Irishness is America’s ethnicity of choice. To be of Irish-American descent is the embodiment of the American Dream, it conjours up images of an oppressed population fleeing from an unjust and often brutal colonial rule and arriving destitute and penniless to a land where anything is possible. Irish-American identity in the contemporary United States has been appropriated to create a unique moral space where on one hand, a colonial past of oppression and plunder can be claimed which at the same time acts as a justification for U.S. transgressions throughout the world since World War 2. Irish ethnicity does not come with the same baggage that someone from a White Angle Saxon Protestant background may possess. A linear representation of Irish suffering can be drawn right back from the “old country”, right up through to the contemporary USA. Is it any coincidence that two of Fox’ News most conservative right wing mouthpieces Sean Hannity and Bill O Reilly are vocal of their Irish descent? On air, the utterance and tacit reference to their ancestry almost acts as a disclaimer in advance of the xenophobic bile that they are about to spew. Is it somehow more acceptable to be a xenophobe and racist just because your relatives had to emigrate from Ireland generations ago? It seems so.

The man himself

Bill Clinton claims Irish ancestry, even though there is no evidence for it. George Bush visited the island twice during his presidency and received politicians from North and South on numerous occasions in the White House, an Irish link can be traced back to a solitary ancestor. Where are his other ancestors from? Who gives a shit, he’s Irish! JFK’s lasting legacy is of that of the embodiment of the American Dream, while his material legacy as a warmongerer, is almost always overlooked.

This co-option of Irishness is a theme that recurs to this very day; in the aftermath of the Ferguson Shootings, the myth of the Irish Slave again has raised it’s head. Following this fallacious logic the African American community have only themselves to blame for their position in society; if the Irish can make it, then anyone can.

Thus the “Irish card” of past colonial oppression is frequently played up in American politics and society, yet the Irish American’s racist history is overlooked. Noel Ignatiev’s How the Irish became White illustrates how the Irish established themselves in America, not by virtuous means, but by the brutal repression of the Black population. The early Irish in America were opposed to the abolitionist movement as slavery was in their economic interest. Yet the current portrayal of the Irish belies this, we see a recurring theme of the Irish possessing character traits of innocence, naivety, a heightened sense of morality and stoicism. We do not hear about the Irish as exploitative slave owners.

Sketch of abolitionist Daniel O Connell being spurned by the Irish American.

The current portrayal of the Irish in American mass media as innocent, naive and moral is based on a selective memory which chooses not to address unsavory aspects of Irish deeds throughout history. We can chart these above traits from recent examples such as Bridesmaids (2011), Leap Year (2010), or PS I Love You (2007), and right back to Ryan’s Daughter (1970) or The Quiet Man (1953). This portrayal of Irish comes from an inherently political place, it is interwoven into the white American story, it fits in perfectly with the noble white settler narrative of Europeans landing on an empty continent. Irishness in contemporary USA has simply been co-opted as a vehicle in which to proclaim whiteness in a supposedly post racial state. Just to illustrate this point, if the American media want to draw on histories of innocence, nobleness and plunder, then why not look at the Iroquois Native American people? They have undoubtedly have had an uninterrupted period of oppression yet also had some very progressive ideas such a universal suffrage at least 150 years before it was even considered in Europe. These people do not suit the story, they of course are part of the American narrative, but they are not part of the white American narrative.