Gang name: Éire's Champions (ECS for short)
Country of Origin: Ireland
Advantages:
Wealth - The ECS is extraordinarily wealthy, both from their legitimate corporations based in Boston, and their illegal ventures involving drug trafficking, extortion and robbery.
Connections - The ECS has deep ties to multiple governments, most notably in Ireland, Great Britain and Australia. In addition, the American Branch of the ECS can call for resources or reinforcements from the original O'Reilley Dynasty in Ireland or the McCarthy Dynasty of Australia
Disadvantages:
Age - By crime standards in the US, the American ECS is a relatively new gang. Due to this, they do not have many connections in United States politics, and have barely made their mark on California crime, instead staying largely in Boston and Chicago.
Selectivity - Due to the tradition of only promoting Irish men and women to management positions, talented criminals are often passed up for less-apt Irish criminals. This also discourages the entry into the gang for foreigners, as they know it is unlikely for them to advance far in the ranks. However, the Murray Dynasty has shown more leniency in this than the other two ECS groups, perhaps because of the diversity of the United States.
Gang History: The ECS originated as a political group fighting for the freedom of North Ireland against British occupation in 1914. However a senior member of the group, Jamie O'Reilley, began to use the influence of the ECS to extort money from both Irish and North Irish local and state governments. As O'Reilley grew more powerful in the ECS and accumulated more wealth, the other leaders of the political group began to catch on. Unfortunatly for them, it was too late - O'Reilley had the support of the majority of the ECS, and the senior members that disagreed with him were either killed or exiled.
With the ECS firmly under O'Reilley's control, he began to expand the group into a full fledged criminal syndicate. Thanks to the ECS's strong political ties, the group's illegal actions were simply overlooked in most of Ireland. The ECS not only performed common gang related jobs such as automobile theft and resale, armed robbery and the production of illegal drugs, but also bought shares of many large Irish corporations. By the 1960's Jamie O'Reilley, who could never be connected to any of the illegal actions of the ECS, became one of the richest men in Ireland, and eventually he decided to allow the sons of two of his closest allies in his struggle to take over the ECS, to start up new branches of the gang on other continents. Phillip McCarthy started the Australian branch, and Samuel Murray put the ECS in the United States. Unlike O'Reilley, Samuel had a fairly strong moral compass, and only allowed the use of torture and murder unless absolutely necessary. Still, Murray grew the Western branch of the ECS into a criminal organization to rival that of their brothers in the homeland. In 2010, at the age of 70, Samuel retired and gave the reigns to his son, Neil.
Gang Code Of Conduct:
1. Respect. The ECS, and other gangs. This is Samuel Murray's primary rule, and anyone who breaks it will be severely punished. If the rival gang is not at war with the ECS, they should be treated with the respect given to another ECS member
2. Honor. With Rule 1 in mind, if anybody slanders or discredits the good ECS name, it is the right of an ECS member to do everything in their power to make that person pay.
3. Chivalry. An ECS member should never steal from the poor, never deal to the young, and should help a person in need to enough extent that they make a difference, but not so that it puts the member in a position of weakness.
4. Policy. Everyone with devotion to Éire's Champions may join the ECS, but generally only those of Irish origin are promoted to a managment position. This rule has been bent for certain individuals.
Base of Operations Locations: The legitimate business of the American ECS branch is run from out of the P. Wentworth building in Boston, Massachusetts. The illegal actions, however, are largely based out of a huge shipping warehouse in Chicago.