery to meet his father. When he arrives, a gang of masked criminals are in the middle of a hold-up.

One shoves a gun in his face. Their leader smiles at the boy from beneath his mask and ruefully declares the heist to be a bust. They leave. Luke later discovers that that leader was none other than Martin Cahill, AKA The General: Ireland's first crime "superstar".