“The Boys” issue #27 is part of the controversial “We Gotta Go Now” arc, where Hughie is sent to infiltrate the G-Men (an X-Men parody). The cover declares “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day,” but it’s written in red, not Irish colors like green or orange. The cover also depicts Butcher, an Englishman, wearing a white shirt with a Union Jack. Ennis, who’s from Northern Ireland, is technically both Irish and English; that he identifies so heavily with Butcher also reflects that.
The issue itself isn’t anymore celebratory of the holiday. The story’s conclusions that Irish-Americans use St. Patrick’s Day to “celebrate their heritage” but just take that to mean getting face-in-piss-drunk.
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Cassidy even has a “No Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day” policy in his pub. I’m pretty sure that Darick Robertson’s cover, celebrating the people who oppressed the Irish and stole their land, is Ennis also being cheeky to the Plastic Paddies of NYC; the people who would feel most indignant about that cover aren’t even really Irish.
Ennis feels that his anti-religion views, the backbone of “Preacher,” are intertwined with his Irishness. In an interview with Previews World, he said: “My disdain for organized religion comes from growing up in a province where people are fighting a religious war. Which, if you’re an atheist, makes no sense at all because it’s people fighting over how they worship their imaginary friend.”
He’s of course referring to the Troubles, where the Irish Republican Army waged a terrorist campaign in the name of a unified Ireland. The IRA was mostly made up of Catholics, a minority in the six Northern Irish counties compared to the Loyalist Protestants. The Troubles lasted from the 1960s until the Good Friday agreement in 1998. (No matter what “Star Trek” says, a truly united Ireland remains a dream.)
In “Cry Blood, Cry Erin” (“Preacher” #25-26), Ennis reveals Cassidy’s backstory. Before coming to America, he fought in the 1916 Easter Rising — but concluded the green hills of Ireland weren’t worth dying for. By making Cassidy a member of the Irish diaspora, Ennis is writing about his own experiences as an Irish-American immigrant. He’s also criticizing the Irish-American romanticism about the struggle for Irish liberation, even though they have little connection to or understanding of what Ireland is today. Ennis, unlike Irish-Americans, had to grow up around the IRA and sees them as terrorists, not heroes.
Take former Republican Congressman Peter King, who supported the IRA until they denounced the USA’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. Apparently he didn’t realize the “Republican” in the group’s name means something different across the pond. (The IRA is a left-wing organization, and longtime Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams is a socialist.) Ireland is also one of the countries most supportive of Palestinian rights, since they understand what it’s like to live under occupation. Meanwhile, outgoing President Joe Biden, an Irish-American and proud of it, has been highly criticized for not supporting Palestinians.