Congress’s most outspoken Irish-American reflects on his heritage
By Mark Hemingway
The Irish have a long and proud political tradition in the United States. In the land of opportunity, a willingness to take on hard work, a natural-born sense of community, and a cultivated way with words go a long way toward winning elected office. Perhaps no contemporary politician is a better proof of this than Long Island congressman Peter King (R.). King’s office, festooned with such notable pieces of décor as a large Notre Dame Fighting Irish rug and a framed poster for the Liam Neeson Irish revolutionary biopic Michael Collins, will quickly put you in the mood for a Guinness. The day before St. Patrick’s Day, National Review Online dropped by to talk about what it means to be an Irish-American. Though just one generation removed from his immigrant grandparents, King didn’t grow up seeing any difference between what it meant to be Irish and what it meant to be American. “I didn’t think of myself as having an immigrant upbringing,” he said. “My father put a flag up and down in front of the house every day until he went in the hospital and died. It was old-fashioned patriotism. Even among my grandparents during the Depression, there was this real feeling about not going on welfare. All of the traditional American values were imparted to me. But I thought everyone was like that.”
↓ Keep reading this article ↓
The Irish have a long and proud political tradition in the United States. In the land of opportunity, a willingness to take on hard work, a natural-born sense of community, and a cultivated way with words go a long way toward winning elected office. Perhaps no contemporary politician is a better proof of this than Long Island congressman Peter King (R.). King’s office, festooned with such notable pieces of décor as a large Notre Dame Fighting Irish rug and a framed poster for the Liam Neeson Irish revolutionary biopic Michael Collins, will quickly put you in the mood for a Guinness. The day before St. Patrick’s Day, National Review Online dropped by to talk about what it means to be an Irish-American. Though just one generation removed from his immigrant grandparents, King didn’t grow up seeing any difference between what it meant to be Irish and what it meant to be American. “I didn’t think of myself as having an immigrant upbringing,” he said. “My father put a flag up and down in front of the house every day until he went in the hospital and died. It was old-fashioned patriotism. Even among my grandparents during the Depression, there was this real feeling about not going on welfare. All of the traditional American values were imparted to me. But I thought everyone was like that.”
↓ Keep reading this article ↓
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