Book Description

Jimmy Devine has arrived in New York with the intention of starting an Irish band. He recruits Frederick Lancaster, accordionist, actor, raconteur, waiter, general man about town, and Gideon, the shy and sometimes wilful fiddler who plays Irish music in the subway stations of Brooklyn, to his cause, and together 'The Blazing Sons', as they call themselves, set about conquering New York! Jimmy lands some gigs in Irish pubs in Woodside and the Bronx. He discovers, however, that the path to the big time on the Irish scene in New York is strewn with many obsctacles, not to mention casualties. Dickensian in scope, 'Breakfast in Woodside' is a tale of the contemporary Irish experience in New York, and is told through the viewpoint of several characters, both Irish born and American born. For some, the grass has proved to indeed be 'greener on the other side'; for others it has not. ""McCabe's gentle recollections spring eternal"" - Cahir O Doherty, The Irish Voice, New York.