But in terms of this discussion, PizzaBoy was talking about what I presume to be a hardcore inner-city neighborhood that has against all odds remained almost entirely Irish.

Mt. Greenwood and Beverly are extremely far from the city center. I don't know NY that well but I would imagine that would be equivalent to a really far-off neighborhood in Queens or Staten Island, almost out of the city.

Canaryville is not only far closer to the city center, it's surrounded by Bronzeville (or more accurately Fuller Park, then what used to be the Robert Taylor homes, then Bronzeville, but they are more or less the same these days) on one side and Back of the Yards, which is essentially a war zone, on the other. Yet it carries on, undeterred.

I wouldn't describe the existence of Mt. Greenwood or Beverly as really *that* surprising, but I think by any measure the fact that Canaryville is still essentially unchanged is extremely surprising.