Erin Go Bragh, Prince Harry

MARCH 17th, St. Patrick’s Day: Time to celebrate Prince Harry, 5th in line to the British Throne, on TV’s Good Morning America.

Forget about the Irish. Forget about any Irish-Americans and all their contributions to our culture. Let’s go all out and kiss royal butt. Pucker up, Robin Roberts and get ready to praise his latest royal project du jour. Remember to be friendly and carry on about his charitable work for veterans without seeming so obsequious about it. That is, check your unadulterated fawning at the castle’s moat, girl.

But wait. It was St. Paddy’s Day. Did ABC really HAVE to broadcast this interview Robin Roberts did with Prince Harry on March 17th? On the one day America unofficially celebrates the Irish and what they brought to civilization? Well, yeah, they did. You see, ABC owns ESPN, and ABC wants to exclusively broadcast Prince Harry’s Invictus Games for veterans…as if he actually came up with the idea himself.

He didn’t.

No, like a true royal Brit, he stole the idea from us, then decided to take credit and get free, unending publicity for founding (TA DA!) THE INVICTUS GAMES. How droll. While his loyal subjects are still whining about how America stole the idea for Antiques Roadshow from them, this Prince steals our idea and even admits it came from The Colorado Warrior Games!

That’s right. In 2013, he attended The Colorado Warrior Games with British service members. After that, he got this royal brainstorm to create his own warrior games. Only he christened his competition The Invictus Games. Like giving his thing a different name would distract us from his blatant idea theft? Why, he even stole the name from that movie with Matt Damon!

Alas, originality never was a strong suit of the British Royal family…

Listen, boyo, we Americans might be dumb but we’re not stupid. Some of us who didn’t skip history class still remember 1776. There’s a reason we have traditionally disliked and distrusted the concept of royalty, and we fought a war to keep it out of our country. We didn’t want a privileged class ruling us then, we don’t want it now. Despite our fascination with Disney’s princesses, “Downton Abby,” and every beauty contest that crowns its respective Queen, we don’t like the tradition of a ruling — or entitled — dynasty telling us what to do. We don’t like other people self-appointing themselves as better than us just because of their ancestry.

In your case, Harry, you have no real reason to feel you’re superior. You have no cause to believe you’re that much better than any other American, either. Your royal status only comes from being related to rulers like Queen Victoria — and even she wasn’t as great as Britannia believed. Your great-great-great-great grandmother may not have started the Great Famine in Ireland. But when she found out about it, she didn’t do a damned thing to keep the Irish from starving to death.

And please, let’s not start up with that time-honored fiction about “not knowing how bad it really was,” either. Let’s not even take that old chestnut out of the fire again, shall we? Victoria was far too brainy, far too savvy NOT to have known about the famine and what it entailed. She knew her subjects in Ireland were dying from starvation. So did others in her circle of power. And yet, nothing was done about it. The Irish either starved to death or had to immigrate to America.

But thanks to all the legions of Anglophiles here and across the pond, history has been rewritten to cast Queen Victoria in the most favorable light possible. Scholars and history buffs alike have given her a free pass for what she did (and didn’t do) to the Irish — and they shouldn’t have.

While we’re at it, shame on the Irish Republican Army, too, for violently retaliating against England and its royal family. They shouldn’t have done what they did, and I’m not going to excuse or condone their M.O. in any way. But nobody has ever forgotten or will ever forget what the IRA did. Even the most diehard sympathizers wouldn’t rewrite history for this militant group in the way royalists did for Queen Victoria. REALITY CHECK: When it came to Irish starvation, she looked the other way. Like too many other British Monarchs, she was in an enviable position of power yet failed miserably to use it wisely when royal intervention was needed.

So let’s not get too dewey-eyed about Harry’s latest charity. It wasn’t really his idea, anyway. He stole the concept from another “warrior project” and “borrowed” the name from a movie. He gave ABC the TV interview because he probably needs (or will need) donations from his former colonists to get his project up and running. No doubt, his heart is in the right place. His project, however, seems a little disingenuous. Or, disingenuous enough to keep it from being embraced by all.

Okay, boyo, you served your country in the military. Great. So did a lot of Irishmen. So did a lot of Americans. We really don’t need you to tell us how brave or selfless veterans are. We already know. We might be commoners, but we already know what personal sacrifice means. Do you? Do you, really?

Sorry, Harry. God bless, but March 17th was NOT the best time for any Irishman or American or Irish-American to be in awe of a Brit.