You said it better than me. You can not sneer at the traditions without somehow sneering at those the traditions, however broken and newly pieced together in a new land, without sneering at those who held on to what they could and created something new...and that would include the supposed Irishman buried under every railroad tie and those who worked themselves to death at an early age and those laid low by various fevers and who died in childbirth. There is so little left, at least out here in western US, and to see it not die a natural death, but to be kicked to death by people who think they know more than us ..well, it gets my Irish up...and my ancestors probably aspired to be shanty Irish..they were proably several steps below. I won't insult other people's ancestors, no matter how humble, and I don't want people insulting mine. mg