High School student debunks history professor ...

...which is probably more likely all the time as ideology is more important than scholarship.

The issue was whether the canard about anti-Irish prejudice in America was true.  The professor claimed that the signs reading "No Irish Need Apply" never existed, and that the story was an urban legend arising from Irish-Americans with chips on their collective shoulders.

As with other confidently stated claims, I bought this one too.

It turns out that the high school student unearthed all kinds of evidence of "NINA" advertisements and signs.

Professional scholarship - it doesn't mean what you think it means.

GatesGate Explained

Sean P. Daily explains that Professor Gates and Officer Crowley are both Irish and related to each other:

I should have known that this whole flap would boil down to a fight between a couple of Micks, between a Shanty Irish cop and a Lace Curtain Irish perfesser. The only thing missing is the Paddy Wagon.

This explains Gates' strange outburst when Officer Crowley responded to a routine police call. How? Gates suffers from what appears to be a particularly severe case of Irish Alzheimer's, wherein you forget everything but the grudge.

The Shanty v. Curtain Lace thing can be vicious. I personally am descended from both strands of the Irish experience on both sides, but, oddly, neither sides of my family can quite agree on which is the "Shanty Irish" side.