President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus believes it has become acceptable in the United States to insult and disrespect Irish Catholicism.

Anecdotally the Irish are easily one of the best-liked groups in the United States. The phrase “everybody loves the Irish” is not just a slogan and most Irish people can testify to its validity from their own experience.

However Father Sean McManus, president of the Capitol Hill-based

, asks “Yet, riddle me this? Why then is it considered acceptable to insult and disrespect Irish Catholicism?"

McManus said, “The Irish National Caucus does very large Direct Mail Campaigns, reaching hundreds of thousands of Americans. One of the advantages of such campaigns is that they serve as informal opinion pools - giving us a fairly good idea of how people react to the Irish issue. By and large, the responses are, of course, totally supportive. However, a striking feature of some responses is their venom and racist/religious hatred (while granting there will always be crazy responses to such mailings).”

He continued, “One guy emailed me this: “Please don't send me any more of your paddy shit. I'm British and proud of it. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.”

“And one woman sent this: “Take me off your list! I'm about as anti-Irish Catholic as they get! Just because I married an Irish Catholic asshole and I'm stuck with an Irish last name doesn't mean I support you.... if I could change my kids last names I would do that too!"

McManus said, “Now I recognize the hurt in this woman's missile, and I sympathize with whatever pain she feels but the point here is that there is no way she would write such an email to a Muslim, Jewish or Black organization. So why is it that she - and others - can feel it is okay to say this stuff about Irish Catholics? What is going on here?

“Can you imagine the Brit, referenced above, writing to a nationally known Muslim organization, screaming: ' ... No more of your Muslim s - -t'? Or telling a Jewish organization, ' No more of your Jewish s - - t '?"

He added, "What explains this double-standard?"