Sir, – In "Clinton's running mate does not know his Irish American history" (Opinion & Analysis, October 6th), Brian Boyd attempts to replace one simplistic depiction – Irish-Americans as victims but never perpetrators of fierce discrimination – with its opposite, ie that "the Irish in America were inglorious bastards".
Among the evidence Boyd cites is a slogan he says was used in protests against school desegregation in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s: “Niggers out of Boston, Brits out of Belfast”. How common was this slogan or others like it? I followed the situation in Boston very closely and cannot recall ever hearing of or seeing such a slogan – and I would remember if I had.
What Boyd doesn’t mention is that the judge who issued the desegregation order was Arthur Gerrity, the mayor who helped enforce it was Kevin White, and among the local politicians who supported it were Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy, all Irish-Americans.
Of course, many Irish-Americans (the most prominent of whom was Congresswoman Louise Day Hicks) opposed them and desegregation, but many supported them. More attention to class rather than ethnic background would be enlightening.
Boyd also refers to conflicts between Irish-Americans and African-Americans in the Civil War era. Understanding the reasons for these conflicts would require a consideration of the factors that put so many recently arrived and destitute Irish immigrants in direct economic conflict with recently emancipated and destitute African-Americans – factors that for the most part did not apply to the German-Americans who, as Boyd says, were rarely if ever involved in such conflicts. A comparison between where the Irish and German immigrants settled would also explain much.
In a year in which the complexity of Irish history is being recognised and valued as perhaps never before, it is disappointing to see the complexity of Irish-American history ignored. – Yours, etc,
FRANK GAVIN,
Toronto, Ontario.