Shillelagh

Background

Donal Quinlan is the youngest child of Patrick and Maggie Quinlan. His siblings are Liam and Leah (twins, eldest) and Chloe. His father was a longshoreman, working at the port of Seattle. His mother inherited her family's bar, and she eventually renamed it "Quinlan's" when she married.

From a young age, Donal worked in some way, shape or form in the family business. When he was in middle school, he washed dishes, ran errands and the like. As he got older and took on more responsibility, he started working as a short-order cook and managing inventory. During this time, Patrick Quinlan was killed on the job. Being a longshoreman can be dangerous work, and accidents do happen. With his father gone and his mother alone, Donal felt it necessary to put his future plans on hold and threw himself even deeper into the family business. When he was old enough to work the front of the house, he started working the bar, and got to know many of the men who once counted his father as their friend. He heard the occasional rumble from some of them that there was more to the death of Patrick Quinlan than what the official record told.

Donal saw a bit of his dad in many of these men. Hard drinkers, brawlers...generally men that weren't afraid to speak their mind and stand up for what they believed in. Donal had never been afraid of getting in a scrape, and with this crowd as his mentors, he eventually took on the unofficial role of bouncer for Quinlan's. He did this not only for the support he received from the regulars, but as time went on, it became more of a necessity as a rougher crowd slowly seeped into the area and his family's establishment.

It was only a matter of time, with his new-found access to the business' books, that Donal noticed some regular, glaring discrepancies. Revenue was going missing, and he soon discovered that it was going to pay protection fees. This knowledge ate at Donal. He couldn't tolerate the fact that some lowlifes were shaking his mom down for protection fees, especially when that money was not buying them any protection at all (as the increasing numbers of people that Donal had to bounce could attest). It was definitely not the sort of situation his father would have tolerated. The next time the mob's collector came by, Donal grabbed the sawed-off pool cue from under the bar and beat the goon down. He threw him out on the street and warned him that the next time he or any of his people darkened Quinlan's doorstep, they'd get more of the same.

Donal should have known better, but he was still young and full of bravado and idealism. He had no real idea who he was threatening, until they came back later that night when he was cleaning up after closing. Four soldiers of the local chapter of the Bratva came to call, and while Donal fought for his life, they greatly outnumbered him. They beat him down and worked him over, leaving him for dead. As a final indignation, the thug Donal had beaten earlier in the day left a final reminder to the Quinlan family regarding non-payment: He tossed a Molotov cocktail in the front windows and put the place to the torch while Donal lay bleeding on the barroom floor.

Origin

Donal was miraculously rescued from the blaze and wound up in Harborview medical center. He had suffered third-degree burns over nearly 90% of his body, to say nothing of the savage beating he had received prior to that. The doctors were frankly amazed that he had survived at all, and were more astounded each day that he held on and did not succumb to his wounds. As much hope as they wanted to have, though, they all knew it was only a matter of time. Eventually, Donal's luck would run out, his sheer will would give in to the trauma. Donal floated in and out of consciousness under a thick haze of sedation. He heard snippets of doctors' prognoses and the tears shed by his mother. He heard medical staff wonder aloud to each other how he possibly could have survived. He also heard a stranger tell another man that it was a shame that his technologies were still in the experimental stages, and couldn't possibly be ready in time to save him.

This last part piqued Donal's interest some.

Shillelagh's Little Black and Blue Book

Entry 1, January 13, 2015