Madam, – Daniel Geary’s insightful column about the genealogy of Michelle Obama is a welcome intervention in public discussion of the Irish in America (Opinion, May 26th).
The wholly positive portrayals of the Irish Diaspora in the United States are clichéd and disingenuous, no matter on which side of the Atlantic they are written. So pervasive is this now common misperception of the Irish-American success story that the Irish Government seems utterly incapable of standing up to its rather unsavoury godfather in the arena of global politics.
Meanwhile, for America, “this little island” (to quote President Obama) is the cutest tax haven ever! The Irish Diaspora’s role in the American project swings wildly to the right side of the political spectrum throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, whether it is anti-abolitionist rhetoric, Joseph McCarthy’s show trials or Robert McNamara’s proud service to the US war machine in southeast Asia.
Underneath so many of the celebrated facts of Irish-America lay a host of rather unsavoury alliances – as victims of the Celtic Tiger are now all too well aware – and exclusionary practices. The “Irish” haven’t dominated police forces civil service jobs in American cities for most of the 20th century because they’re good at the entrance exam.
Surely discussions of the complex nature of Ireland’s Diaspora (to all parts of the world) can be explored more often?
– Yours, etc,