I agree with your explaination. My grandmother came to the USA in the early 1900's.The years of oppression and memories of the famine colored her outlook on family ties. She came to America to educate her children and achieve a certain dignity. She told her children that they had no one (other than each other). She had grown up in Sligo and worked at a manor house. She was literate and could read but not speak latin and greek. She was a Feeney/Davey child.
All her children had 12 years of schooling and 4 out of 5 went to college.