I'm Irish and I love Italy. Go there most years. Find the Italians easy to get along with. I wouldn't consider myself a Catholic, of course I was baptized into the religion when I was too young to know any better.

It's Chicago. There's a joke that at the typical Chicago wedding you have Irish marrying Polish, or Italian marrying Croatian, and on both sides of the aisle each family looks at the other and mutters, 'At least they're Catholic'

In the states, there was a prejudice against Italians by the Irish for many years. It wasn't until well into the 20th century that the prejudice lightened up.