No Irish Need Apply: A Novel About New York City's Hell's Kitchen in the Mid-1800's

No Irish Need Apply is a historical portrait of New York City's Hell's Kitchen chronicling the friendship and struggles of Johnny O'Hara and his friend Red, children of immigrants who escaped Ireland's Great Hunger. Orphaned at an early age, the boys struggle to survive amidst the poverty and anti-Irish Catholic prejudice of the day. As adults, Johnny and Red join an all-immigrant volunteer fire company that is despised by surrounding fire companies manned by American-born men. Unwittingly, the immigrants and the Americans, alike, are the victims of greedy elites who thrive on keeping them divided, resulting in many pitched battles on the streets and at fires. In No Irish Need Apply, Finucane captures the grit of the Irish immigrants and their will to survive and thrive, against a backdrop exploring New York's transition from a volunteer fire department to a professional fire department. No Irish Need Apply is also an inspirational love story with an unusual twist revealing the blood, sweat and passions of the Irish immigrants who helped build New York City.