By Tom deignan

THIS year, I hated the Fourth of July. Why? Well, since the holiday fell on a Tuesday, it screwed up my TV watching.

Mind you, I was proud as always to celebrate America’s birthday, especially during wartime. (There is a war on, right?) The time spent with friends and family was great as well.

The bad news was that the suits at the FX cable channel apparently decided that the holiday was not a good time to air a new episode of the sizzling Denis Leary FDNY show Rescue Me. So, this week, I had to do without a fix of my favorite TV show.

Leary’s show is great but it is also controversial. A recent storyline involving a potential rape has generated heated debate.

Nearly as controversial, however, is the show’s take on what it means to be an Irish American male in the 21st century.

For example, Tommy Gavin (played by Leary, who is also a show writer) recently growled at a younger firefighter as he explained that his generation of Irish Americans settle their disputes with their fists. Unlike the younger touchy-feely Irish American generation who, in Tommy’s mind, are all about expressing emotions and getting in touch with their feelings.

The Gavin clan’s Irishness is nearly as central to Rescue Me as being Italian is to the cast of gangsters on The Sopranos.

Of course, many people resent that both shows seem to support negative stereotypes. But even though the characters in Rescue Me are profoundly dysfunctional, the show’s writing is unflinching and complex.

The show can be ruthless — which makes it feel deeply real. It is no stretch to say that Tommy Gavin is up there with James T. Farrell’s Stud Lonigan as one of the great fictional Irish characters — even if both are immature, quite pathetic and, at times, horribly destructive.

So, what does Leary have to say about being Irish these days? First off, you could scrub that boxing leprechaun off of the Notre Dame football helmet and replace it with an image of Tommy Gavin because he epitomizes the “Fighting Irish” stereotype.

Nothing illustrates this more vividly than a recent episode when it was revealed that Tommy’s own brother was rolling in the sheets with his ex-wife.

Tommy proceeded to beat the living hell out of his brother because (he later said) that’s how the Irish settle their problems. That’s how his FDNY Dad settled things, so that’s how Tommy settles things.

Being good with your fists is not the worst ethnic stereotype. Of course, that is not the only stereotype Rescue Me plays with.

Tommy and his numerous colleagues are also nasty drunks. But, to the show’s credit, Tommy is (at least for now) on the wagon.

Those who complain about Rescue Me tend to focus solely on Tommy, forgetting that there is another character, an older fire chief, whose wife is suffering from Alzheimer’s while he is left to pay her escalating bills. Another Irish character is struggling with his sexuality.

For me, as enjoyable as the show is, Rescue Me runs into an Irish problem when it explores the Catholic element of Irish America.

First off, the aforementioned rape scene was a monumental blunder, not to mention offensive, implying that Tommy’s ex secretly wanted to be taken forcibly.

More broadly, the volume of bed hopping that occurs during a given episode of Rescue Me could make you long for the days when kids recited the Baltimore Catechism and premarital sex was only whispered about.

Tommy’s sister (appropriately named Maggie) is famous for juggling not just two men, but four or five at a time. It’s as if the show’s creators are trying too hard to counter that other stereotype, that Irish Catholics in America are sexually repressed.

And yet, there is another Catholic strain in the show, one about sin and redemption and salvation. That’s, in part, why all those ghosts are always making appearances.

The brilliant — though sometimes brutal — thing about Rescue Me is that it doesn’t go the Touched by an Angel route. Sometimes, sinners reach for redemption, only to sin again. Or worse, to have something horrible happen for no apparent reason.

That’s real life, especially given that Rescue Me never allows us to forget about 9/11.

It’s that stuff that keeps me watching Rescue Me, more than the fact that half the cast, next week, might be suffering from chlamydia.

Well, you just have to see it.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)