Volume 40, Number 16 · October 7, 1993
A New Ireland?
By Conor Cruise O'Brien
There are estimated to be over 40 million Americans of Irish or (in most cases) partly Irish origin. Of these, rather more than half are descended from Irish Protestants. But very few of these think of themselves as Irish. Being white, Protestant, and English-speaking, they were eligible to join the long-dominant WASP club in American society and they duly joined it. They stressed their Protestantism to the exclusion of their Irishness, for the simple reason that Protestantism was advantageous in America, Irishness disadvantageous. Irishness was especially disadvantageous from the midnineteenth century on, when it came to mean 'famine Irish.' So in America, as in other parts of the English-speaking world, Irish came to mean Catholic Irish, exclusively.
Feature, 6135 words
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