Irish-Americans Quotes
In the history of America
First Irish Bishop in the United States and the First Catholic Cardinal of New York. Moscow had just been burned by the French. No New York Catholic churches were harmed.
I was born here. My children were born here. What the hell do I have to do to be called an American?
A Boston newspaper referred to Kennedy as "an Irishman." Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was an ugly, anti-Irish dimension to the national scene that was every bit as ugly as the other ethnic hatreds like anti-Semitism. The Irish like the early Jews had six strikes against them. They were foreigners. They were not Christian Protestants, they were poor, they did not know the American culture, they spoke English with a distinct accent, and they were the lowest of the lower classes. Even rich Irish like Kennedy were looked down upon and when his son ran for President he had to overcome a still significant block of anti-Irish Americans.
In the early 1920's the New York City Board of Alderman was totally dominated by Irish-Americans. One advised a non-Irish colleague:
He was reflecting on his discovery as a young boy that a relative was a bag man for Boss Frank Hague of Jersey City.
