to think that perhaps we should be more tolerant of fellow posters?

I'm Northern Irish. I thought the quote was quite funny.

i have never heard it and i find it offensive.
to say that something is of long-standing does not make it ok.
the original title of an agatha christie book now called,
'and then there were none', used a highly offensive term.
that term was of long-standing, didn't make it right.
i took the view that the original so=called mythical person was an oversight. it is not a term i recognise nor find acceptable.
but the response being a claimed justification was even more offensive, so that suggests to me that the writer is not willing to examine the terms used, and the assumptions behind them, and doesn't care about giving offence. so if that is not racist, call it something else, some other category of offensive.

I'm Welsh and it would never cross my mind to find offence in a joke about the Welsh. Isn't there enough going on in the world right now to fret about without this?

Another theory is that Irishmen made up a large percentage of the officers of early police forces in many American cities. It suggests that the concentration of Irish in the police forces led to the term "paddy wagon" being used to describe the vehicles driven by police.

The word is in the Oxford dictionary and until recently was not deemed derogatory.

Yes

I would never ever make a joke about the Welsh (I know which side my bread's buttered)

Ok Callistemon, I'll do it for you!

A Welshman, Scot and Englishman are walking when they come across a lantern and a genie pops out and grants them one wish each.

The Scot says: “I am a sheep herder, like my dad before me. I want my country to be full of lovely sheep farms.” Whoosh, and so it was.

The Englishman was amazed and says: “I want a wall around England to keep those damned Scots and Welsh out.” Bang, there was a wall around England.

The Welshman says: “Tell me more about this wall.”

The genie says: “It’s 200 feet high, 100 feet thick, it goes all around England, and nothing can get in or out.”

The Welshman says: “Fill it with water.”

On a beautiful summer’s day, two English tourists were driving through Wales.

At Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch they stopped for lunch and one of the tourists asked the waitress: “Before we order, I wonder if you could settle an argument for us. Can you pronounce where we are, very, very, very slowly?”

The girl leaned over and said:

“Burrr… gurrr… King.”

☹️ Chewy, I'm afraid I will have to report your joke. You are portraying our lovely Welsh cousins in a bad light! ?

Drat! I knew it would offend someone Marydoll!

You are correct, Chewy, I am not just anyone, I am someone, I am Marydoll!. ?

Night, night.??????

Marydoll

History is being rewritten. Our hard-working, hard-drinking Irish ancestors who helped build the roads and canals of Britain and fought discrimination with their best tools - their fists - are being recast as New Age pacifists.

Peacer and love, brothers.

To you too, Elegran.

I agree.
With all that`s going on in the world you would think people could at least try to be nice.

I loved it Chewy

Reminds me when the Welsh Nationalists were taking down
sign posts. I was out walking with two friends , a car pulled up
and a very irate driver said ‘cutting down your bloody sign posts , I don’t know where I am’ , my friend said ‘lost’.

Where I live a 'paddy' is a temper tantrum.

Glad it made you smile Annie . There's more than enough to be worrying about at the moment without us taking umbrage where none was intended.

Thanks for giving me a hearty laugh this morning Chewy?? especially Burger King???. I love a good joke, problem is I can never remember them or I start to tell one and forget the punchline??‍♀️

Oh that will work Marydoll! Your DH will have to plank the crème eggs otherwise you know where they are. Sneaky besom right enough Ha!?

harrigran , I've always thought that was the context of paddy wagon ie used to pick up people having a fight or 'paddy' It never occurred to me there was any Irish connection

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=paddy%20wagon

And www.policeone.com/national-law-enforcement-museum/articles/avoid-the-paddy-wagon-this-st-patricks-day-snC4NkSsxiW18QOq/

Thanks Elegran
It seems there are many interpretations of the origin of the expression. The one about unruly teens probably fits with what I grew up believing

Chewbacca

ps I can say that!
And I can even say Burrr .... gurrr King too!

Auto correct keeps changing that to Burrr ... Gerry King

Here's another:

paddy whacker
A policeman's truncheon or baton. Arose from the fact that the Irish were generally on the wrong side on the law in the New World and as such were often on the wrong end of the paddy whacker.
The policeman subdued the miscreant with his paddy whacker.

Urban dictionary

That's because you've had one on one tuition Callistemon!