Irish-American Catholics face each other in Thurday’s (October 11) vice-presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan.

It’s the “Lace Curtain Irish Ryan” against the “Shanty Irish Biden,” says columnist Niall O’Dowd. NPR produced a “tale of the tape” profile of the two pols.

The Irish Times just published this piece, which says:

Twenty-seven per cent of the electorate in the last two elections were Catholic. Romney and Obama hope their Irish-American Catholic running mates – from opposite sides of the rift between conservative and liberal wings of the church – can “deliver” Catholics as well as the white working class.

No matter what happens in November, an Irish Catholic will hold the #2 job come January.