Irish newspaper paints Irish Americans as nauseating and ignorant

Says Kennedys were leaders of this ugly ethnic minority

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The late, great, Senator Edward Kennedy

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For Myers astronaut Michael Collins is an American of Irish ancestry to be admired and not one of those Irish-Americans from the east coast who sings rebel songs. But how does Myers know? I sure don't know, but I do know that Collins' grandfather was from Ireland and Collins' father was one of 11 children and served in the Army his entire career. Collins' father retired a Major General, but he was also the son of an immigrant. He could easily have been both a successful, admirable (in Myers' eyes) American and a singer of Irish rebel songs.

As for Collins the astronaut, again I don't know. He did, however, marry a Finnegan from Boston. So quite possibly Collins could have a father and father-in-law who sang Irish rebel songs. Using Myers' stereotype-based reckoning it seems almost certain. Collins himself may even enjoy a rebel song or two.

So what?

What makes Myers' stereotype view of Irish-America more galling is that he somehow believes that the Irish neighborhoods around Boston and New York couldn't possibly produce the kind of Americans he admires. We all know that's not true. Those same “grotesque and infantilised east-coast communities” that bother Myers so much have in the past produced some of the most patriotic Americans.

I daresay I could find many Irish-Americans from those communities serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today; young Americans Myers recently described as belonging “to the bravest generation of soldiers the United States has ever produced.”

That's who Irish-Americans are. Proud Americans and proud of our Irish roots. Maybe if Myers got off his own “ huge rectum” and paid an open-minded visit he might learn a thing or two about us.

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