Wrong premise, Kevin. Your analogy doesn't hold water. The Irish were never able to arm effectively, nor were they able to throw off the Crown shackles, in the same way as the Americans. The society formed around the fight, and the fight went on until recently. The US society was based on the defeat of the crown forces, in a historically "instant" way, the creating of a new governmental unit, with a brand new Constitution that incorporated many new ideals into some very old ones. It was a reaction to the Crown, and a determination to not come under the control of a monarchy again. Now we all know that it took until after the War of 1812 for it to gel, and we know that it was the "New Americans" of what was then the West of the United States that really defined the new American character. These were woodsmen, born of the frontier, steeped in the idea that they were not tied to the Crown. Andrew Jackson was their leader. The Irish struggle, and ultimate formation of the Irish Republic, came in a whole different way.