Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere
There is a difference. If you want to cast for a movie or TV program with Irish American characters, any generic white American actor will do. You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.
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Yes, because Irish ancestry is prevalent across the U.S. and most self-identified "Irish" Americans are Protestant due to admixture and many are actually Scotch-Irish, I suspect.
Even Joe Biden, who proudly advertises his Irish (Catholic) blood — 5/8th — and hails from a very Irish metro (Delaware Valley), has a French surname along with English lineage. He's as "American" as it gets.
Anecdotally, my therapist who grew up in McLean, VA has a German surname but stated that she is of mostly Irish descent (her father was from Massachusetts, so safe to assume Catholic); she identified herself as a WASP.