title: The Altar Boy: An Irish American Christmas Story
author: Sean Brennan
description: Sean Brennan was born the tenth of eleven children to his immigrant Gaelic-speaking mother, Bridie, and his American Irish father, Pops. He came of age in the 60s in Oak Park, Illinois. After a 30 year career at the CBOT, in his heart, he has always been a writer. The Altar Boy is his first book, a second memoir, Bridies Boy will be published soon.
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   **A DARK-HUNTER**
  
   **CHRISTMAS**
  
   **By**
  
   **Sherrilyn Kenyon**
  
  Born to impoverished Irish immigrant parents at the turn of the century, James
  Cameron Patrick Gallagher entered this world with a large chip on his
  shoulder.
  
  It didn't help any that he was birthed in the backroom of a sweatshop that
  should have been condemned, to a timid, fretful woman who'd been forced to
  return to work just hours after she had delivered him into the hands of his
  nervous, alcoholic father. A father who was indifferent to the boy at best and
  violent at worst.
  
  From the moment of that first wail forward, Jamie spent his life fighting for
  respect. Fighting his way out of the poverty that haunted him as he grew up in
  the Irish slums of New York.
  
  At age fifteen, he found his way out.
  
  The year was 1916 and two important events happened to him. His father died
  after he slipp