All Souls: A Family Story From Southie

“Another one to make you a slave” (107), says Michael’s grandmother, Nana, to Ma after Seamus is born. Michael loves his new brother, reflecting, “I was tired of all the battles, the rock throwing and the protests, and I was excited to be around something so new as Seamus” (108). Every day, Michael takes Seamus for a walk around the neighborhood and does his best to protect him. 

After Seamus is born, the Boston Housing Authority knocks down a wall in the MacDonalds’ apartment and adds a new room. Now Michael feels like they live in luxury since a few of his siblings have their own rooms, but no one makes him feel better about where they live than the notorious Irish gangster Whitey Bulger, who is the brother of Senator Billy Bulger. Of Whitey Bulger, Michael states, “We had to have someone looking out for us, with the likes of Judge Garrity trying to take away what little we’d gotten for ourselves” (110). Everyone in the family and the neighborhood claims to know Whitey and to have seen him, but there is no evidence that any of this is true. MacDonald admits that to his family, Bulger became an image of “a hero, a powerful champion, in the midst of all the troubles” (111). Kevin even goes so far as to claim that Whitey Bulger is his father. Because of Kevin’s growing ties to other boys who are involved with the Irish Mafia, he claims to know more about Whitey than anyone. 

Kevin gets a job delivering newspapers for the Herald, and Michael often accompanies him on his route. Kevin tells him wild stories about Whitey’s past and the growing presence of the Irish Mafia. One day, Kevin comes home claiming to have been robbed of his paper money, but Michael hears him laughing to Kathy that he kept the money for himself and used it to buy mescaline and marijuana, in order to then sell the drugs. As a 12-year-old, Kevin enters Boston’s drug trade. Soon, people are knocking on the door constantly, asking for Kevin. Ma naïvely assumes that Kevin is just a popular kid. Michael begins seeing less of Kevin because Kevin is always sneaking out the window on secret errands. 

Phase Two of the busing initiative begins in the Charleston neighborhood. Michael’s brother, Joe, has been attending a trade school in Charleston and has made many Black friends, which in turn has made him a target for Irish people who accuse him of being a traitor. One day, after school, Joe encounters a mob waiting to fight and runs for his life, abandoning his Black friends. Although Joe continues to go to school at Charleston, he has to make more Irish friends for his own safety. Although MacDonald acknowledges that being part of the anti-busing movement gave him and his siblings the chance “to belong to something big” (118), he also admits that with the intensifying violence, “it wasn’t feeling so good anymore; we were losing—to the liberals and to the racists (118). 

A rumor starts that the politician George Wallace—a staunch segregationist—is planning a trip to South Boston as part of his run for president. Most of the neighborhood believes that Wallace will be able to end the busing conflict. Wallace energizes the crowd with his talk, but the media is soon reporting that he doesn’t stand a chance of winning. 

When Michael turns 10, he wonders if he is depressed and decides to call his father, George. He calls the house where his father lives with his mother. George’s mother yells at Michael, declaring that George doesn’t have a son, then puts George on the phone. When Michaels tells him that it’s his 10th birthday, George says, “Who put you up to this? Your mother?” (121). Michael hangs up. His family has a birthday party for him that day. 

At 13, Kathy gets involved with a group called the 8th Street Gang. Almost every night, she is away all night and uses a drug known as angel dust. One night, Michael comes home to find his mother threatening to cut Kathy’s hair off with scissors so that she won’t be able to “sleep with boys all night” (126). 

Nana dies, and the family attends the funeral. Afterward, Michael realizes that he had been the only one who was close to his grandmother. 

In the spring of 1978, Michael feels that the busing riots are in the past. Disco has taken over, and Michael and all of the other children spend their time trying to get into dance clubs. The only club willing to admit kids Michael’s age is called Illusions. He begins stealing disco clothes to wear, as well as buying bellbottoms from the check he receives from an antipoverty agency in Boston. However, he begins to love the clothes so much that he needs even more money, and he begins selling mescaline pills for Kevin at Illusions. One night, Michael spills a bottle of pills on the dance floor, and Kevin is furious. This is the end of Michael’s interest in selling drugs. He does enjoy drinking alcohol, however, and he often smuggles a bottle of whiskey into Illusions to drink while he dances. 

Joe is working at a garage when Whitey Bulger’s car is brought in for repairs. Kevin is in the back seat, holding a huge bag of marijuana. Kevin is now officially part of Bulger’s criminal enterprise. The MacDonalds rarely see him, and Michael reflects, “I guess he figured he had it made now, fifteen years old and riding high, in the backseat with the most powerful guy in Southie, James Whitey Bulger” (134).

Violence is a constant in Michael’s life. He recalls, “One morning on my way to St. Augustine’s, I found three fingers. They were at the bottom of one of the tunnels” (135). He regards the incident as just another story to tell the kids at school. One day, Davey begins staring at his palms and screaming. Davey asks if Michael can see the bleeding wounds in his hands, but Michael can’t see anything. Davey jumps up and starts singing “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. Every time Michael prays, he prays that Davey will not die by suicide. 

One night, a group of cops raids the MacDonald house, searching for drugs. They take Frankie over Ma’s protests and declare that they are taking him to jail. Michael knows that Kevin must have hidden his drug stash in Frankie’s room. The court tells Frankie that if he enlists in the Marines, he won’t be prosecuted, so he leaves home to begin training. When he comes home three months later, he is bald and has become obsessed with working out. Davey begins going on runs with him. 

In the summer of 1979, Michael is working a carpentry job that he was given by the welfare office. After work, he sees Davey on the street, completely calm. Later that night, there is a scream outside Michael’s home. Davey is lying face down in the road, covered in blood, having either jumped or fallen from a high roof. Michael calls 911. Davey jumps up and begins throwing punches at anyone he can reach while they wait for the police and medics. After working on Davey for an hour, the paramedics take him to a hospital. Michael admits, “Davey was gone from Patterson Way, and I suddenly felt again. I cried out loud” (151). 

Ma comes home from the hospital and tells Michael that Davey is in critical condition. (In reality, Davey is already dead, but Ma could not bring herself to tell Michael this news.) On the day of the funeral, Grandpa refuses to believe that Davey died by suicide and insists that Davey fell. MacDonald writes, “I too wanted to think Davey had fallen, until I went up to the roof where he’d made the last decision of his life and found broken bottles covered with his blood. He really wanted to die” (154). Michael guiltily feels that he could have done more to help Davey in his final week.