The regiment was largely made up of working-class Irish Catholics from lower Manhattan;an unusual flock for a Congregationalist from Connecticut.

For the only Irish unity worth having must begin with unity between the Catholic and Protestant working-class in Northern Ireland.

Civil rights marches felt so incendiary to white working-class Catholics in part because they assaulted the idea of neighborhood itself.

I remember a Belfast guy pointing out in the 70s that only working-class Catholics and Protestants rioted - the middle-classes stayed behind their net curtains.

He was complacent about his flock's racism and unembarrassed about the contrast between his grand style of living and the privations of the working-class Catholics who supported it.

Cracovia are seen as the supposedly "Jewish team" of the city, though in reality the large majority are working-class Catholics.

Mr. Flynn said that under his leadership, which takes effect next Wednesday, the organization would encourage political participation and provide a voice for Catholics, especially "blue-collar, working-class" Catholics.

Recent research by White (1989) confirms that it was internment, in particular, which galvanised young, working-class Catholics into adopting political violence.

This is in contrast to her predecessor, Sir Patrick Mayhew, whose patrician accent was considered disdainful by many in Northern Ireland, particularly working-class Catholics.