My neighborhood (The Throggs Neck/Country Club section of the Bronx) is still predominantly Irish and Italian. Now I'm Italian American, but I have a ton of Irish American neighbors and friends. And while I'm absolutely certain that they love their families as much as we do, they definitely seem less visceral or "touchy feely" than we do.

I mean, if I walk into one of the local Italian places it's not at all uncommon to be greeted with a hug, or even a kiss on the cheek, if it's a happy occasion. If I was to walk into one of the local Irish pubs and tried to give a guy a hug, it wouldn't go over so well. And if I tried to give one of my Irish buddies a kiss on the cheek, I'd get a punch in the mouth .