Mildred and Oscar | Michael Weiner
A guest post with the Society of History Writers | March 2025
‘Weiner threads the ideals of philanthropy throughout the novel, as, over the generations, the four families channel their wealth into charities, medical work, and more. Just as altruism becomes a character in and of itself here, so, too, does New York City, as it grows and evolves alongside the novel’s cast, swelling and ebbing with the ups and downs that accompany carving out a life from virtually nothing. This is a poignant reminder that the true measure of success lies not in wealth or fame, but in the bonds we forge and the legacies we leave behind.’
(Publisher’s Weekly Review)
I am delighted to welcome Dr Michael Weiner back to the Society of History Writers as the author of this week’s guest post, a second extract from his novel Both Sides of the Same Coin. You can read his first post, ‘Welcome to America’, at the link below.
A native New Yorker, Dr Weiner is a paediatric oncologist, philanthropist, and author. He served as the head of paediatric oncology at Columbia University Irving Center and has written more than fifty peer-reviewed medieval articles and abstracts. He is the founder of the Hope and Heroes Cancer Fund, and has authored three non-medical books.
Both Sides of the Same Coin tells the story of four families and their journeys to New York in the first decades of the twentieth century. Over time, ‘they build success and give back to the community. However, with accomplishments come unavoidable heartbreak and misfortune, illness, drug addiction, and death.’1
If you’re new here, the Society of History Writers is founded upon the principle of collaboration. It’s the ONLY space on Substack dedicated to bringing writers of history and historical fiction together to share their experience, grow in their craft, and share their writing exclusively with a growing worldwide audience. I am honoured to provide this space to spotlight your writing and share it with colleagues and readers across the world.
Chapter 2: Mildred and Oscar
Michael Weiner
Oscar and Patrick Doyle developed a close, long-lasting friendship. Not only did Patrick provide shelter, work, and mature guidance to Oscar, but he also became a hybrid father, brother, mentor. His past had many common elements to those confronting Oscar. He was a third-generation Irish Catholic American. His grandparents, farmers in rural Ireland, immigrated to the United States in 1850 during Ireland’s potato blight. The fungus that decimated the potato crops caused unimaginable famine. More than 1 million Irish died whereas another half a million arrived in America. His grandparents, like so many Irish immigrants, left a rural lifestyle in a nation lacking modern industry and found themselves unprepared for the challenges of living and working in an urban center such as New York City.
Patrick and Mary Doyle gravitated to an Irish community in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. They crowded into a subdivided home with distant relatives from Ulster County, Ireland. The small row house on Third Avenue built as a single-family home was shared with three other families. Each season had challenges. Summer was the most difficult. It seemed like a furnace, cramped suffocating rooms, little to no ventilation. In winter all huddled in blankets, no heat, but despite the cramped conditions, they were fortunate as so many of their countrymen lived in miserable conditions without adequate sewage and running water but with rampant diseases including cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis.
Patrick, a big, strong man, found work as a construction worker building the Brooklyn Bridge, the first fixed crossing of the East River connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Construction began in 1870. John A. Roebling was the chief designer. Tammany Hall controlled the New York Bridge Company, thus provided project oversight. When completed in 1893, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world with a main span of 1,595 feet and a deck 127 feet above the river. Mary worked as a domestic housecleaner for the well-healed inhabitants of Brooklyn Heights. The Doyle family felt fortunate. Within five years, Mary gave birth to a son, John. They were able to purchase their own home in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and applied for citizenship.
John, born in 1885, was a kid of the streets. School and education were of secondary importance. Like his father, he was big, strong, muscular, and handsome with shocking red hair. He had savvy, street smarts, made friends easily, and as a teenager began to develop influence in the community. He was a man to reckon with to get things done. Of that there was no doubt. John worked as a longshoreman on the docks, which was tough, backbreaking work with twelve-hour days, six days a week, loading and unloading cargo ships in New York Harbor. His coworkers respected him and looked to him for leadership. He built on principles of loyalty to his Irish roots and recognized that Irish Americans held sway. He organized Irish workers not only on the docks but also in construction, carpentry, and other trades. He became politically active in the community, provided pathways for his countrymen to get jobs, deal with naturalization, obtain housing, food, and heating fuel in emergencies. His political activism was rewarded by an appointment as an officer in the New York City chapter of the American Federation of Labor, an alliance of craft unions founded in 1886 in Columbus, Ohio.
Irish political machines played an important role in several major cities from New York to Chicago and San Francisco. New York’s Tammany Hall was under Irish control and although remembered for their perceived corruption, they were a major force capable of getting out the vote in important elections and for providing much-needed social services. John embraced the principles of Tammany Hall and the ideals of organized labor; he was a rising star and had a future as a politician and labor organizer. He married Kara McGuire in 1912. Together they purchased a brownstone on West Forty-Sixth Street, just off Ninth Avenue. Their first child, a son, Patrick Doyle II, named after his grandfather, was born nine months later.
However, during the summer of 1914, the world changed; chaos prevailed. World War I, one of the deadliest and costliest global conflicts, began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. European countries aligned between warring factions: the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire versus the Allies consisting of France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, and Japan. Initially, the United States remained neutral, although individual Americans supported one side or the other, but most agreed with President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of neutrality. The theater of war bogged down into trench warfare, massive, costly battles ensued, death and destruction were enormous, and neither side was able to gain an advantage.
In early 1917, a series of events changed American attitudes. German submarines began unrestricted warfare against all ships in the North Atlantic; American cargo and passenger vessels were torpedoed with loss of life and material. In addition, an intercepted German communique disclosed a plan to offer Mexico territory it lost in the Mexican American War in return for their support. The United States joined the Allies, and greater than 4 million American soldiers entered military service and prepared to do battle overseas, John Doyle among them.
Doyle fought with General Black Jack Pershing, whose battlefield skill and leadership created an effective fighting force that thwarted the German offensive and gave the Allies a significant victory on the Western Front. Exhausted and demoralized, the Germans surrendered at the Paris Peace Conference in November 1918 in what is best known as the Treaty of Versailles.
The aftermath of war counted more than 8 million soldiers killed and greater than 20 million wounded. Despite America’s relatively short engagement, more than 115,000 doughboys, the popular name of American infantrymen, were killed, including John Doyle. His remains were buried in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery in France, a sprawling 130-acre hillside plot, the final resting place for fifteen thousand American soldiers.
John’s demise devastated his family. Mother and son would not soon recover. Mary sank into a deep depression and was barely able to leave her home to go grocery shopping; caring for five-year-old Patrick was nearly impossible. Her immune system weakened by her inability to sustain herself left her vulnerable to the ravages of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. She died leaving her only son an orphan. Patrick was raised by neighbors Carla and Shawn O’Shea; they willingly accepted him as one of their own children and provided a loving, nurturing environment. Shawn was a lieutenant in the New York City Fire department, Carla a stay-at-home mother. Patrick and his new stepsister, Anne, and stepbrother, Kevin, attended Public School 212 on West Forty-Eighth Street and Beacon High School. Patrick, unlike his father and grandfather before him, was a good student. He enjoyed learning and developed a proclivity for the Irish poets Thomas Moore and William Butler Yeats and classical music, in particular Mozart and Beethoven.
Upon graduation from high school, Patrick received a scholarship to Hunter College, part of the City College of New York system. He majored in sociology and had a part-time job at Mike’s Restaurant, a neighborhood eatery on East Sixty-Eighth Street frequented by students and Park Avenue clientele alike. Mike taught him the ins and outs of the restaurant business, how to run a kitchen, menu planning with a daily “Blue Plate” special, front-end management, reservations, the whole ball of wax. Not surprisingly, he did well at Hunter. He graduated with honors but found he really enjoyed the restaurant business and decided to make a career in hospitality. He took courses in management and food preparation and read voraciously about beverages and wine. With a small loan from Shawn O’Shea and financing from Chase Bank for construction and mortgage, he bought an existing restaurant, renovated it completely, and opened Patrick’s Bar and Grille in Hell’s Kitchen in 1935. It was a dream come true.
Thank you Michael for sharing this extract with us!
Did the themes of hope and pursuing the early-twentieth-century ‘American Dream’ resonate? Do you have family stories of transatlantic migration? Join us in the comments as we discuss our thoughts on this piece.
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https://www.bothsidesofthesamecoin.com/about-the-book/
A lovely post. Thank you so much for sharing this excerpt.