Arthur: Godfather of the North

Who is Arthur Donnelly? Is he the so-called ‘Godfather of the North’, ‘The Freddie Foreman of the North’ as Freddie Foreman put it, or a just a charming old grandpa with a colourful past?

To the police he was one of the “Barrow Boys” better known as the Quality Street Gang. His house was raided in 1986 and again in 1994 following a six-month secret police surveillance sting called ‘Operation Bluebell’.

Arthur says all he has ever done is help people, ‘half of Manchester’. Now retired, he tells his side of the story about Operation Bluebell, his brutal childhood and the rise and rule of the QSG. Arthur recalls his rise from an impoverished Irish immigrant background to king of the heap. His Teddy Boy 1950s and 1960s scrapes, schemes, crimes and first partner, Albert ‘the Blade’ Gibbons.

In this thrilling first-hand account, Arthur’s dark sense of humour casts soft light on the six -month police surveillance sting into him and his sons’ Gio-Goi fashion empire in the 90s. He was jailed for eight years, alongside some of Britain’s most-notorious names but, to this day, Arthur maintains he was fitted up by the police.

Godfather of the North is the ultimate account of the rise and rule of the QSG, and the failed attempts of the police to try and bring the gang to heel.