They're ba-a-a-a-ck. The illegal Irish in New York City, that is. Some had left during the Celtic Tiger uptick, but that's seriously over.

Yep, Ireland's economy is tanking, so unemployed Irish think America is a swell place to be, since they imagine our national home is their spare country. They believe Ireland's immigration history entitles them to pop over whenever they need something.

Many have been making their way to the Bronx and Queens neighborhoods that became popular with the Irish who arrived in the last big wave of immigration, in the 1980s and ’90s, before Ireland’s prosperity slowed the influx and drew many home.

"I couldn't sit around any longer doing nothing," said Niall, just nine days off the plane from Dublin. In spite of rising unemployment in the United States, he and other newcomers say the job market here seems rosy compared with the meager offerings in Ireland, where the jobless rate has soared to nearly 12 percent. "It still seems that if you push yourself enough,” he said, ”then you will find something." [...]

But not everyone has found it easy to get work. The competition is fierce, not only from other newly arriving Irish, but also from Americans freshly out of work. [As Ireland’s Boom Ends, Job Seekers Revive a Well-Worn Path to New York, New York Times, July 10, 2009]

Millions of jobless Americans? Who cares about them? Certainly not the New York Times or the fresh ranks of illegal Irish job thieves.

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, foreign job seekers are unwelcome, to say the least. Roma immigrants in Belfast were recently moved to emergency accommodations after a series of violent attacks. Apparently some Irish don't think that diversity is the highest good.

A June poll from the Sunday (Irish) Independent showed Seven out of 10 favour immigration restrictions.

A large majority believe immigration from new EU member states into Ireland should be restricted because the perilous economic situation means we no longer have enough jobs, a Sunday Independent poll has revealed. [...]

Many respondents believed it was unsustainable to allow more and more people in given the size of the country and the economic crisis.

Others pointed out that there had been a need for labour during the boom years but that demand was gone.

How sensible of Irish homies to recognize the limits to growth. However some of their tribe still believe that they are too special to be bothered with American law or sovereignty.

Let's update those mythical signs: "No illegal Irish need apply."