Boston Irish are described by James Carroll.

In a review of Thomas O’Connor’s The Boston Irish: A Political History, Carroll writes, “In other places, Irish immigrants and their descendants moved rather smoothly into positions of economic, social and political power, but in Boston they were confronted by a Yankee establishment that did not want them. The stain of that rejection marked the soul of the city. Despite all appearances of patrician high-mindedness, Boston’s initial hatred of the Irish remains its Original Sin. Thus, the Irish presence has been known from the start for a spirit of xenophobic defensiveness that is still evident.”