Popular Republican Senator George Allen commands a 20 percent lead in the Virginia polls right now. His likely Democratic challenger is the prolific author and former Secretary of the Navy, Jim Webb. I checked out Webb’s website and found an article which I was particularly interested in because my Mother always called herself “Scotch-Irish” which makes me at least partially Scotch Irish too.
Martin Marty the Lutheran historian once described Catholics as America’s Jews (in terms of the discrimination they faced) and no peoples were more Catholic than the Irish. (BTW In two weeks I’ll be attending my niece and God daughter’s first commissioningwhich will make her eligible to participate in the Catholic communion) Irish riots were quite common throughout US history and included the huge draft riots in New York City during the Civil War.
The protestant Scots who were settled in Ireland by the British to fight the Catholic Irish moved en mass to America a little before the Catholic Irish and settled throughout the Applachians. Like my Scotch Irish forbears they were quick to distinguish themselves from the late arriving Irish Catholics.
Webb wrote a book about the Scots Irish which I recall paging through at Barnes and Nobles a year or two ago. He summarizes Scot-Irish history here in a brief analysis on how the Democrats could win them back from the Republicans. Webb may be a little too red blooded for some Democrats but if they want to take the Senate back they’ll have to root for him.
