SOA Background For Season 3

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Original text by Kurt Sutter:

By now, most folks know we are doing an Irish storyline this season. I won't spoil anything with details but I wanted to share some mythology with fans. This is information that has either already come out through character or will be alluded to this season. Again, it's nothing that will spoil your viewing but if you are reading my blog, or reaching out to me on Facebook or Twitter, it gives you some inside dope others won't have. And I'm sure I don't have to say this, but just for the folks in legal -- the following mythology is not based on real events or facts. It is all a machination of my disturbed little mind. Any likeness or similarities to real events or people is purely fucking coincidental.

Gemma, Jackson and Thomas Teller were all born with the family flaw. Varying degrees of congenital heart disease, CHD. Jax's condition was very minor and he eventually outgrew his issue. Although he needs to be aware of his genetic predisposition for heart disease, it's nothing that impacts his day-to-day life. Such is the case with Gemma as well. Thomas was not that lucky. Jax's younger brother was born in distress, his CHD was much more serious. (Abel was also born with CHD, but his condition, like Jax, is minor. Abel's birth distress was due to the Gastroschisis - intestines are outside of the body - an unfortunately common occurrence of children born of drug-addicted mothers).

Thomas' childhood was a series of tests, treatments and hospital stays. Not only did it have an emotional toll on John and Gemma, it created a huge financial burden as well. Up until that point, the Redwood Original charter had been involved in some illegal enterprises, but not guns. A member of the First Nine, McGee, was born and raised in Belfast. He knew that the IRA was looking for distribution to the states. Both McGee and Clay convinced John that assembling, customizing and selling guns could be a lucrative enterprise. John, desperate and already slightly broken, agreed. An Irish Catholic by birth, John Teller went to Belfast and made a deal with the Irish Republican Army. And so the gun business was born.

McGee stayed in his homeland and began the Belfast charter of the Sons of Anarchy. Sons of Anarchy Belfast (Sam Bell) became a mercenary arm of the IRA.