When Irish eyes aren’t smiling
2 comments May 23rd, 2009
 
 I’ve never been one to exult in my Irish heritage, at least not since reaching adulthood, mainly because ethnic pride strikes me as foolish at best and ugly at worst.
 Whatever Irish pride I absorbed as a child vanished during my years as a young adult in Chicago, where the racism among many, if not most, of my Irish-American acquaintances was as repugnant as almost anything you’d see in the South in those days.
 It didn’t take long for me to see through the fraudulently flattering stereotypes inculcated by the movie characters played by Bing Crosby and the Irish lullabies he sang.
 This stuff came to mind this week with the release of a MASSIVE REPORT documenting the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children in Catholic reformatories in Ireland.
 It’s almost enough to make one ashamed, rather than proud, to be Irish. But then, ethnic shame is no more valid than ethnic pride in my book. I’m more proud to be an American than to be Irish — because it’s all about principles, not ethnicity.
