beyond the pale Interesting choice of words in context. I apparently have some ancestors who were literally thus, up in Co. Wicklow. So, guilty as charged, lol.
It's a perfectly GOOD phrase, hardly interesting ( and yes, I know, full well, what it means and its origin ), and has NOTHING at all to do with Ireland, nor the Irish...at any time. It's from RUSSIA and the time of Catherine the Great; referring to a wooden fence, behind which Jews were forced to lived...and forbidden to live anywhere else.
Just as the the word ghetto is Italian and the name given to the area where Italian Jews were forced to live, during an even earlier time period.