No Ernest, in my opinion the circumstances regarding the Irish wouldn't be defined as racism. Racism is rooted in prejudice based upon the color of a cultural group(s)' skin.

Ethnic bigotry is rooted in prejudice based upon culture, though. Just like religious bigotry is rooted in prejudice based upon religion. In the case of the Irish in the 19th century, the bigotry had to do with both their culture and their religion. That makes it somewhat unique, though not really. I consider bigotry against Irish people in 19th century America to have functioned more like anti-Semitism than racism, actually. Because anti-Semitism also has cultural roots, especially for Eastern European Jews.

But I understand it isn't easy to draw these distinctions, and that reasonable people can disagree about it.

Which is always better than spewing angry invectives, like a few posters here are doing because they apparently have issues with my choice to remain anonymous, or because they disagree with my opinion.

They are, of course, free to disagree with me or anyone else here. But they don't need to drag the level of discourse into the gutter, like Big Mick just tried to do.