My ancestry is 62.5% Irish and I enjoy Irish culture very much (my
favorite sport, more than ice hockey, is hurling).  I find the
"Fighting" in Irish to be very offensive and see no need for it (I
also see no need for it in any nickname).

Sean

On 6 Aug 2005 at 19:54, Ken Kretsch wrote:

> I remember hearing an individual on TV once - I believe he was on
> Charlie Rose - and as I recall the argument goes something like this:
>
> The European Americans did their utmost to exterminate Indian
Culture
> on the North American continent, from which the Indians never have,
> nor probably ever will recover. What the Indians find offensive is
> that, as they see it, the only thing we palefaces seem to value is
> their stereotype for aggression as a symbol of our sports teams.
> (Building dioramas of Indian villages to decorate casino lobbies
> doesn't count.)
>
> This argument probably doesn't hold for the Irish, who have
flourished
> in modern times (granted after many decades of second class
> citizenship.) Further, we value Irish culture; we drink Irish
> beverages, sing Irish songs, listen to Irish tenors, read Irish
> literature, and every March 17th, we're all Irish!! True, this is
> somewhat superficial, but it's more that what we do for the culture
of
> the aboriginal North Americans.
>
> Note that this is not my argument, although I sympathize with it.
> Interestingly enough, the guest on the show, a member of the Lakota
> tribe, as I recall, said that the term "Native American" is not
seen
> as an improvement over "Indian". Among themselves the Indians refer
to
> their nation, e.g., "He's Lakota" or "She's Mahican".
>
> Ken