THE IRISH by THOAS J. O'HANLON 316 pages. Illustrated. Harper & Row. $12.50.
Nearly everyone has agreed that it is almost impossible to say anything new about the Irish. That may be why so many writers, most of them Irish, keep on trying. English oppression long ago turned the Irish into sophisticated connoisseurs of futility. Trained to revere heroic martyrs, it is hard for them to resist certain vainglorious failure: another fling at explaining their inexplicable countrymen.
Irish-born Thomas J. O'Hanlon, 41, has an additional excuse. He left home in 1957 for the U.S....
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