Irish Americans In Usa

[personchester]

In the recent topic "ASIAN, ASEAN, or THAI" a member posted the following comment ...

"The Irish in America used to face much prosecution, but time has changed now that the

US elected a man of of Irish decent as president, and the Irish Americans can hold their

heads high"...

Well, firstly here were of course other US presidents of Irish decent prior to Obama... JFK, Regan, Clinton, and they all visited Ireland during their Presidency with great emotional feelings on all sides, to say that the Irish Americans (due to the Obama election) can now hold their heads high makes no sense, nor did/do they face much prosecution they are as law abiding as others.

Moreover, the Irish Americans have always had much influence in the US particularly in the Northeastern part, politically and administratively, hence the well known saying about New York City, the proverb goes ... The Jews own it ... The Irish run it ... and the Poles work it.

thus the Irish were not disregarded, and the social image of the Irish Americans in the US is and has always been good.

This was not the case in the UK (until recently) because due to their life style the Irish were socially devalued, being mostly workers on building sites, they drank too much and fought too much amongst themselves, hotels and guest houses had signs outside saying, No Dogs, No Irish ... but their work on building sites was good, and building contractors preferred the Irish in comparison to others, including Brits.

A good story (joke) confirms this as follows ...

An English bloke was looking for a job on a building site, he walked the streets in London until he found a building site with the scaffolding full of workers (some 20 in numbers) he asked the foreman for a job, the foreman asked are you Irish, the bloke knowing the reason for this replied, yes I am, the foreman said but you don't sound Irish what is your name, the bloke replied my name is "Dear" and I have been away from Ireland for a long time, the foreman said I need prove that you are an Irishman, the Bloke replied all your workers up there on the scaffolding know me, in fact they are my friends, the foreman said prove it, the bloke stepped back into the street and shouted up to the scaffolding ....Hellooo Paddy, and twenty Irishmen replied... Helloo "there" ... the bloke got the Job.

Time has changed, the Irish are one of the best educated people in Europe and that is reflected in their social standing across the globe.