Speaking as a native New Yorker, I second your thoughts. Don't get me started on the "we were treated worse than the blacks and Injuns" BS. The truth is, the Irish were running most of the large cities from Boston to Butte 30 years after the famine, and were at the forefront of the movement to ban Asians, southern, and Eastern Europeans from immigrating here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
Need I say more?
I’m sick of all the hype, frankly.
Plus, the REAL Ireland (current-day) seems to have screwed up my cousin since he vacationed there 20 years ago (college age). Whereas he was a typical fun-loving happy-go-lucky country boy before, and part of my cadre of best friends growing up, now he is a weird hippie-lumberjack “artiste” type who hardly talks, broods, and paints sick violent things on canvas. (Yes, his sister said that seemed to be the turning point.)