First there was the Jewish Mafia and lately there was hushed talk of the dreaded Gay Mafia. In between was there an Irish Mafia in Hollywood? When the members were grilled about it, they said they had no recollection due to the inordinate amount of alcohol consumed at the meetings and if there was talk of someone being whacked, it would more than likely have been Flann the barkeep for running out of Irish Dew. Let Cagney deny it:

"So much blarney has been written about Hollywood's Irish Mafia that a few words on the subject would seem salutary. There was a period in the early 1940's when Pat O'Brien, Frank McHugh, Ralph Bellamy, Spencer Tracy, Lynne Overman, Frank Morgan, and I would get together once a week, have dinner, and make the talk. That's all there was to it. Simply go into the week's happenings, and if there was a story to be told, or jokes to be let loose, that was the place and that was the time. Laughter and fun among some old friends, nothing more. But Hollywood being what it is--that flatulent cave of the winds, John Barrymore called it--all kinds of ridiculous connotations were put on our little get-togethers.