The Irish don't respect the Catholic faith?
Ever been there?
(Maybe you are thinking about N. Ireland?)
As for native americans, yeah, their religion is their culture, and they aren't too happy about the Redskins, would you be in their court? Their cultural icon, their identity has been put into a mascot, and they don't like it, are you going to boycot sport teams that do this?
The Irish are moving away from the faith almost as fast as the Quebeckers. Kennedy and Kerry are pretty much representative of the new breed (yes, I know that Kerry is not Irish but he claims to be). And, no what's on the helmuts of those football teams are not religious symbols.