Gray Brechin

San Francisco is a very Irish city; as Irish as Boston. One of the West’s great hydraulic engineers, Michael O’Shaughnessy, was born in County Limerick but became simply “The Chief” of San Francisco. Some of the greatest American union leaders were San Francisco Irish, but the Irish were also among the West's greatest bigots and racists. No one is as well versed in the dramatic history of this great city as the distinguished historian Gray Brechin.