When my maternal great-grandmother came to the United States from Ireland, she struggled for work. There were signs, “No Irish Need Apply” or just “No Irish.” There was no welfare, and we were all the better for it. They wouldn’t have taken it anyway. The families who came just worked harder and kept their heads down. My great-grandmother lost her farm in Ireland when the British stole it. A Lord lives on it now. She paid for passage to the United States, the land of opportunity, not welfare.
Her daughter, my grandmother, wore her beautiful, handmade communion dress on her communion day when some boys threw blood on her. Anna didn’t become a victim; she became a tailor and made clothes for herself and others. Her aunt was a tailor for Bamie Roosevelt, Theodore’s sister. Her uncle became a monsignor, fighting for the poor. He wrote a hymn sung by Perry Como. When he died, the “Bowery Bums” collected for his monument, which still stands at Calvary Cemetery.
My great-grandmother, also Anna, married an Irish builder. She earned her citizenship so she could buy property for him to build on. They became rich in Manhattan.
Some family members became butchers and tailors, and some went to college. All served in the war; one died in Andersonville, and another descendant was a POW in WWI. They were and are grateful for the opportunities. My ancestors never saw themselves as weak, pathetic victims, and held their heads high.
Along comes Zohran and makes St. Patrick’s Day into a tale of oppressed, victimized Irish people. Fools like Mamdani are taking our joyous holiday and making it into a tale of oppression and relating it to the Palestinian/Hamas radicals in Manhattan. We fought too hard for our freedoms, and we never invaded anyone. Yet, Ireland is being invaded culturally, socially, religiously, economically, and politically by some of its very “victims,” doing what the British couldn’t: destroy us.
NYC Mayor Zohran MaMamdani,n his St. Patrick’s Day speech glossed over the Catholic Patron Saint and the accomplishments of Irish New Yorkers an instead focused his speech on a politician from Ireland and the “genocide” in Palestine.
I will offer a speech to the Irish people in… pic.twitter.com/uGspgC24jA
— TheJewishAlly (@TheJewishAlly) March 17, 2026
We kept God in our hearts.
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS IT PERFECTLY: "Remember the beautiful words of St. Patrick himself. May the power of God preserve us. May the wisdom of God instruct us. May the hand of God protect us. May the way of God direct us. May the shield of God defend us. And may the host of God… pic.twitter.com/xO3COSOTId
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 17, 2026
