39 Comments

• JimmieM | Feb 02, 2013, 02:19 PM EST

  So I am the kind that knows they are out to get us so I am having a pint and bit of fun before they catch me

• Woodman | Sep 18, 2011, 09:55 PM EDT

  The Irish feel persecuted because THEY ARE AFTER OUR LUCY CHARMS!!

• Woodman | Sep 18, 2011, 08:14 PM EDT

  The ONLY REASON the IRISH FEEL PERSECUTED is cause EVERYONE IS OUT TO GET US!!

• Peadar62 | Sep 16, 2011, 11:28 AM EDT

  Pittsburghkid.I am sorry but..George Walker Bush is as English as could be..

• PhoenixZouave | Sep 15, 2011, 09:21 AM EDT

  My late mother was Democratic commiitte woman in Pennslyvania for many years. She was in the Oval office with FDR, Truman, Kennedy,and Carter. She said Truman swore like a trooper,didn't take crap from anyone, but was a true Democrat. FDR was a regal, but friendly Brahamin Blue Blood. Kennedy was an old tome Irish pol who could turn the blarney up and down at will, but Jackie was a complete snob. Actually, although she didn't like the Carter's political stance too well, she said Jimmy and Roslyn were the nicest, friendliest, couple in the White House

• Rebelforce | Sep 15, 2011, 09:18 AM EDT

  I was very surprised to hear Jacqueleen say she "despised" the French. "They are not very nice people" she says. I had always assumed she took pride in her French ancestry. Apparently not. Then I remembered reading once that Jacqueleen Kennedy was so proud when she discovered she had Irish-Catholic ancestors on her maternal side.

• bogsidebunny | Sep 15, 2011, 01:27 AM EDT

  WOW, Jackie was smarter than I gave her credit for!

• kateomprint | Sep 14, 2011, 04:15 PM EDT

  I really don't care that she didn't like us or that she didn't like Irish Stew. It is too far back for anybody to really give a sh****e

• AengusOg | Sep 13, 2011, 09:19 PM EDT

  It was the same old trite and hackneyed story, impoverished nobility marrying nouveau riche for their money and then looking down on them.

• Stiofain | Sep 13, 2011, 08:54 PM EDT

  My father came to America in 1918, Republican,protestant background (he hated all religion,except Quakers). It made no difference if he was a "Prod", "All dem micks are alike, lazy and drunk!" For me St. Patrick's Day in grade school, "The Irish are just niggers turned inside out!" Gee, I guess that might,possibly,give one a persecution complex.

• jamieLM | Sep 13, 2011, 06:44 PM EDT

  Jackie was very proud of her French roots, not so much of her Irish ones. She liked people to think she was descended from the French aristocracy. When JFK was elected, the genealogists traced her ancestors back to a Michael Bouvier who was a peddler, or something like that, from the working class. Jackie was NOT pleased. She'd earlier had someone write up a fake book on her illustrious French pedigree. I think she thought the Kennedys were a loud, rowdy, brash clan without a lot of class. Jackie knew that JFK was no saint before she married him, and she was never really comfortable with some of his family members. She probably wouldn't have eaten, let alone cooked, Irish stew if it had been served on a silver platter. She loved ALL things French.

• seanomelbourne | Sep 13, 2011, 06:34 PM EDT

  Poor little "precious pup"jackie.Life was so hard for her in the rarified air of Hyannis port or Martha's vineyard. Life dealt her a dud hand.

• Pittsburghkid | Sep 13, 2011, 05:44 PM EDT

  Kennedys are not the only Irish in America. Reagan's father was Irish Catholic, until he died. Reagan was permitted to chose his religion at age 12. Herbert Walker, an Irish Catholic, was the grandfather of George Herbert Walker Bush. Herbert Walker disowned his daughter for marrying a Protestant. They must have made up because his in the middle of Bush's name. George Walker Bush looks very Irish, but he never made a big deal about it like Obama.

• LainieMcEl | Sep 13, 2011, 04:46 PM EDT

  Many of the so-called aristocrats married for the all the wrong reasons and then wonder why they weren't happy. Jackie was a very smart lady and knew what she was geting into when she married into the Kennedy clan. And she didn't HAVE to put up with his womanizing...she chose to put up with it.

• hooligan6a | Sep 13, 2011, 04:05 PM EDT

  CitizenWhy, I am an Irish-American, rabid right winger and proud of it. It's much better then being a wimpy liberal.

• ariagirl | Sep 13, 2011, 03:15 PM EDT

  Can any of you imagine what life was like for this woman from the time she married JFK? His family was brash and overbearing and that's why they wanted her to add a little refinement to their brash bunch. They U-S-E-D her. She had to put up with that, her husband being a womanizer, then all the sycophants at the White House. Actually, at the time he died, he was starting to mellow and it's a well known fact that they were growing closer. She had just lost a baby in August and I think JFK began looking at Jackie differently because of it. She was part Irish, as am I. So it's not because I hate the Irish. I embrace my heritage. This poor woman just had too many outside forces against her. She was kind of like Priscilla Presley with Elvis. She never had her husband to herself.

• LainieMcEl | Sep 13, 2011, 02:34 PM EDT

  Now why would the Irish ever feel "bitter"? Hmmmmmm!!!!! As for Jackie, she is French and we all know how snobbish the French can be toward anyone who isn't and some who are!!! OMG! Jackie is french with a little Irish..and I am Irish with a little french thrown in. No wonder I am such a mess. LMAO!!!

• warlocks | Sep 13, 2011, 02:21 PM EDT

  I ALREADY MADE STATEMENT ABOUT Jackie Kennedy about how Snooty fake put on Voice . but you Didn't Print it out WHY NOT ???

• Rebelforce | Sep 13, 2011, 02:01 PM EDT

  " Do you know what I think of history? ... For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But Jack loved history so... No one'll ever know everything about Jack. But ... history made Jack what he was ... this lonely, little sick boy ... scarlet fever ... this little boy sick so much of the time, reading in bed, reading history ... reading the Knights of the Round Table ... and he just liked that last song. Then I thought, for Jack history was full of heroes. And if it made him this way, if it made him see the heroes, maybe other little boys will see. Men are such a combination of good and bad ... He was such a simple man. But he was so complex, too. Jack had this hero idea of history, the idealistic view, but then he had that other side, the pragmatic side... his friends were all his old friends; he loved his Irish Mafia. " ----Jackie Kennedy interview shortly after the assasination.

• fawnmarie | Sep 13, 2011, 12:53 PM EDT

  Jackie O a snob... like this is a surprise?

• antoman | Sep 13, 2011, 12:39 PM EDT

  She disliked the Irish so much that when her husband was buried she had phoned Ireland asking for an Irish platoon to come to America and give her husband a solemn salute at his graveside. Which is what happened.

• ellenfromcork | Sep 13, 2011, 12:18 PM EDT

  Ha ha ha, Jackie Kennedy cooking Irish stew!! Like that ever happened while she was in the White House.

• deedubdeedub | Sep 13, 2011, 12:13 PM EDT

  We do know how we treated immigrants in this country and the native Indians and the Catholics and the slaves. It is not something we are proud of. We are not ignorant. Also who cares what Jackie or anyone over here thinks. Unless one stands in somebody else's shoes for awhile one has no clue.

• sirpeter | Sep 13, 2011, 12:08 PM EDT

  CitizenWhy.Begrudgery is definitely a part of the Irish character in general,but not by all.I'm not sure if it's just an Irish thing.But as a nation we are pretty good at it.We certainly don't need foreigners bringing us down.We tend to have ample criticism among ourselves.

• DanOLoingsigh | Sep 13, 2011, 12:05 PM EDT

  Posters like irishphotograph make Jackie Kennedys’ point for her…I was lived in London 30 years ago, and never once saw this ‘No Irish’ sign…what I did see was whole swathes of North London under Irish occupation, especially around Kilburn and Cricklewood, and streets lined with builders skips, producing much work. Dance halls such as the Galtymore, and just about every pub Irish run, with regular entertainment by Irish or London Irish entertainers and singers. A young man could catch the boat train from Dublin on a Friday night, bed down with an uncle / cousin on the Saturday, go to Mass on Sunday, straight into the nearest Irish pub, and get a start on a building site by Monday…reader, I did just this, along with thousands more. Back then you could live in London and hardly need to speak to a non-Irish, the community was so developed, even a few of the cops; they told me they were too short to be a Garda. I was always surprised at how welcoming most of the English were – even with fairly frequent IRA bombings at the time. Back to the pubs, there were even regular ‘An Phoblacht’ sellers, this would be like an Al Qu.. newspaper being sold in NYC today…As to slaves, didn’t the Romans trade in slaves from Briton?

• McNamara31 | Sep 13, 2011, 12:00 PM EDT

  Irishphotograph... You are completely right. It's embarrassing how many Americans of Irish decent have no idea of their history; in Ireland or when they first arrived here in the states. The first Irish to arrive were looked upon as a blight on the American landscape.

• citizen69 | Sep 13, 2011, 11:34 AM EDT

  Oh FFS! First she apparently disliked 'Catholics' & now she apparently disliked cooking Irish Stew as well! How offensive to the Irish nation! :-/ Seriously O'Connor, get over yourself. Once again there are no direct quotes from Jackie stating she 'disliked the Irish'... She disliked SOME of Kennedy's Irish-American friends. Again with the bogus misleading headlines Irish Central are so apt at... She disliked Catholics even though she is one, and now she disliked the Irish even though she married one. And i doubt she personally 'cooked' anything while in the White House. Stop looking for something to be offended at.

• bluesman | Sep 13, 2011, 11:33 AM EDT

  Sunspotter5 said it all!!!

• CitizenWhy | Sep 13, 2011, 11:19 AM EDT

  @PeterCUSA ... Jackie's mother always made it clear that her maiden name - Lee - was from an Irish immigrant and in no way related to the Lees of Virginia, which some media claimed. Jackie was well aware of her Irish ancestry, her Irish-american grandfather Lee having made a fortune by providing banking services to Irish Americans. She wasn't used to extreme Irish-American bitterness until she met the Boston crowd. but everyone in that crowd could tell tales of how close relatives were badly treated by the Boston establishment. The slights and injustices were still raw. By the way Joe Kennedy treated his Irish servants badly too.

• CitizenWhy | Sep 13, 2011, 11:12 AM EDT

  Those were Irish Catholics from Boston, generally the most bitter of of all Irish-Americans. Jackie got along fine with some New York Irish Catholics (mostly born in Ireland) after she left the White House. Sadly many Irish Americans from New York and elsewhere have become rabid right right wingers, since the right wing is now the nurse of grievances and carries the biggest chip on the shoulder. Jackie was just observing the Irish habit of begrudgery, a thing familiar to everyone in Ireland. G B Shaw summed it up as: "The Irish are a fair people. They never speak well of each other." Not all Irish are begrudgers, not all Jewish women are yentas, yet there really are begrudgers among the Irish and yentas among the Jews.

• Phrinchas | Sep 13, 2011, 11:07 AM EDT

  I look at some of the comments on this article and some of them attempt to take a balanced view on the "Irish Persecution Complex" but some are downright uninformed and dismissive of the trials to which the Irish people have been submitted that have left an indelible mark on the Irish psyche - but, lest we forget the poets, politicians, the builders of commerce and captains of industry who have come from Ireland and a lot still in Ireland - sounds positive to me. Pat52rk please get a perspective - as for Jackie O - a pampered, pretentious socialite.

• PeterCUSA | Sep 13, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT

  She was part Irish herself.. something I believe she played down in favor of her French heritage.. Her maternal great grandfather was an emigrant from Cork.....

• sirpeter | Sep 13, 2011, 10:32 AM EDT

  I never met anybody who didn't have a persecution complex about something.Generally people or a group of people who have a persecution complex have been persecuted and over along period of time.She portrays him as a devout Catholic just because he said a few prayers before going to bed.It's just a ritual or a bit of meditation.Maybe he didn't consider himself a devout Catholic.If he was having affairs I hardly think he truly believed he was.What does she mean by a step up eating French food?He was Irish!!He liked his meat,potatoes and veggie.That's an Irish stew and it's good for ya.Spices and garlic are all very well but they are hard on the stomach if you didn't grow up on them.No wonder French women have hairy armpits.How many more articles of this crap do we have to suffer.She didn't say anything of interest yet.

• etighe1130 | Sep 13, 2011, 10:20 AM EDT

  What a bunch of claptrap this is. Why does IC even bother with this kind of rubbish? Let them rest in peace.

• IAPRINCESS | Sep 13, 2011, 10:16 AM EDT

  I always thougfht Jackie was rather superficial and had an air of entitlement. Now I know I really did not like her.

• sunspotter5 | Sep 13, 2011, 10:16 AM EDT

  Ah fecksake. It may be true so acknowledge and move on. At least we're not as angry as the French. Guinness for strength.

• Irishphotograph | Sep 13, 2011, 10:12 AM EDT

  It is obvious the people below. Are unaware of the bigotry Irish people endure on upon arriving on the shores of America. And in their OWN country. Lets not forget! The Irish were being sold as slaves before the Africans were. No other People arrived on the American shores in ships called coffin ships. Not only 20 years ago the Sign in London's streets read NO IRISH, NO DOGS..So Jackie & her Bonjouro can get lost!

• butlerreport | Sep 13, 2011, 09:15 AM EDT

  She was right.

• pat52rk | Sep 13, 2011, 09:00 AM EDT

  She's not far wrong about the persecution complex , we always blame someone else for our problems.