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LIKENING NOTRE DAME’S mascot of the “Fighting Irish” to those depicting American Indians such as the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Chicago Blackhawks is an argument that is a non-starter – not least because American Indians are, to this day, victims of abject poverty and systematic oppression to devastating levels while the Irish in America are generally not discriminated against in this country to a harmful degree.
However, a simpler reason as to why the ‘Fighting Irish’ is acceptable while the ‘Redskins’, ‘Blackhawks’ and ‘Indians’ are not is available. It is the issue of agency, of who is representing whom.
The latter three are franchises owned by white men who profit off of predominantly white fan bases with a brand depicting whimsical, caricaturised American Indians, promoting colonialism and racism at once while giving American Indians no real voice in the matter.
The ‘Fighting Irish’ was a nickname consciously adopted by a predominantly Irish-American institution. It was chosen to symbolically celebrate the school’s triumph in defying the prejudices hoisted upon Irish-Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries from various elements of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America.
In a sense, the adoption of this nickname, and subsequently, the leprechaun as a symbol for the school was an action that contested harmful and hateful stereotypes and flipped them into cultural markers of pride and self-representation.
‘Irish-American identity’
The name almost definitely descends from the “Fighting Irish” brigades in the American Civil War. One narrative claims that the “Fighting Irish” gained currency as a name following de Valera’s stop to South Bend in 1919 on his tour to America in order to drum up support for Irish independence.
Another credits its eventual salience to the frequent references of a writer for the Daily News in New York covering the football team in the 1920s for the city’s Irish-American audience.
While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment in which Notre Dame became the “Fighting Irish”, the message in its name is clearly a nod to the school’s Irish-American identity and to its status as one of the most important (if not the single most important) Irish-American institutions.
It would be impossible and inaccurate to write a history of 20th century Irish-America without accounting for the significance of Notre Dame, in both sporting and educational contexts.
The “Fighting Irish” football team challenged the ascendancy in the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s of schools which at the time were bastions of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant elitism such as Yale and the University of Chicago. It became the most successful and popular college football team in the nation over the course of the 20th century, evolving into a national spectacle which attracted the support of Irish-Americans and Catholics more generally from coast to coast.
‘Brainwashed by the age of six of going to Notre Dame’
At the same time, Notre Dame as an educational body is synonymous with the upward mobility and success of Irish-America over the decades. It is well-known that Irish-Americans historically emphasised education as the means to trans-generational social ascendancy over the years, and Notre Dame represented the golden standard of Irish-American education, from coast to coast.
For years and years, it provided an avenue for a high-level college education to Irish-Americans when Ivy League schools remained blatantly inaccessible for working-class Catholics.
Many Irish-Americans incorporated Notre Dame into their own idea of the American dream. To see their children and grandchildren go to Notre Dame was, and still is, a great wish for many.
I witnessed this firsthand. The influence of Notre Dame was so pervasive in the Irish-American community that, even 20 years ago, my immigrant grandfather, as a bus driver in New York, had me thoroughly brainwashed by the age of six that I would be going to Notre Dame.
To this day, Notre Dame’s connections with Ireland are substantial. The university runs academic centers in Dublin and at the iconic Kylemore Abbey in Connemara. In 2012, the famous football team travelled to Dublin to play a game in the Aviva Stadium, a move which was hitherto unprecedented. Notre Dame apparel with the leprechaun logo in question can be seen regularly throughout Ireland.
The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies is a world leader in the field of Irish Studies, in an era in which many think that higher education is crucial to the reproduction of Irish-American identity. The Irish Language and Literature Department is the first in the country to establish a major in the Irish language, and the only workplace in America where Irish is the spoken language.
As a student there, the reassurance, familiarity, and encouragement I gained from the Irish community almost single-handedly ensured that I sanely survived the depths of Indiana winters.
‘Neglectful to history’
To be sure, Notre Dame is not institutionally a flawless and authoritative body on what it means to be Irish-American. As a first-generation Irish-American student there, I found St Patrick’s Days in South Bend to be particularly cringy celebrations.
At football games, the marching band is bizarrely led by a line imitating the London Guard and I remember the Provost of the University once praising Margaret Thatcher as a “compassionate” friend of his in front of thousands of students.
Still, the “Fighting Irish” nickname is above all, a testament to the university’s historical and present-day status of a powerful and significant Irish-American institution, celebrating the symbiotic relationship between Notre Dame and Irish-America over the years.
To suggest that the name is offensive is neglectful to history, at best, and extremely damaging in the discussion over American Indians, at worst. It risks plunging to the depths of foundationless self-victimisation not entirely dissimilar from that of the promotion of the Irish slave myth.
Notre Dame, like St Patrick’s Day, is an iconic marker of the various expressions of Irishness in this country. If one actually feels that the nickname is guilty of “cultural appropriation” to an offensive degree, then they should also go ahead and leave March 17 as just another day. More green beer for the rest of us, I suppose.
Eugene O’Driscoll is a native New Yorker and an historian of immigration and the Irish diaspora, holding degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Oxford.
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good on him, quotas are bad for women as they will all be under the cloud of being tokens, also unjust for men, I have to assume helicoptered in women aren’t the best candidate for the job, I don’t want to be voting for tokens.
@Dave Dublin: If all things were equal, I’d agree with you. And that’s the problem. Some people dont think we are all equal. Ever. Old mens clubs etc.
@Brendan Cooney: Laws should not be written based on what “some people” think or don’t think. If they were, you could be arrested for walking under a ladder.
@Joe Phillips: ????
Laws are ONLY written by what “some people” think.
Those people are the Legislature.
This is a key part of the Irish Constitution.
Best of luck. I hope you succeed in ensuring these opportunities in Ireland are not given based on someone’s group identity.
@sVRCsaSg: Agreed, a ridiculous law designed to appeal to approximately half the populace. While I sincerely hope this case is successful, I somehow can’t see it being so.
Delighted
Good luck Mohan. I am not someone who usually roots for an FF man, but this law does need to be tested.
@Richard Barrett: this is not a party political issue .. it’s a discrimination issue based on your gender
Good
Well done that man….best of luck to him…
Deloghted
Brian if this fails please just identify as a woman and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
If he was up for assault his FF connection would have been buried at the bottom of the article.
Best person for the job regardless of gender…. any attempt to introduce gender quotas automatically discriminate and make for an unequal society.
I do accept that there may be more of one gender than another gender in certain employments but this is due in part to choice and in part to stereotyping – gender quotes do not tackle these issues. Once one has equality of opportunity gender quotas are not the solution, one must tackle the root cause.
Why is this person so threatened by equality? History is littered with those who tried to hold back the tide of progress.
Women have the vote
Women have rights over own bodies
Soon they will have the right to represent us free of the hangover and constraints of expectation due to centuries of discrimination.
@thephantomshit: he’s not threatened by equality of opportunity, just equality of outcome. All the other examples you gave are equality of opportunity, the one being dealt with here is equality of outcome. They are two very different things and it’s wrong to conflate the two.
@thephantomshit: there is a difference between equality and meeting a quota. People should run because they are capable, not to meet a target. Equality can never be reached if women remain to be treated differently.
@thephantomshit: they already have the right to represent us. I’m not sure where yuo get the idea that they don’t.
@thephantomshit: he wasn’t being treated equally, that’s the point.
@Richard: He could run as an Independent and align with FF in the Dail. No Quota issue if he does that. The quota is set for a Party Affiliation to ensure a more gender equity within its representation. He can run as an Independent and have no issue.
@Hardly Normal: But he is. Men and women to fulfill 50% of the positions. 50/50. Equal.
@Ailbhe: How is being told you can’t run for election because we have to let a woman run instead equal?.
@Ailbhe: no he as an individual was not being treated equally to the woman they went with. Even if you agree in placing someone’s group identity above their individual identity in this case it is not equality of opportunity but an attempt to force equality of outcome.
@Ailbhe: how is it equal? Being told you can’t do that because you’re not a woman. On paper it might be equal 50/50 but realistically it’s not because he’s being denied the opportunity.
@Ailbhe: Why does a man looking for equality threaten you? And why do you insist on special treatment?
@Ailbhe: Do you call for that same equality in all positions that are mostly filled by men or just cherry picking the nice ones that you want to do? Equality should mean exactly that. Equality in all aspects of life not just in boardrooms and the Dail.
@Roy Dowling: Because women will be told the same if they reach 50% representation.
It’s basic maths folks. Given the amount of eejits on the journal that claim feminism is about taking over the world etc etc, holding us to a MAXIMUM 50% representation should be a welcomed move. You all seem so scared of women.
@Battaz: I welcome it. In fact I’ve campaigned for equality for men. Be it in the workplace, parental rights, or representation. Bring it on I say!
@Darren McCormack: Hi Darren, thanks for assuming I don’t call for equality in all positions. I do. I think it would be great to see equal numbers in all sectors. Areas particularly lacking are teaching, carers, the majority of HCP professions and even law is shifting to be majority women qualifying. I think these should be equal or as close as practicable.
Diversity of ideas, experience and representation benefit us all.
@Ailbhe: I asked you a question. I assumed nothing.
@Ailbhe: are you looking for equality of outcome (50:50 representation everywhere) or equality of opportunity? Because you can’t have both and if you give people equality of opportunity and become more egalitarian as a society the differences between the choices of men and women increase not decrease.
And how should we mandate for diversity of ideas? Would you be in favour of quotas for conservative viewpoints in the workplace and on boards?
@Ailbhe: You seem to think that people are afraid of women being equal. I don’t think they are. I think people are afraid of forced quotas which deny men from entering a career because they’ve met their quota based on your gender. I couldn’t give a rats ass if we have a male or female Taoiseach, doctor or nurse. I want the best person for the job.
@sVRCsaSg: I agree. I seen this report recently. In nordic countries that are seen to be more egalitarian, women and men are diverging more and more into “traditional” gender career paths.
@Ailbhe: Wrong. Doesn’t matter if women are told the same if they reach 50%. You claim your want equality, but your happy to use inequality to achieve it. That ain’t fair. Out of curiosity shall we put gender quotas on building sites, no men can be hired until women are 50% of the work force?. or how about child care, no women can be hired until 50% of the work force are men?
@sVRCsaSg: It’s not equality of opportunity though now is it? Society is more likely to vote for men, and not because they are more qualified. So it’s far from an equal opportunity. If candidates were voted for on merit, not based on assumptions and societal biases, it would all be fair. but it’s not. So either change the system, or ensure the system is equal.
@Darren McCormack: You’re not currently getting the best person for the job.
@Roy Dowling: Sounds like a plan!
@Ailbhe: half our society are women. By your own logic women voters are holding back women in politics by voting for men on merit instead voting for the best candidate.
@Roy Dowling: Yes….you’re getting it now.
@Ailbhe: Don’t see you or any other woman protesting outside a building site or creche looking for quotas though so we?.
Instead we see mothers getting together and forcing creche owners to sack male employees.
@Ailbhe: so then gender quotas arnt needed, whats needed is to educate voters on picking the right person.
@Ailbhe: Lot’s of men on here taking issue with gender quotas.
Is it because a) you don’t think there should be equal representation for women in the one role that shapes society’s legislature and how the country is run. If so, why?
or
b) you think there is a better way to achieve this (decades of faux equal opportunity have not yet achieved this). If so, how?
@Roy Dowling: It would take a HUGE societal shift in biases, predermination and prejudices to achieve that. Several decades of people trying to achieve this and we still live in a world where women are paid less and denied opportunities for promotion. So, if that’s not working, we need a catalyst. What else would you suggest?
@Ailbhe: I’m against gender quotas because it benefits woman in certain areas. if you want to introduce gender quotas it should be country wide and across all occupations eg. Politics, finance, health, construction, child care.
either every occupation be forced be 50/50 workforce or none of them.
@Ailbhe: because it’s a load of shit basically. I don’t care if there’s more female lawyer’s than men, or if there’s more male plumbers than women. These lads are voted in democratically and you just can’t go around saying there’s not enough female politicians, we’ll stop a man campaigning in this constituency to balance it country wide or vice versa.
@Hardly Normal: This is the only role that allows employees to change our laws and run our country. Plumbers etc just don’t equate.
@Roy Dowling: So is that a), you don’t think women should be equally able to legislate and govern?
@Ailbhe: no that’s not it at all. I think women can do those things aswell was any man. I also think women can wire an office aswell as any man( I should know as I was an apprentice to female sparks for a few months) yet you don’t see women demanding quotas in hiring electricians. Again if women want quotas for politics they have to accept half the workforce on a building site should be women , half the workers in creches should be men. If they really want quality then accept equality everywhere.
@Ailbhe: Where’s the proof that women are paid less for the same job? It’s well proven that men put in more hours and take less holidays than their female colleagues. Show me documented proof that takes account for this. There is nothing stopping a woman from being whatever she wants to be. Nothing stops any woman from running as a TD. So why aren’t they doing it?
@Roy Dowling: Electricians are not public representatives. False equivelancy.
@Darren McCormack: Google is your friend mate.
@Ailbhe: Is that your response to me looking for proof of a gender pay gap? Jaysus you’re hilarious. I guess I win that argument so. I’m done talking to you now. You’re boring me.
@Ailbhe: there’s a lot of different reasons people vote for certain candidates. From accents to hairstyle to height etc. You can’t justify forcefully pushing equality of outcome because sexism is out there in the ether.
Have you ever considered women aren’t putting themselves forward or engaging in politics as much as men because they’re not as interested in it? They’re not as interesting in becoming engineers or computer programmers so maybe it’s the case here too?
Women in general have been shown to care less about politics than men.
@Ailbhe: and before you say we need to break down the barriers or something what if the reserve is true (as is the case with traditionally gendered jobs) – that women are less likely to engage in politics the more egalitarian a society becomes? Can we then drop these sexist quotas?
@Ailbhe: bull sh|t it’s nothing to do with being public representatives. it’s because not many women want to do those kinds of jobs. I’d imagine you include. And as such you don’t care about equality there and are happy it’s a male dominant occupated. Simple fact it’s voters of this county are 50% male 50% female if you want more females in government get women to vote for the best candidate
@thephantomshit: this is not equality .. its gender preference.. best person should get any job on offer regardless of gender
@Ailbhe: you brought up different professions initially. You’re comments are foimtyou a disservice.
@Ailbhe: How come 99% of all construction site workers men? Also, how come the overwhelming majority of binmen men?
@Ailbhe: “Society is more likely to vote for men, and not because they are more qualified.” – Where is the evidence to suggest this? I couldn’t care less if a candidate is man or woman, black or white, young or old etc etc as long as they are competent and can perform the role they are running for.
@Ailbhe:
A) I have no issue with equal representation. The most important thing is that there is equal opportunity for both men and women. Nowadays, there is. I do have an issue with a slide towards soft totalitarianism that comes with the introduction of these quotas.
B) Yes, of course there are better ways. One of which is to encourage more woman to get into politics via campaigns. Look at what they are doing re woman in sport via the 20=20 campaign.
@Ailbhe:
Agree completely.
I was shocked and disgusted and repulsed all in equal hugely triggered measure this morning when my bins were being collected.. I was appalled to see a group, a boy’s club, of four pig men emptying out my bins full of dirty nappies and rotten food into the back of their truck, their chauvinist-mobile, then pull off down towards the city dump spewing their toxic masculinity all over the street on their way.
Then on my way to work I came across these horrible male brutes working for dynorod cleaning out the sewers, up to their elbows in human waste, laughing and joking uttering micro aggressions to each other.
Women need forced representation across the board I 100% agree with you.
Maybe someone like you would challenge these despicable bin men and I can look forward to seeing someone like you emptying my refuse or maybe even cleaning out my uncle’s septic tank in the short term future in the name of true beautiful equality.
You are a noble fighter for justice and I tip my hat to you.
@thephantomshit: meeting expectations is one of the great responsibilities of being a politician. What are talking about? Stop reading CNN and go watch some Jordan Peterson.
I’m delighted, I hope he wins his case. Gender quotas is just lunacy
Grossly incompetent gombeen FF and FG politicians getting into gov with no more experience than local county councillor experience and small local business experience have destroyed this country. Introducing gender quotas into groups thats already grossly incompetent and unfit for gov isn’t gonna improve anything.
Good luck to him. Gender quotas mean individuals are discriminated against. If that’s ok with folks then let me be the first to say that we need equal numbers of women to men in prison. By quota if necessary. Sort of like jury duty but in reverse.
The lad got 510 votes in the 2014 Locals, the only discrimination he suffered was the discriminating opinion of the Dublin Central electorate
@Shane ᚛ᚄᚕᚅ᚜: No, he was explicitly discriminated against based on his gender. I thought that was a no no?
Are there any other groups you feel should be discriminated against?
@Battaz: If he wanted to run he could have, more than once there’s been an Independent Fianna Fáiler out there in the wild.
My point is that Mohan was only ever an also ran, at best
But aside from that, you’re making a categorical error. FF is a private institution that is free to do as it chooses, its members decide what their internal rules are. The Corú gives the Constituencies committee immence powers to determine election and nomination strategies. If FF wanted they could choose not to accept state funding, and then nominate all male panels, if they chose. There’s conditionality all over the state funding that parties and independents receive. What they can spend it on, what services are legitimate expenses, whom they can employ, and what the terms of employment must be. Auditing conditions. Public declaration conditions. This is all in the primary legislation, and since 2012 gender conditionality is in it. But Mohan if he wanted to could have run, no one was stopping him running, only FF was stopping him running under the FF banner.
This has much more to do with the old Bertie/Fitzpatrick divide than anything else
Excellent decision .. best person regardless of gender should be put forward for all positions
Possibly a bigger concern should be that the high court made an error of judgement not once but twice. Waste of a lot of state funds there and by state i mean our funds
I expect nothing less from FF, they don’t like to see women in politics. Its a men’s club for them
@Barry Somers: You don’t think picking the best person for the job is a good idea? Not that we do it in the first place but that’s another matter.
@Barry Somers: With Theresa May and Angela Merkle doing their damnest to sink an entire continent, I’m afraid the beta male clarion call of more women in politics is a tune best kept to oneself.
@Barry Somers: that’s a load of crap … best person for all jobs regardless of gender
Nearly all the comments on this are from men. No more should be allowed until women are equally represented in comments.
@George Byron: this Is an equal gender issue .. everyone is welcome to comment ..
How ironic when i see on here some people calling the DUP dinosaurs and misogynists, and neither FF or FG, parties essentially under the control of conservative, rural, middle aged and older gombeen politicians and their supporters, and neither not having had a female party leader yet.
@Adrian: Which “female leaders” would you suggest? Theresa May and Angela Merkle will soon be jobseeking. Apparently a uterus is not a magic wand.
@Battaz: how many progressive modern female leaders would like to lead either FF or FG in their current state? Not many i would say, because gender quotas and FF in particular appear to be an issue that crops up regularly in the news, despite martins desperate efforts to appear at FF events surrounded by the half dozen females in the party.
@Adrian: look most people don’t support this nonsense. Hope he wins and that will put an end to this fascism.
This gender quota is absolute nonsense and condescending toward women. No one is stopping anyone from putting themselves forward regardless of gender. People should get voted in on their ability not on whether they’re male or female.
Good on him.
#metooo
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