Moynihan himself had supposedly grown up in Hell's Kitchen, and did well enough in the world to counter any talk of social Darwinism, but talk of the decline of Black families and the growth of the "underclass" gave rise to the question of whether there was a distinct Irish underclass, separate from the ordinary Irish working people, and what happened to it. How different were the toughs of the Five Points from the rest of the Irish? And what happened to the 19th century underclass? Are most of us descended from it, or from hardworking, but more respectable folk? Can we really separate out the destructive and self-destructive into a separate class? On the other hand, ought we to ignore the fact that criminals are quite different from other people and have different fates, even when they may have grown up in the same neighborhoods or families? Tough and uncomfortable questions.
As I said, I don't know what the answers are, but the Irish themselves have long distinguished between the middle-class "lace curtain" or privileged "cut glass" Irish and the less successful. The differences have a lot to do with individual choices and values, something with environment, and perhaps not so very much to do with genes or heredity. Someone should look further into the matter in a serious empirical way, but the "underclass" is a touchy subject, then or now.
Some people really like these analogies, so whether or not African-Americans are to more recent history what the Irish were to 19th century America, Michael Barone has suggested that the Latinos are the new Italians (hard-working and family-oriented), and the Asians the new Jews (studious and ambitious). It's certainly possible, but history doesn't usually repeat itself exactly, and some people have criticized his analogies. Also, too much talk about ethnicity does make the head spin and promote tribalism.
Many successful groups in America have had to disassociate themselves from a darker criminal side. You could see this among the 19th century Irish, though crime was less organized then, later with the Irish and Jews and Blacks, and now with more recent immigrant groups. A lot has to do with human nature, and crime seems to be one way new arrivals in the city react to the promise of wealth America holds out. When such groups object that most of their ranks are composed of honest, hard-working, and law-abiding people, they are usually right.
An interesting development over the past 15 years is that, due to mandatory minimum sentences and improved police tactics, much of the black male underclass has been put away in the prime of lives. Will the element of "natural selection" play out in the black community? A disproportianate number of the black population that goes to college and enters the white collar world is female, so that adds yet another complication.
BTW: Moynihan, who was born in Oklahoma, actually spent much of his life in Red Hook, East Harlem and Hells Kitchen. He even spent part of his high school years sleeping in abandoned buildings. A brilliant man, but a disappointment as a Senator. The greatest political act of his career was his defeat of Bella Abzug.
You are among friends on FreeRepublic. Feel free to use the term "Shanty Irish" that we all know and love to refer to the "less successful" from the Emerald Isle.
Democrat Philadlephia Councilman Rick Mariano used a real vicious slur to refer to the "Shanty Irish", calling the denizens of Kensington (Philadelphia's 31st Ward, amazingly depsite its extreme poverty and decay the most Republican inner city slum in the nation - roughly 40% of the voters are Republican) as "trailer-park Irish trash."