[Clemenza]

I believe Italian Americans have outnumbered Irish Americans in Massachusetts for some time now.

For those interested in such things, Italian Americans are the largest group by ancestry in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey (duh) and New York. I believe gli Paisani are also the number one ethnic group in Delaware as well, and second only to the Germans in Pennsylvania.

Keep in mind, however, that such figures include person such as myself that are of mixed ancestry. I may not have a vowel at the end of my name (my mom does), but I am counted as "Italian American" in census surveys.

Of course, upward mobility and intermarriage mean that such distinctions as Italian-American and Polish-American (my two tribes) are of less importance, particularly outside the northeast and certain parts of the midwest. Being third generation, I have greater "cultural" loyalty to the region of I was raised in than to any ethnicity.

[Pharmboy]

Yes...what you say rings true. I spent four years in Cincinnati and they care much less about ethnicity than here in the northeast.

[Calpernia]

>>>Italian-American and Polish-American (my two tribes)

A little tip for you. NO kielbasa in the pasta gravy, ok :)

My goodness, you were so PC in your post. I'm a gavone. Not an Italian American :)

[RayChuang88]

What's interesting about the Italian immigrants is that they integrated into American society fairly quickly after Italians started to migrate to the USA en masse from the 1880's on. In the San Francisco area, Italians quickly became famous, especially in the bakery business (many of the best-known names of bakeries on the US West Coast were started by Italian immigrants).

Many Irish, on the other hand, had a much harder time integrating into American society, especially the Irish that arrived from the time of the infamous Potato Famine on. (The earlier Scots Irish immigrants, though, did integrate extremely well into US society; these earlier Irish immigrants were among the earliest people that started the westward migration of Americans.) The later Irish immigrants couldn't speak English well, were extremely poor and their Catholicism strongly clashed with the more dominant Protestants in the USA; as a result, the later Irish immigrants were heavily discriminated against even well into the 20th Century. Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic nominee for President, lost because even in 1928 people were not ready to accept someone who was Catholic and of Irish immigrant descent to be President.

[nutmeg]

Ah, ya beat me here... I was just going to ping you to this thread! ;-)

wait a minute... I just DID!

[Dan from Michigan]

I believe Italian Americans have outnumbered Irish Americans in Massachusetts for some time now.

It wouldn't surprise me.

I think nationwide, Italians are 2nd(maybe 3rd) most numerous by blood. Only behind Germans (most numerous) and possibly Mexicans.