Irish in America: How do you feel now about Trump?

The Irish Times ^ | January 15, 2017

[2ndDivisionVet]

With just days to go until Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States of America, we want to hear from Irish readers living there about how they feel now about him entering the White House.

On the day of the election result, we were inundated with reaction, with the majority expressing shock and dismay. Have your opinions or expectations changed in the months since? What did you think of Mr Trump’s press conference this week? What is the mood like where you live? How do you think his presidency could affect the Irish community in the US?

Yesterday it emerged that the president-elect’s transition team has been considering ways to revamp the H1-B visa, a common programme for temporary Irish workers coming to the US. The future of the popular J-1 visa for students is also shaky as Mr Tump pledged to end the programme during his election campaign. The fate of undocumented people - including an estimated 50,000 Irish - is most uncertain. Are you concerned about these potential changes, or other aspects of Trump's immigration policy?

Send us your thoughts and opinions by email to abroad@irishtimes.com, including your name, where you live, when you emigrated, your occupation and age. Photographs are optional. A selection of submissions will be published on irishtimes.com next week. Thank you.

[freefdny]

His mom’s name was McLeod.
Scottish.
There can be only onie.

[freefdny]

There can be only one.
Highlander joke ruined by typo.

[miss marmelstein]

What you say is true but I would also say that the Irish immigrants of the 19th century were the inner-city blacks of today. Incredible criminality among the lower class of Irish. Just check a rogue’s gallery of NYC at the time! All Irish. Billy the Kid was the rule, not the exception, lol.

[dp0622]

Sounds like a nice era :)

My nephews/nieces and my cousins’ kids have no idea that they have an ethnicity pretty much :) That’s as it should be.

Third generation it really starts to die out.

Though I wish the parents had spoken italian in the house when they were young, with English of course being the first language.

Kids at that age can very easily learn two languages.

Specialists say six!!

[american colleen]

Right, Ireland is also a country with no borders today.

Very different place than it was before the EU experiment.

Sad. Not whiners tho.

[american colleen]

Absolutely!

[Wallace T.]

In this country the Irish hardly suffered at all. Their troubles, such as they were, was due to their Catholicism. Italians, German Catholics, Poles, and others had the same issues. Genetically, the Irish different little from the Highland Scots or the Welsh, who are Celtic in culture as well. DNA shows the Irish as little different from the British as a whole and even other Northwestern European people. Scottish and Welsh Americans are considered WASPs, even though their status is due to their Protestant background, not their DNA.
That being said, the legitimacy of their persecution in the Old World has nothing to do with their complaints today The same applies to blacks and Jews.

[IronJack]

They were, if not "persecuted" in this country, at the very least greatly disenfranchised and marginalized. To be fair, so were many Italians and Poles from roughly the same era. American society, contrary to the "melting pot" rhetoric, has always resisted the introduction of new ethnicities, although conformity to the American ethic -- hard work, honesty, humility, grace -- tends to expedite their eventual assimilation.

Segregation, either externally or internally imposed, disrupts that assimilation and perpetuates hostility. It is not the responsibility of the majority to conform to the expectations of the minority and the former rightfully resents being forced to do so.

[ml/nj]

I consider myself an Honorary Irishman since I like their whiskey.

I supported Donald Trump and I am very optimistic about the prospects for his Presidency.

ML/NJ

[SuziQ]

Just shows its all about FEELINGS, not truth.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'm of Irish heritage (but *not* “Irish-American”) and know there are more than a few Irish illegals here.I've been there...found it to be a dreary,depressing place.It's truly a foreign country to me.I couldn't care less what the Irish think about the US...or about Trump.And I couldn't care less what any hyphenated American thinks...including “Irish-Americans”.

[Rannug]

Great sex maybe?

[utahagen]

Yikes! I was typing on my smartphone, which has an especially annoying autocorrect!

[Rockingham]

My grandparents on both sides make a deliberate effort to raise my parents as Americans without qualification. My paternal grandfather from County Cork dropped his association with the IRA and became a flag waving American, while my father's parents forbade their five boys from speaking Polish in the home and required that they instead "speak American." If nothing else, I can be grateful that I have no sympathies for the IRA and never had the torment of trying to learn Polish.

[poinq]

I fall into that category. I would love to go back. I love Ireland. Its a great place. Nothing more relaxing than a week in the Bantry.

But Since Trump himself is only second generation from Scotland on his mothers side. And 4 of his five children are themselves second generation. I feel confident that Trump cares more about making America great first. And not so much stopping immigration, at least not legal immigration.

Nobody has the right to come to America accept Americans. And the wrong headed people who think you have to accept everyone. Are taking the easy way out. What they should be doing is promoting stability in other countries. Creating and supporting gangs in Mexico or toppling governments in the middle east is causing refuges. These people were happy at one point until Obama gave bombs and guns to terrorists.

[Albion Wilde]

When I “went back” after several generations to the town from which one of my ancestors came, I saw why he and so many others left. Beautiful country. For sheep.

[Albion Wilde]

I am disgusted by how reflexively anti-GOP the Irish over there and the illegal Irish are here. They seem to love to be resentful victims.

"Irish Alzheimer's": You forget everything but your grudges.

[Albion Wilde]

I know that she is pro-abortion, but have wondered what the need for traveling to Ireland to join in the rallies there is?

Because Ireland was the last country of Europe to legalize it, and up until recently was rated the most Christian country of Europe. Lately, George Soros has funneled millions of dollars into converting Ireland to just another socialist heathen pit. His activists went there to lobby for gay marriage, and it was legalized last year. The European Union has also sent in a large number of muslim immigrants. Those things alone are the end of the Ireland we once knew.

[Albion Wilde]

Wow. Descended from Oglethorpe?

[CodeToad]

I wish, but probably not.