RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.: Saints alive! The Ukrainians and the Irish have a lot in common

There is no better way to celebrate Irish American Heritage Month than to cheer on the brave people of Ukraine.

Like the Irish, Ukrainians were not raised on sugar cookies and sunny days. So they are tougher than anything the world throws at them.

Like the Irish, Ukrainians have survived centuries of war, famine and civil strife. Yet, they’re still standing — and still fighting.

And, like the Irish, Ukrainians will not be pushed around. What the British learned about the Irish during the Irish War for Independence (1919-1921), the Russians are now learning about the Ukrainians: If you infringe upon their homeland, you’re likely to be buried there.

It’s always difficult to get accurate casualty figures through the fog of war. But, according to CBS News, U.S. military and intelligence officials estimate that — since the Feb. 24 invasion — between 5,000 and 6,000 Russian troops have been killed by Ukrainian forces. Expect that number to grow.

The people of Ukraine surely have Irish grit in them. They’re battling for the same thing the Irish fought for — whether as immigrants to America from 1820 to 1930, or combatants in the Anglo-Irish war: their identity.

This time of year, whatever is going on in the world, I hit “pause” and pay my respects to Irish Americans.

This year, my fist bump to the green got an assist from President Joe Biden — who is himself reportedly five-eighths Irish. He declared March to be Irish American Heritage Month and urged everyone to “celebrate the achievements and contributions of Irish Americans to our Nation.”

Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted more than one-third of all immigrants to the United States. And the estimated 4.5 million Irish immigrants who arrived in America between 1820 and 1930 — along with their millions of descendants — have achieved and contributed so much that there is a lot to celebrate.

That’s impressive given that the Irish had five strikes against them. They were poor, immigrant, Catholic, uneducated and, of course, Irish. They were picked on, beaten, denied jobs and barred from certain neighborhoods. Signs in Boston storefronts read: “Help Wanted. No Irish Need Apply.”

The Irish were also mistreated by police in the mid-1800s, rounded up in so-called “paddy wagons.” There was no “Irish Lives Matter.” Yet the Irish worked hard and persevered. As a friend puts it, they “knuckled up.”

They also didn’t bother to accommodate the prejudices of those who despised them. Latinos, take note. They had bigger things to worry about — like a diaspora that spread Ireland’s children around the globe.

My Irish friends pay tribute — in a classic hymn that dates back to 1913 — to a young man who heard “the pipes are calling” and left Ireland. Danny Boy is expected to come home “when summer’s in the meadow,” or “when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,” and “all the flowers are dying,” only to find that his loved ones have passed away. Behold the eternal sadness of Ireland.

Today, there is more sadness and another diaspora — of Ukrainians. The United Nations estimates that, in just the past three weeks, more than 2.8 million Ukrainian refugees have left their homes and streamed into Poland and other countries. Many arrived with little more than the clothes on their back, their children and their pets.

God bless Poland. The Eastern European country is giving the world a master class on welcoming the stranger. The Poles didn’t build a wall, whine about an “invasion,” return refugees across the border, or make them “remain in Slovakia.” Instead, Polish volunteers provided coffee, blankets, soup, toiletries, clothes and more. Some Poles even welcomed Ukrainians into their homes.

When asked by U.S. reporters why they were so kind to their visitors, one Polish good Samaritan after another recalled the horrors of World War II. These are people who know firsthand what it’s like to be attacked by a tyrant and chased out of their homes. They had to do right by these Ukrainian refugees, they said. How else could they honor their parents and grandparents?

As the offspring of immigrants and refugees, Americans — including Irish Americans — carry the same debt. So this St. Patrick’s Day, as we croon a few bars of “Danny Boy,” and raise a wee bit of whiskey to honor the original “bad hombres” who enriched a nation that was lucky to have them, let’s remember how lucky we all are.

Once again, America, the pipes are calling. We need to answer — and be better humans. Like the wonderful people of Poland.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, “Ruben in the Center,” is available through every podcast app.