Irish hitmen?

[turtle]

Why in movies and TV shows from the US are the Irish always either drunk or hitmen?

 

I don't know any Irish hitmen. I know the Irish get drunk. Then again doesn't every nation have drunks in?

 

Daredevil, Boondock Saints, the Black Donnellys I'm sure there are more but I'm too tired to think right now.

[Jahled]

Yes quite.

 

Speaking of pissed Irish blokes, this guy was a teacher at my school:

 

The legend that is Dougie Barnett.

 

Dougie was a physics teacher at my secondary school, and retired a couple of years before I left. The stories about him are numerous, and I'll try to summarise some of them as best I can:

 

Someone in his class asked him whether you would get an electric shock from urinating on a piece of railtrack. He disappeared into the store room for a couple of minutes and came back with a steaming beaker of yellow liquid in which he proceeded to place a couple of electrodes connected to a power pack.

 

Once, with virtually no prompting, he drew the chemical structure of LSD on the blackboard for us and was part way through describing how it could be created before coming to his senses and exclaiming "I'm not telling you that!"

 

One of the guys in our class once recieved a piece of pretty ordinary work back from Dougie with "11/10 A++++" as his mark. No explanation was given.

 

One lesson, we decided to play chess instead of doing any work. Dougie calmly watched us play all lesson without comment.

 

Apparently, his wife threw him out of his house at one point. During this period Dougie was found sleeping in the labs by one of the technicians. At this time, he was seen around school with his trousers tied up with bunsen burner tubing in lieu of a belt.

 

While briefing us on an experiment in static electricity, he produced a 12" polythene rod and spent a good 5 minutes rubbing it vigorously against his groin to demonstrate how to generate static. He was completely mystified by the ensuing hysterical laughter from the class!

 

He did a 'practical' once to demonstrate inertia, which involved us taking turns riding passenger in his Nissan Micra while he performed handbrake turns on the school car park.

 

These are just some of the things I observed with my own eyes - doubtless he did much more...

 

Ah! The crazy Irish!

[DarthTofu]

Are the Irish guys drunks or hit men in Boondock Saints? I know their father is sort of a hit man, but he only knocked off criminals and such, and so far as I know (I only saw about the second half of the flick) the two kids are neither drunk nor hit men. *Shrugs*

 

The Irish make good hit men because of the accent. You can't help but smile and say "They're after me Lucky Charms!" when an Irish bloke comes at you and says something. Then, in that brief moment of inner laughter, they can rip out your throat...

 

That's my two bits worth.

[Darth_Rob]

As far as drunkenness goes, I think its just one of those stereotypes that survives to this day. Irish are drunks, French are gay, Italians are gangsters, British are stuck-up, Americans are lazy, Canadians are...weird...

 

I can go on and on if I wanted to. It's just one of those things.

 

As far as the Irish being hitmen, I dont know. However, I know a good portion of them immigrated to America, espicially during the Potato Famine, so I suppose that huge influx of a particular race at one specific time meant they had a hard time finding work. Perhaps some of them were forced to take hitmen-esque jobs due to having trouble finding other work. But as I said, I am just guessing, and am probably wrong...

[turtle]

I think in Boondock Saints the Irish are supposed to be drunks and hitmen at one point or other!

[Bruja]

well what else are they supposed to do, if they can't even grow potatoes? pulling a trigger's pretty simple.

[DarthTofu]

As far as the Irish being hit men, I dont know. However, I know a good portion of them immigrated to America, especially during the Potato Famine, so I suppose that huge influx of a particular race at one specific time meant they had a hard time finding work. Perhaps some of them were forced to take hit men-esque jobs due to having trouble finding other work. But as I said, I am just guessing, and am probably wrong...

 

I'm pretty sure that you're wrong. The Irish, being dirt poor, were willing to accept jobs at much lower rates than the people already in America would have. This led to the Irish getting jobs over Americans, as well as a great deal of anti-Irish sentiment.

 

The mafia/hit man thing might have been a way to protect themselves way back when, or it might just be a bit of propaganda/an ugly rumor started against the Irish by disgruntled people already living in the U.S.

[Defender_16]

And dont forget those Merc's in Sin City. The part with Clive Owen in it.

 

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PF_NEW%5C08_22_2005_A/PF_1178816~Sin-City-Clive-Owen-Advance-Posters.jpg

 

Hey, I'm half Irish and I've got the temper to prove it!

 

(I'm also half Dutch, that means I'm stubborn and short temperd... not that both halves of my family didn't already have those things in addundance.)

[turtle]

I've just had a thought. Maybe in the US the Irish have a stereotype of being hitmen cause of the various 'warring' factions in Northern Ireland during the 60's, 70's and 80's. The IRA etc.

[Jahled]

I've just had a thought. Maybe in the US the Irish have a stereotype of being hitmen cause of the various 'warring' factions in Northern Ireland during the 60's, 70's and 80's. The IRA etc.

 

And who would have thought Ian Paisley, the 'No Surrender,' arch-unionist, is now the Northern Ireland Chief Minister with a former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness, as his deputy. Implacable idiological opponents for the decades of the troubles, now sharing power together.