Biden’s blarney is going to be on full display on St. Patrick’s Day. The president has always made a big deal out of his Irish roots, despite the fact that his ancestors on his father’s side were British and even owned slaves.

As an Irish American, I wish Biden would stop embarrassing my community. Because the Irish Americans who birthed me and raised me and surrounded me for most of my life all have one thing in common: what Ernest Hemingway called “a built-in, shock-proof crap detector.” Yes, we Irish love our exaggerated stories. We love our Guinness and our “craic,” the Celtic euphemism for a good time with friends. Yes, the Catholic church has held a huge amount of power over us for centuries. 

But beneath it all we have crap detectors.