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How the Irish Overcame is a Lesson For All
Irish Examiner ^ | Oct 6, 2009 | Alicia Colon

Posted on 10/08/2009 7:16:13 AM PDT by ajernig

My daughter and I we were joking about the possibility that the International Olympic Committee would be branded racist by Jimmy Carter for rejecting President Obama's bid for Chicago to host the 2016 games. She then remarked how surprised she was to learn from a recent cable television program that the Irish suffered from severe discrimination in the last two centuries. That was hardly news to me as I had once heard someone comment that the Irish were once treated like Puerto Ricans and blacks - especially in Boston, where shops once displayed help-wanted signs that read, "Irish need not apply." An African American panelist on a Sunday talk show attempted to debunk the stereotype of the black criminal population by reminding us that prisons here were built to house the Irish, not the blacks. Then my daughter asked a question that I found rather difficult to answer: "How did that all change?" After much thought, all I could come up with was: "They became Americans."

(Excerpt) Read more at irishexaminerusa.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: america; discrimination; racism
Forget excuses of discrimination and get on with it. This is America where anyone can succeed unless they listen to Dems
1 posted on 10/08/2009 7:16:13 AM PDT by ajernig
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To: ajernig

They did like every other group did....worked hard, did not complain and gained respect by society by good, hard, moral work ethics!

You do not gain respect by complaining, collecting checks and casting blame on everyone in society...


2 posted on 10/08/2009 7:20:48 AM PDT by mikelets456
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To: ajernig
That was hardly news to me as I had once heard someone comment that the Irish were once treated like Puerto Ricans and blacks - especially in Boston, where shops once displayed help-wanted signs that read, "Irish need not apply."

And 40 years later, were running every large city east of the Rockies and north of the Mason Dixon line, while discriminating against (sometimes violently) Italians, Poles, and Jews, to say nothing of blacks and Chinese.

3 posted on 10/08/2009 7:23:33 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: ajernig
I'm very tempted to quote from Blazing Saddles here.
4 posted on 10/08/2009 7:28:48 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: ajernig

Ireland has now surrendered to Gog


5 posted on 10/08/2009 7:31:01 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: ajernig

Ireland is a first world country populated by moderately high IQ individuals who can think for themselves.

Let’s not embarrass Africa by examining what she has to show for herself.

Puerto Rico is populated by collectivist latinos who engage in groupthink.

There’s a big difference between the Irish of the 1850’s and the Irish of 2009 - they “evolved” for lack of a better word.

Africa of 1850 and Africa of today is only different because outsiders brought some technology to that “sainted” continent.

Puerto Ricans will be collectivists and “Latin King” types in 2150, and again in 2250 and agin in 2350 and again in 2450... We all get the picture.

IQ plays a very large role in cultural achievements, it ain’t just about thinkin’ right - it’s about IQ. The dumb guy ain’t never going to invent a light bulb and we as a civilization need to honor guys who invent light bulbs.


6 posted on 10/08/2009 7:31:41 AM PDT by BertWheeler (Dance and the World Dances With You!)
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To: ajernig

Darn I better look for a job then. I was waiting for the EEOC to start paying employment reparations.


7 posted on 10/08/2009 7:34:39 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan (Get rid of the dirty moderates. Get rid of them,)
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To: Clemenza
And 40 years later, were running every large city east of the Rockies and north of the Mason Dixon line, while discriminating against (sometimes violently) Italians...

Demand reparations!

8 posted on 10/08/2009 7:41:38 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: ajernig

Yet another great article which should be required reading for ALL Americans.


9 posted on 10/08/2009 7:45:49 AM PDT by clyde260 (Public Enemy #1: Network News!)
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To: Oratam

LOL.


10 posted on 10/08/2009 7:49:05 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: ladyjane
All I want is a damned pint per day at any pub, along with special priveledges to to slap anyone who would dare serve green beer!
11 posted on 10/08/2009 7:51:29 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Clemenza

I’m kinda torn by the Irih thing. First the Scots Irish that pioneered the frontier I like (i.e. Andy Jackson). The potato famine Irish who provided the cannon fodder that defeated my country’s attempt at freedom maybe not so much. Its a ying yang thingy.


12 posted on 10/08/2009 8:00:38 AM PDT by equalitybeforethelaw
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To: ajernig

Alicia Colon should be writing speeches for the next generation of GOP leaders. Nevermind the current “leaders”, they wouldn’t understand the common sense in Alicia’s words.


13 posted on 10/08/2009 8:06:24 AM PDT by moodyskeptic (the counterculture votes R)
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To: Oratam

Why,the sheriff’s a.......


14 posted on 10/08/2009 8:17:23 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: ajernig
How the Irish Overcame is a Lesson For All

I thought they lost to Michigan.

15 posted on 10/08/2009 8:20:21 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: BertWheeler
Puerto Rico is populated by collectivist latinos who engage in groupthink.

Politically incorrect as it may be, I saw a survey of median IQs by nation/territory last year that put the median IQ of Puerto Rico at 89. Of course, all PR Freepers (to say nothing of Ms. Colon) are far to the right of that figure, but the number is telling.

Ashkenazic Jews and Hakkaa Chinese I believe have the highest median IQs of any isolated group, FWIW.

While it is true that the Irish "have evolved," I always found it interesting that they often dominated the population of poor whites in the northeast (see South Boston, Kensington in Philadelphia, etc.). Of course, said "shanty" folks are a minority of the Irish-American population as a whole.

16 posted on 10/08/2009 9:35:48 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: nutmeg

bookmark


17 posted on 10/08/2009 9:38:04 AM PDT by nutmeg (Obamunism is destroying America)
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To: Clemenza

Even the “shanty” irish weren’t raping their sisters (referred to as “running a train” if you go by Nathan McCall’s book “Makes Me Wanna Holler”) and doing drive by’s.

Good call on IQ and 89 isn’t overly low. Latinos are pretty cool and I enjoy being among them and even going deep into their enclaves. I’m also honest about these things, what you see now is what you’re great-great-grandkids will see.


18 posted on 10/08/2009 9:47:31 AM PDT by BertWheeler (Dance and the World Dances With You!)
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To: Clemenza

after the Asians (first) and the Jews, Irish then Italians are the US highest wageearners. The WASPS are a distant fifth.

I have always attributed the Italian and Irish increase to the fact that in the fifies, sixties and seventies they attended one of the best and most extenive private schooling available, the parish parochial school.


19 posted on 10/08/2009 9:49:14 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Angry about where our country is going with the current regime at the helm.)
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To: BertWheeler

True. Drive-bys were an Italian/Jewish thing back in the day. As far as “running a train” is concerned, it probably wasn’t common, but is mentioned in that classic of Irish American literature, Studs Lonigan, where the gang takes turns raping the neighborhood harlot.


20 posted on 10/08/2009 9:50:11 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Clemenza

FYI: Alicia’s IQ is 160. how do you explain that.


21 posted on 10/08/2009 9:57:02 AM PDT by ajernig
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To: ajernig
I implied that Alicia's was higher than the median for PR, which was 89 last I checked. NOBODY is arguing with Alicia's intelligence.

I could go into the possible biological reasons for PR's median IQ being lower than that of Japan, Poland, Spain, and Ireland, but that would get me into alot of trouble.

22 posted on 10/08/2009 9:59:07 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: BertWheeler
Even the “shanty” irish weren’t raping their sisters (referred to as “running a train” if you go by Nathan McCall’s book “Makes Me Wanna Holler”) and doing drive by’s.

Apparently, you haven't heard of the Bulger brothers (Whitey and Billy) of South Boston.

23 posted on 10/08/2009 10:05:14 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: Clemenza

As someone descended from those very Irish, who came over during the potato famine, I must point out that once they lost their accents and learned how to walk up a flight of stairs (instead of crawling on their hands & knees) — which probably took just one generation, they could blend into the American landscape as white English-speakers. The Blacks and mixed-race Caribbean Hispanics couldn’t, and remained targets of racism.


24 posted on 10/08/2009 10:59:15 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Clemenza

that’s a great sereis, and helped me understand my own father, a midwesterner of Irish descent.


25 posted on 10/08/2009 11:00:59 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: kabumpo

Blacks and Hispanics may have felt more discrimination but if they followed the same rules,they succeeded as well. The ones who get left behind are the ones who fall into the trap of socialism. Just like the article said-don’t use racism as an excuse for not taking advantage of what this country has to offer-freedom.


26 posted on 10/08/2009 11:59:57 AM PDT by ajernig
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To: ajernig

I agree with you up to a point, but the Irish were able to wash their problems away in one genreation because the prejudice aganst them wasn’t racial. The Irish are not a race. And they came here speaking a form of English already.


27 posted on 10/08/2009 11:09:57 PM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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