A hideously disfigured Irish terrorist, an Irish mob boss and a demolitions expert, Cooley was formerly an Active Service Unit leader with the Provisional IRA in Derry, Northern Ireland, from 1986–1993, when he was arrested, interrogated by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) at Castlereagh, convicted of murder &amp; terrorism and sent to prison, but was released as part of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. After Cooley was freed, he tried to join the Continuity IRA, but that unit disavowed him, so Finn came to America. Cooley had to wear a facial mask as half of his face was blown off in an explosives accident, when the bomb he planted at a Belfast RUC police station prematurely detonated. He was also an expert in hand-to-hand combat. In 2003, Cooley planted fifty pounds of Semtex at an Irish bar in Hell's Kitchen in order to kill several rival Irish mob bosses, but the bomb went off prematurely, killing 11 and injuring 30 innocent people, one of whom was Frank Castle; Castle's friend MI6 agent Yorkie Mitchell informed Castle who was responsible and provided MI6's intel files on Cooley and his associates; MI6 also ordered Mitchell to assassinate Cooley. Cooley was ironically killed by a bomb left behind by recently deceased Irish mob boss Pops Nesbitt, who thought Cooley and his rivals were unworthy of inheriting his fortune. Cooley had a nephew, Peter Cooley, who was a Provisional IRA soldier from 1994–1998, who served as his uncle's right-hand man, and was a prime suspect in the murders of three British security forces soldiers, but was never arrested or convicted; one of the victims was Sergeant Major Stephen Lorimer, a close friend of Mitchell. Peter was captured by Castle &amp; Mitchell, interrogated for information about Finn and the New York Irish mob leaders, then executed by Parachute Regiment trooper Lance Corporal Andy Lorimer, in revenge for his father's murder.