@RusA #9858721 I think JFK was our first president of pure Irish ancestry. We've had several others with Irish ancestry mixed with other ethnicities, including Barack Obama, who is Irish on his mother's side. In 1960, many people opposed JFK because he was Catholic, and were afraid he'd be "taking orders from the Pope". His being Irish had nothing to do with it - the old anti-Irish feelings that were common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had died out by then, as the Irish-Americans became assimilated, and quickly became just another kind of white folks. From thinking of the Irish as being lazy drunks who picked fights and belonged to a weird cult religion, we started thinking of them as colorful and fun-loving people who stood up for themselves when necessary. For the most part, a politician's religion has little to do with his electability these days: Biden being Catholic, or Sanders being Jewish, was barely mentioned during the election, and even Mitt Romney doesn't get much bad press for being a Mormon. The only ones who get criticism for their religion are Muslims, whom many Americans still don't trust.
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@RusA #9858721 I think JFK was our first president of pure Irish ancestry. We've had several others with Irish ancestry mixed with other ethnicities, including Barack Obama, who is Irish on his mother's side.