Typically, those of Irish ancestry, born in America, refer to themselves as Irish-American but they are Irish as much as Afro-Americans are African. Edward considered himself Irish/American, with the Irish part most dominant.

The "depression" era attitudes encouraged the corruption of legislators, law enforcers and yes, the Catholic Church. All of this molded Edward Fallon's life. The goal of most Irish mothers was for the boys to become a priest or a policeman. Ed Fallon began his youth one way and soon went the other, from Altar Boy, to Boston Policeman, to hired Mafia killer. From romance to rape, tenderness to torture, kind hearted to cruel he became a man with many oxymoronic features.