New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's celebration of St. Patrick's Day was different from that of most other New York City mayors, who marked the occasion by highlighting the Irish struggle to realize the American dream.
"Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long?" asked Mamdani, referencing his view of the Irish experience in America and comparing it to the plight of the Palestinians.
"The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination," the mayor told attendees at the traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion.
There was a lot for Irish immigrants to overcome. "No Irish need apply" signs were posted at factory gates and storefronts. Disabling stereotypes that portrayed the Irish people as stupid, drunken brawlers. The subtext always present, barely beneath the surface of those critiques, was the Irish Catholic faith and how that truly made the Irish "different" from other Americans.
The Irish fought for their right to be treated as any other American. But they mostly won that right by becoming a dominant urban political force in the Northeast and other big cities. The Irish won by learning the political ropes and applying that knowledge to organize their clannish communities into a powerful voting bloc that brought them real power.
The Irish "oppression" was no more, no less, than the "oppression" experienced by every other newcomer who landed in America as an immigrant. And like all other immigrants, they set about the task of changing the political equation to benefit themselves and their friends and neighbors.
They didn't whine to the dominant WASPs about how unfair it was that they ran the cities and didn't give them any power. They certainly didn't "weep" about it, as Mamdani claims. They learned how the system worked and conquered it.
The special guest of the Mayor at the breakfast was Mary Robinson, former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Her solidarity is many things: unwavering, sincere, and chief among them Irish," gushed Mamdani.
"In other words, to be Irish is to do what Robinson did: call for a Palestinian state and accuse Israel of genocide," writes New York Sun columnist Rebecca Sugar.
Whatever one thinks of the Israel-Hamas war, it’s hard to argue that the definition of being Irish hinges on defense of a group of Middle Eastern people led by a terrorist organization. Yet, our mayor essentially made that argument. And why wouldn’t he? Mr. Mamdani might be excused for thinking a day to celebrate Irish identity is rightly used to acknowledge the identities of everyone else. Irish leaders themselves make the same deracinated, globalist claims.
A former Irish President, Michael Higgins, in a recorded St. Patrick’s Day greeting last year said, “On this St. Patrick’s Day 2025, let us invoke the spirit of Saint Patrick by acknowledging our shared responsibilities to each other, to our global family.” Ireland’s current president, Catherine Connolly, just days ago, told her countrymen that, “The story of Patrick’s life serves as a reminder of the resilience and courage of migrants, the invaluable contributions that they have made and continue to make to the countries they now call home.”
Just as an aside, if "migrants" had shown up in 4th-century Ireland at the time of Patrick, they would have received the sharp end of a Roman spear. That's because the chances were good that those "migrants" were Saxon hordes hell-bent on murdering everyone who wasn't a Saxon.
No matter. Mamdani wasn't really giving us a history lesson. He was conducting a seminar on the plight of the oppressed peoples of the world and why we should weep for them.
"I say this as over the past few years, as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many," Mamdani said. "For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new – for Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet former President Robinson has never been silent."
Robinson has been one of the most controversial High Commissioners for Human Rights in recent memory. She is frequently accused of a disproportionate focus on Israel’s actions while remaining relatively "silent" on human rights abuses by other regimes or Palestinian militant groups. Critics argue she often creates a false equivalence between the actions of a democratic state's military and the tactics of terrorist organizations like Hamas.
This is a pro forma argument in internationalist circles. When arguing against "oppression" by a stronger state, always downplay or ignore the atrocities of the oppressed.
It's not that Mamdani used the Irish experience to demonstrate the solidarity we should feel for all. That's standard "melting pot" politics. It's that he misrepresented that experience in an attempt to equate the struggles of Irish immigrants to achieve equality peacefully at the ballot box with the ultra-violent terrorist actions of Hamas.
Nice try, mayor. Next time, try comparing apples with apples.
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