Fridge / Gangs of New York

• Bill takes in former Dead Rabbits like Happy Jack and McGloin, but despises Monk. Why? Monk was a mercenary, and has no belief in the "ancient law". In Bill's eyes, he has no scruples.
• The entire reason for the "no guns" belief in settling arguments? Aside from being "ancient laws of combat", the warring parties don't want any innocents to be hurt by stray gunfire.
• Bill's not a bigot towards Irish per se. He's a bigot towards Catholics, as Irish Protestants came to the US to escape persecution. Now Irish Catholics are fleeing because of general bigotry by the English (and famine), and he wants no part of them.
• The entire movie follows Bill's quest for power and influence over the city, and he does indeed become an infamous gang leader with political influence... but pay very close attention to the famous ending montage of the graveyard with the New York skyline shifting over the generations. For all his scheming and murdering and warring, the marker put up to remember Bill disappears first, and within the first couple of changes. How quickly history forgets.