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Stephen Colbert’s truthiness: we Irish hate the English

By
DEBBIE MCGOLDRICK,
Irish Voice Senior Editor
Published Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 6:47 AM
Updated Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 8:01 AM

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Colbert and Gates pour over records


“That's a big part of being Irish in America – the English are bastards!” So proclaims Comedy Central king Stephen Colbert, whose Irish roots have been dissected by Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard professor whose racially charged dust-up with Irish American cop James Crowley in Cambridge last summer led to the White House beer summit with President Obama and a so-called “teachable moment” about race relations in the U.S.

Gates completed a PBS documentary called "Faces of America" which is due to premiere around the country this week, and in it he traces the ancestral roots of several prominent Americans, among them Colbert.  The star of "The Colbert Report" has spoken of his Irish roots many times in the past, and takes part in New York Bloomsday celebrations in honor of the James Joyce classic "Ulysses".

Colbert and Gates talked about the effect of British colonialism in Ireland, with Colbert saying that the Irish in America will never forget the British driving their ancestors off their land.

“Part of being Irish even to this day is not liking the English,” said Colbert with a laugh.  “Absolutely no doubt.”

The comic recalled being scared to tell his mother about his future sister-in-law’s accommodations in New York.  No, she wasn’t living in sin.  It was actually worse.  She was residing at a building on 72nd Street called the Oliver Cromwell.

“I thought, I can’t tell my mom that!” said Colbert. “Cromwell is like Satan.  He drove our family west of the River Shannon to farm rocks 350 years ago! I was raised on that story.” (Cromwell, of course, was the British tyrant who slaughtered scores of Irish back in the 1600s).

After Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee married he did a roots search on her background and, horror of horror, he discovered that her Irish ancestors were from Co. Tyrone in Northern Ireland, “on land that had been given to them by the Crown,” Colbert told Gates.
“I said to her, ‘Your family got my family’s land!” he joked.  “But that’s what’s fantastic about America – 300 years later we get married.”

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15 Comments

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STEVENSTAR | Apr 14, 2012, 10:53 AM EDT
MORE AMERICAN RUBBISH!! IM IRISH I WAS BORN IN IRELAND AND I LIVE IN IRELAND AND I DO NOT HATE THE ENGLISH !! NOR DO ANY OF MY FAMILY HATE THE ENGLISH...ON THE OTHER HAND I CANNOT STAND AMERICANS TRYING TO BE IRISH. MY PARTNER IS ENGLISH SOME OF MY FAMILY LIVE IN ENGLAND AND OTHER MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY ARE MARRIED TO ENGLISH PEOLE..... WHO IS THIS AMERICAN IDIOT COLBERT ???? ...AS FOR THE AMERICAN IDIOT BELOW WHOP COMMENTED THAT ENGLAND CAUSED MANY OF THE WORLDS PROBLEMS ... MY GOD SUCH AROGANCE AMERICANS HAVE BOMBED AND KILLED AND CAUSED MORE WARS THEN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD... YOU MAY NOT KNOW THAT MATE BUT THE RETS OF US KNOW OUR WORLD HISTORY !!

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YoungPike | May 10, 2010, 09:45 AM EDT
In my experience, all so-called Irish-Americans are deluded. They are no more Irish than I am. They are Americans, nothing more and nothing less.

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sully1167 | Feb 14, 2010, 04:45 AM EST
Colbert sends a poor message,even in jest. Individuals are evil;not entire races,nationalies,religions,etc.It is the same as some black bigots who blame all white people for slavery.

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kickstar | Feb 11, 2010, 11:01 PM EST
I for one do not hate the English nor anyone else, I cannot stand this attempt to Group us Irish into one mold, If you got ten Irish people in a room you would get ten differing opinions and attitudes,We are not and never where an homogeneous people. I have plenty to be grateful to England for and the English people whom I number many among my friends. I was brought up to take people as I find them I owe much in this regard to my late mother who brought us up so well with a proper Christian outlook and attitude, It has stood me well.

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seanomelbourne | Feb 11, 2010, 07:04 PM EST
Poor "rcdskpr" another narrow minded bigot.

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maxriley | Feb 11, 2010, 04:48 PM EST
COLBERT ONE OF THE FUNNIEST AROUND

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antrimliam | Feb 10, 2010, 10:13 PM EST
People like Colbert are the type of people haven,t got a clue as to what its like to be Irish .The real Irish do not hate anybody ,that is why they are among the most likeable people on God,s earth.It,s people like this so called comedian who want to keep all the old troubles alive for their own attempt to try and comvince others they know all about Ireland and its past history .Colbert is as we say in Ireland is nothing but a blowhard. he should try and hone his so called comedic talents and leave Ireland to the IRISH

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rcrdskpr@aol.com | Feb 10, 2010, 05:28 PM EST
colbert is simply a fool, and gates is a racist masquerading as as educator.

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killowen | Feb 10, 2010, 03:00 PM EST
Its the other way around - the Brits and their Saxon connected brethern have been programmed to hate the Irish from the gitgo. People's whose lands were taken from them and forced to barren regions should be trying to get even. Such folks, then, not going along by not taking the Proddy schilling from their occupier Master to drop their RC beliefs another things that drove them nuts and still does to this very day.

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roseofengland | Feb 10, 2010, 01:52 PM EST
I find it a bit childish really. My mother was French Canadian,rumoured to have been born in America. My father was from Irish stock and married an English woman. I was born, raised and live in England and regard myself as English. I understand we all descended from 5 African ladies back in the mists of time, so we are all related anyway. Hating people for their nationality, religion, colour or ethnicity is pointless.The only person harmed is the hater. It's a small world growing ever smaller. We are all in it together with whatever fate has in store for our planet earth. It's better, more productive and more sensible to hold hands with each other rather than shake fists.

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Sectionhand | Feb 10, 2010, 11:53 AM EST
I'd like to know who , with PBS , hired Gates for this tour de force in geneology . Maybe he's trying to find a connection between slaves imported from Africa in the 17th century and the immigrants from the 18th and 19th century who were generally known as "The Black Irish." If Gates isn't a damned liar ... then he's at least disingenuos !

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slainte9 | Feb 10, 2010, 11:11 AM EST
This raises an interesting question. Who's Irish? If Colbert is descended from a Gearon (or Guerin) from Limerick, his roots may be English or French. And what we think of as English and French today, in days gone by, were really different flavors of Vikings (who took the native women of the British Isles for slaves and concubines in additon to intermarrying with the locals). All of this is less complicated for those of us who, like James Healy, believe that we are all one in Christ, neither slave nor free, neither Jew nor Gentile. Healy was born a slave according to the laws of Georgia, but was sent to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts by his Irish father and became America's first Roman Catholic bishop of African descent.

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shidoobe | Feb 10, 2010, 11:02 AM EST
26 6 = 1

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ripley838 | Feb 10, 2010, 09:54 AM EST
England has been the source of most of the world's problems.

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MaryDonegal | Feb 10, 2010, 09:42 AM EST
Interesting

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