When I told my sister about my vision of wearing that shirt at work while sitting across from my Irish colleague, she replied, "You should!"
"Oh, I'd get in trouble for that," I said. Let's face it, the Irish aren't exactly known for their ability to laugh at themselves—Father Ted notwithstanding.
But then again, it seems incredible to see that shirt on display in the Boston area, with its heavy Irish Catholic population, of which I'm part myself. Who could have come up with the idea and production of such a shirt but Irish-Americans themselves?
I think it's wonderful that we can have a sense of humor. The Irish themselves may despair of "plastic paddies," but that's mostly a result of our penchant for singing drinking songs we don't fully understand, crying in our green beers, and—to our eternal shame—donating to the IRA. In other words, for taking ourselves far too seriously. But if McAmericans can look at themselves through the lens of sarcastic humor, the whole of Ireland might just respond, "Now that's more like it!"
That maxim applies no matter who you are. For instance, I have a friend who's second-generation Italian and he's constantly using the adjectives "guinea" and "eyetie." He doesn't mean it, of course, but that's just his way of saying "screw you" to the sort of people who would demand that he see himself more as Italian than American. He knows better than that and I admire him for it.
We Irish-Americans need to place more emphasis on our American heritage too. Sure, our blood runs thick with Celtic genes. But let us never forget why we were born here and why we speak with the accents that we do.
And long live the humor with which we finally seem able to view ourselves.




