No Stupid Questions

It isn't any kind of myth. My grandfather was born in 1901 and he remembered when he started to be approached by banks for business loans. It was in the late thirties. He was smart enough to know that he only started being treated white by some and only some as a result of the increased population of black folk around here. Up until then he was regularly called and treated like he was black. It didn't prevent him from hating black folks though. After all he may have been poor and his kids may have had trouble with hunger but at least he wasn't a n*****r. A quote by more than one of his generation by the way. We are talking about the deep south. I remember the rude old money biddy next door to us when I was growing up called me a tater tot until her dying day. In case you don't know tater tot is a racist thing to call someone. So tell yourself its a myth but don't expect anyone with family that remembers their treatment to agree.

you're just objectively wrong.

who the hell taught you this nonsense? or did you just make it up in your head?

this is some ID politics brainrot style of thinking.

While the Irish were certainly looked down upon by other Europeans, they were still European Christians and therefore white.

That's a strange definition of "white", to be honest. People put way too much emphasis on skin color, and "white" vs "non-white" is a ridiculously simplistic and narrow way to view anthropology.

The Irish and Scottish are ethnically and culturally Gaels, a Celtic people, and (as far back as history is recorded) the native people of their respective lands. Viking and Roman Catholic influences were imposed on Ireland through conquest and religious missions. Christianity was made to emulate and adapt elements of Gaelic mythology (for example: Brigid -> Saint Bridget) which made it easier for the Irish people to adopt. The Roman expansion wiped out and assimilated many of Northwestern Europe's Celtic peoples, other than those in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

That is to say, ethnically Irish people are not Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, Romantic, Germanic, Russians, or anything else.

Discrimination against Irish people in Europe and North America was a documented fact of life going well into the 20th century.

Today's Ireland is a somewhat diverse place, with a mix of racial and religious backgrounds and is, thankfully, much more secular than it was just a few decades ago.

As for why Irish-Americans around you might identify as protestant, it's probably either because they come from a Northern Irish (Anglican) background or because they they are really just Americans evangelicals searching for a distant familial cultural heritage to attach to. They best way to find out is to ask them.

Race science? There is no more science in race than there is in the English language. It's a social construct and whoever the whites determine to be white enough are allowed to be "white".