NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Paul Ryan versus Joe Biden sets up Irish Catholic political showdown - Lace curtain Irish Ryan against Shanty Irish Biden a contest for the ages

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Paul Ryan versus Joe Biden sets up Irish Catholic political showdown - Lace curtain Irish Ryan against Shanty Irish Biden a contest for the ages

Posted on Sunday, August 12, 2012 at 08:17 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

106 Comments

RSS

Archives

Paul Ryan vs. Joe Biden

Paul Ryan versus Joe Biden sets up Irish Catholic political showdown - Lace curtain Irish Ryan against Shanty Irish Biden a contest for the ages

There will be an Irish American Catholic vice president of the United States next January we can now say with certainty.

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan may appear similar in ethnicity and religion but there are as many differences as similarities.

Their Vice Presidential debate will be the first ever between two Irish Catholic contenders for the VP slot. It will make for fascinating viewing as it would be hard to find two politicians who are further apart on how to fix what ails America.

Their views of the role of government could not be farther apart. Ryan is a disciple of another famed Irish American Ronald Reagan, who was always keen to limit government’s growth. Biden is a child of the New Deal and an apostle of the era of Kennedy and LBJ when massive new government programs lifted millions out of poverty.

Ryan is lace curtain Irish, enjoying the benefits of a wealthy upbringing, thanks to a construction company fortune and a successful family legal practice.

Ryan’s home growing up had eight bedroom and six bathrooms and was registered as a state historical residence. Friends describe it as a mansion.

Biden on the other hand grew up mostly in poverty, shanty Irish was the term often used. The family moved in with their Finnegan relatives but still could not make it in Scranton, Pa, and moved to Delaware where Biden’s father became a used car salesman.

Perhaps it is their uniquely different backgrounds that color both men’s politics. Personality-wise both men are seen as affable and popular and not just in their own parties but with opponents as well.

Ryan suffered terrible personal tragedy, coming home from high school and finding his father dead in the bed. Biden too suffered enormously losing his first wife and a daughter in a dreadful car accident.

How will Irish Americans react to the contest.?

Washington Post reporter Melissa Bell had an interesting account from one Irish woman she encountered on the trail with Romney on Saturday.

She wrote: ”Alice Butler-Short, a 70-year-old Irish dance teacher who grew up in Tipperary, Ireland, and now lives in Norton, Va., was clad head-to-high-heeled-toe in American-flag-themed attire as she stood at the front of the line waiting to get into the Manassas event.

“He’s absolutely phenomenal,” she said of Ryan. “Romney couldn’t have done better. He didn’t pick the guy who could help him win this state or that state... He picked the best person for the country.”

“Amen,” said a woman in the crowd next to her.

Will most Irish Catholics feel the same way? How the Catholic vote goes will decide this election

We’ll know in 86 days.

E-mail

106 comments

Next Page 1 of 8 pages

AmericanFenian | Aug 22, 2012, 02:25 AM EDT

@Patricia Where can I find the statistics on this "surplus"? Other than believing the BS put out by the Clinton's, there is no proof of this surplus. They just moved money around. I don't think it's a real surplus when the government has to raid Social Security.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Aug 19, 2012, 05:16 AM EDT

It's just the petty people demeaning the VP Scott

Report abuse

Scottmcgowan | Aug 18, 2012, 06:39 PM EDT

I really resent the description of our VP as coming from Shanty Irish. The Biden family was not dirt poor and even if they were, I resent the use of such terminology to describe hard-working people. Go back a generation or two and the same description could be placed on Paul Ryan. The use of Shanty Irish and Lace Curtain is so out of date. My son and his family would not even know what the hell such terms mean in today's world.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Aug 17, 2012, 11:44 PM EDT

Well said Patricia!!

Report abuse

PatriciaMarya | Aug 15, 2012, 08:07 PM EDT

Someone who posted that VP Biden has only been in government for his career, the same is true for Rep. Ryan. At age 42, he has been in government for 14 years, starting when he was 28 and working for conservative think tanks before that. He also was taken under the wing of Jack Kemp, getting a leg up in the GOP party. Biden is older that is why he has been there for 30. Do remember too that Rep. Ryan voted for each of the Bush Admin's deals that ruined the $199 million surplus left by the Clinton administration. This included Plan D which is an out and out license to steal by Big Pharma and The Profiteering Health Insurance companies. If Medicare deteriorates to a Voucher system, it will become piece-meal and ruin a system that is working. The reason that Medicare is in trouble is because unscrupulous doctors and medical supply companies, like the rolling chairs that are so prevalent, have been draining it with impunity. Medicare needs to stop paying bills within 7 days and check with the insurer first to determine if a bill is legitimate and not try to claw back the wronged money later. Would be a great new source of jobs for so many middle-management and older workers that are currently unemployed. The money saved would more than cover their salaries and, thus, more money to go towards FICA and we are saving Medicare/Medicaid!

Report abuse

BrianO | Aug 15, 2012, 08:07 PM EDT

And thank you for the definition.

Report abuse

BrianO | Aug 15, 2012, 08:06 PM EDT

Yea and we like to work and get ahead.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Aug 15, 2012, 07:08 PM EDT

Briano! An Australian slang term for a McDonald's burger. Kids working in Maccers in Australia have the same safety net pay rate as adults in the USA. I have also read that the US does not have mandated paid sick leave the only western nation not to do so.

Report abuse

irishmaryoh | Aug 15, 2012, 05:33 PM EDT

Thank God Niall Dowd wasn't around in 1960 to label the wealthy Lace Curtain Irishman known as John F. Kennedy. When will we stop this class warfare BS?

Report abuse

irishmaryoh | Aug 15, 2012, 04:16 PM EDT

Joe Biden being depicted as Shanty Irish is utter nonsense. The facts are there for anyone who wants to look at them. When Joe Biden Sr. died in 2002, his obituary in the News-Journal of Wilmington reported that when he married in 1941, "he was working as a sales representative for Amoco Oil Co. in Harrisburg." "Biden also was an executive in a Boston-based company that supplied waterproof sealant for U.S. merchant marine ships built during World War II. After the war, he co-owned an airport and crop-dusting service on Long Island." Upon moving his family to Delaware, the News-Journal said, Biden "worked in the state first as a sales manager for auto dealerships and later in real-estate condominium sales. In his book, "Promises to Keep," Biden writes that his father was "the most elegantly dressed, perfectly manicured, perfectly tailored car sales manager Wilmington, Del., had ever seen." Biden notes that he himself could have gone to the best public high school in Delaware. Instead, he enrolled at Archmere Academy, a Catholic prep school that made him think he had "died and gone to Yale." He took a summer job to help pay the steep tuition, which today amounts to $18,450 a year. NOT TO SHANTY IF YOU ASK ME.

Report abuse

BrianO | Aug 15, 2012, 02:19 PM EDT

Biden should do standup. In his best fake southern accent "They're goin to put youall back in chains" Biden is a laugh a minute, just ask wheelchair bound Chuck Graham, or in Bidens words "stand up Chuck let em see ya"

Report abuse

BrianO | Aug 15, 2012, 01:35 PM EDT

Seano, whats a maccer?

Report abuse

hancock | Aug 15, 2012, 11:14 AM EDT

So stick to paradise and mind your own business.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Aug 15, 2012, 06:51 AM EDT

I do not have to worry I live in the richest country in the world in the worlds most livable city according to the experts. Not in a third world country posing as a first world country where the minimum wage or adults is the same as the minimum wage (in Australia) for kids working in maccers.You're the one who should be worried.

Report abuse

hollabackgurl | Aug 14, 2012, 04:45 PM EDT

It is much easier to advocate taking responsibility for yourself when you have several million dollars worth of inherited assets.

Report abuse

Next Page 1 of 8 pages