The Black Irish

If you want to know what it was like being Irish in America 100 years ago, ask a Mexican. The parallels are striking.

Then, it was the Know Nothing party, as semi-secret organisation similar to the Ku Klux Klan, saying exactly the same things that the Pat Buchanan wing of the Republican Party says today.

There are other onnections between Irish and Mexicans. A friend of mine, a fisherman when he was in Ireland, collects old pishogs, and he told me that Mexicans have exactly the same sea-superstitions as the Irish. I think that this may go back to Elizabethan times, when Spanish traders were a common sights in Irish seaports like Galway. No doubt, superstitions would have been traded along with more tangible goods, and those same ideas also crossed the Atlantic to the New World. Whether the Irish have Spanish superstitions, or the other way around, is of course an open question.

One aspect of the Mexican experience has differed from the Irish however. Whereas the Irish were quick to organize politically, in Labour Unions and at Tamany Hall, Mexicans are reluctant to give up their own citizenship of a country that is still only next door. This makes them excellent scapegoats, since they have no vote.

This is now changing however. Long-time Mexican residents, worried about the way things are heading, are applying for their Naturalization papers in record numbers. One California county is processing more than 20,000 applications for citizenship every month.

As a result, several politicians who sponsored stiffer Immigration laws have found their seats in danger. The most notable casualty this time around was Bob Dornan, minor presidential hopeful and now ex-Representative from Orange County, California. In an echo of less savory aspects of Irish politics, Mr Dornan is now alleging vote fraud helped his opponent. The case has yet to come to court.

Payback's a bitch sometimes.