NY Times' Maureen Dowd pays homage to her Irish family

IrelandNorth, Did not see her on irish TV last year nor Niall O'Dude. Didn't even see them at the Obama events at all which they should have been at if they are so major. You betray the usual American bigoted attitude to all other religions which we in Ireland do not. You also have to call names because of your bigotry. Maureen Dowd is American, she doesn't even get one look at in Ireland contrary to what those of you in the US would like to believe.

She is a supposed "liberal" which normally means she takes the anti-Natural Law line and blasts the Church of her ancestors, somewhat as Mozart was told in Amadeus by his critic "I do not like your opera, it has too many notes in it."

Saw her on Irish TV during US Presidents visit last year (along with Niall Ó Dude) outside Trinitiy College/Dame Street Tech(!) Came across as authoritative, confident and impressive. Well deserved academic accolade, though regrettably some Irish WASPS (Ulster/Northern Ireland Free Presbyterians) like Bythebay betray characteristic detractive begrudgery. During the Famine/Great Hunger, Protestants evangelised Irish natives with a King James bible in one hand a bowl of soup in the other, a condition of such Christian altruism being that such recipients drop all Gaelic name prefixes like 'O' (grandson/descendant of) and/or M[a]c/Nic (son/daughter of). Such Anglicised Irish became known as 'soupers'. Conmhgairdas/congrats, Dr Maureen! Well deserved. Soups' on me without preconditions!

I like this being of Galway ancestry myself: Tuam. As to Mr. Burke's critique give me a break. Discrimination was alive and well in 1968 in the upper reaches of almost everything. Believe I experienced its subtle varieties when I reported for duty in Washington D. C. at the Pentagon It is only now that all of that has faded.

Nice speech, but the family chestnut about her father who emigrated to Washington DC between 1920 and 1932 and dropped the "0" to avoid employment and other discrimination is way too much and a shabby repetition of a false historical narrative. Rampant employment and civil rights discrimination against Irish immigrants in the USA after 1920 was about as prevalent as beach resorts at the North Pole. Now we have Dowd,in addition to the Kennedys (who were fabulously wealthy by 1926) repeating these fantastic and false tales. The Irish were well established in the USA by 1920 and had no genuine problem getting settled and finding employment. In fact, jobseekers found willing employers among the many successful Irish American businessmen. As English speakers and Christians, the Irish were many rungs up above the Asians, Jews, Eastern Europeans, and Southern Europeans who competed with them for low wage jobs. True, the Klan was revived in the early 1920s, and killed an Irish priest in Birmingham (as much a personal vendetta as a strike against Catholics), but these incidents were rare, just as the residual bigotry among some WASPs, "Scotch Irish", Episcopalians, and Presbyterians which lingered was ineffective in suppressing the comfortable establishment and future prosperity of the majority of Irish immigrants during the Jazz Age.

This woman makes no difference to Ireland at all. This is another filler story, convenient for IC to avoid finding real news.

She usually has something worthy to say and she says it well. She is not afraid to step on someone's toes, including the RC Church hierarchy, when they deserve it.

Well deserved Maureen and a great story about your Dad's visit back here in 1932. As a person with Irish roots you well may be interested in knowing that 1916 Centenary Commemorative Coins are now available worldwide so please give them a mention in ther NY Times, see 1916uprising.ie for more details... Thanks, Firehawk

I agree wholeheartedly with donal1951.

It was a fine speech with just the right touch of nostalgia, but one would expect no less from so prominent a writer. Mind you, her politics are a bit to the left of mine, but she's a good read, agree with her or not. She deserved the honour.