Speaking as an Irish-American with family experience, in my observation there is a real nasty streak in the Irish character. Don’t know if it comes from centuries of isolation on a rocky island or the poverty from trying to farm such land; but it’s going to take generations to breed it out, if ever. Maybe the best and brightest genetic material left during the Potato Famine.
How can a supposedly Christian-heritage nation do this to Israel? I guess Biblical illiteracy went along with the rest of the cultural deprivation.
I once dated a genuine Irishman here in America. He spoke with contempt of many of the bone-headed, mule-stubborn traits, referring to his own people as either “lace-curtain” (bourgeois) or “shanty” (ignorant or poor) Irish. After hearing this from him countless times, I asked him how he referred to upper-class Irish.
“English,” he replied.
It was explained to me years ago as follows:
An American sees the big house on the hill owned by a rich man and says, "Someday I'm going to live in that house."
An Irishman sees that big house on the hill owned by the rich man and says, "Someday I'm going to get that bastard."