er the english stole our family land. they kicked us out... admittedly it was many years ago... but my great aunts, ended up as nannies to the premier of canadas kids... when tehy retired they could go anywhere in the commonwealth... they went to new zealand, coz they couldnt get any further away from england and the crown.
we still have distant rellies in Ireland, and teh rest of us are spread to the corners of the earth... including my great great great great great grandad, who did the open boat thing, and ended up in newfoundland... bless him... but the Irish have always been portrayed as less than "honest" mainly by those who would wish to divert attention form their own shorfalls.
everyone points a finger, and all that most people know about ireland is the guinness is great, and the IRA are at defacto war with England... for the cause. (my great uncle several times removed wrote the first concise political history of the IRA...and really upset the bishop..
be philosphical. your heart is green. and your intentions are indeed honourable... do as our ancestors did, take the moral high ground, and treat them with the contempt they deserve. who are the americans? they are in fact the dregs, deported from england for their radical and fundamentalist zealotry. puritans... an onsequius cancer... seeking to excert control, where none is required.
we all sat round a table and signed a treaty back in 1300 and something, which basically agreed soverein territory and the right of each monarch to rule without interference outside his borders... its stopped the petty wars... and what do the americans do? the opposite.
The english have been at war with everyone on the planet at one time or another, and to be fair, they won most of the time,but they had it handeed to them a few times, cullodden, rourkes drift, the crimea....
they know about diplomacy, and for a muddy little island in teh north sea, we didnt do so bad... we learned, you go in mob handed, the mob responds, in kind. america doesnt want to admit is social and economic prosperity is built on a house of cards, and teetering badly at the moment, so they point the finger...blame paddy, blame abdullah, blame ossama (but youre there,hes not)
all you need to know is, youre NOT american, youre Irish... you always have somewhere else to go... theyre already there.