#idk he's kind of a riff on john pilgrim but. not done. badly

[devilsdare-arc]

NOLAN CONNOLLY, a.k.a. THE CARDINAL.

the illegitimate son of the former diocesan archbishop of new york, nolan was raised in queens by his maternal grandparents, poor irish catholic immigrants, and kept in the dark about his parentage until his mother, during one of her rare visits, finally being unable to bear keeping it a secret and telling her son the truth. nolan, barely ten at the time, developed a grudge against his biological father for ruining his mother’s life.

nolan first began to get involved with the kitchen irish at fifteen, helping a few older “friends” stick up a bodega turning into running drugs and guns turning into carrying out regular small robberies and collecting on behalf of roscoe “the fixer” sweeney. he rediscovered “faith” through violence and the situational catholicism of his peers, feeling closer to god with a gun in his hand than he had since he was a child.

he committed his first murder for the irish at seventeen, and leading members quickly took note of his skill, shifting him away from mere debt collecting and busy work. at nineteen, fate coincided that his biological father, who had since been made a cardinal, crossed the wrong people in his own back alley dealings with gambling and prostitution, and nolan was given the opportunity to prove himself and get his revenge in one fell swoop.

the hit went perfectly, and nolan quickly rose in rank and status. his assassinating his own father quickly became something of a legend, and over the years he began to go by the dead man’s old title in honor of his “achievement” (and as one last bit of spite.)

when he became one of the many members of the kitchen irish forced to go underground after samuel silke’s arrest and death, the legend—and his alias—became the only word of him that was still spoken, his true identity carefully kept out of the public record. he quietly moved his mother to boston and cared for her for years on the money he’d amassed, until her death shortly after the events of daredevil season 2/the punisher season 1.

with nothing left to tie him to boston, nicky cavella on a clear path to take over what remained of the decimated kitchen irish and get revenge on the man who’d killed so many of their brethren, and more importantly, many of the old school gangsters who had witnessed young nolan’s early rise to prominence coming out of retirement at word of the fixer himself being up for parole, a few words to the right people are enough to bring the cardinal back home to new york city—

—and to get him very interested in the so-called devil who watches over the kitchen, especially when rumors begin to spread that the vigilante might have a connection to another of sweeney’s former enforcers…