Chicago’s gilded Age had its blemishes, as this story of the murder of Dr Patrick Cronin in 1889 gruesomely illustrates. Cronin was caught up in a struggle for control of the secretive and powerful Clan na Gael, an organisation which sought home rule for Ireland by force. Many of the Chicago Irish were members, although most joined in order to better find a job or a house rather through any passionately held political views.   It’s a standing joke that the first item on the agenda at the meeting of any Irish organisation is “The Split”. True to form, the Clan split from the Fenians. Its oaths and Masonic-type ritual were a mix of the theatrical, the secretive and the absurd, including the use of a schoolboyish code that transposed the letters of each word