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Originally posted by baltassoc
I always understood this to be a reference to being Irish, i.e. your red-headed step-child is particularly worthy of being beaten because, after all, she's really just a dirty little mick. But perhaps the Irish part of my family is just overly sensitive.
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They are too sensitive on this one. Jokes about red headed children go back at least as far as ancient Rome.
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Let's not even begin on "beyond the Pale."
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Now, that is usually thought to have originated as insult of the Irish. It might be older, though (i.e.: beyond the pale - meaning general borders of one's jurisdiction - not the Pale). The English had Pales in France and Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries as well, incidentally, though the idea of being outside the bounds of basic civilization did come to be associated particularly with the Irish. It is clearly the English insulting the non-English, in any event.
Do they get upset if someone refers to Houligans?
