It's just addressing that mention of 'third world' in the title. Irish peasants were even poorer than black slaves according to W.E. Dubois, and they had a life expectancy that was about half. This doesn't make them bad, but it does mean that Ireland was a bit of a third world country.

Actually I guess from a different kind of perspective, Ireland was third world!

That would be the original meaning of the word as Europe/NATO/allies were "first world," Russia/Eastern Europe/Communist nations/allies were the "second world," and everyone else was third world. That would include Ireland. Not a particularly helpful usage of the term though.

And yes, the Appalachian poverty belt, even today, is highly Scots-Irish, from Georgia, really intensifying in North Carolina and Virginia, but stretching through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and NY. I have a diary of a relative who grew up in Apalachia. Their house did not have running water or electricity in the 1950s; she wrote about waking up with a layer of snow on her bed that had blown in through the wooden siding, etc.

Crazy stuff.

It's just addressing that mention of 'third world' in the title. Irish peasants were even poorer than black slaves according to W.E. Dubois, and they had a life expectancy that was about half. This doesn't make them bad, but it does mean that Ireland was a bit of a third world country.

Actually I guess from a different kind of perspective, Ireland was third world!

That would be the original meaning of the word as Europe/NATO/allies were "first world," Russia/Eastern Europe/Communist nations/allies were the "second world," and everyone else was third world. That would include Ireland. Not a particularly helpful usage of the term though.

And yes, the Appalachian poverty belt, even today, is highly Scots-Irish, from Georgia really intensifying in North Carolina and Virginia, but stretching through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and NY. I have a diary of a relative who grew up in Apalachia. Their house did not have running water or electricity in the 1950s, she wrote about waking up with a layer of snow on her bed, that had blown in through the wooden siding, etc.

Crazy stuff.