Because we have a holiday that is more or less Irish Pride Day (St. Patrick’s Day).
If there was a Lithuanian Pride Day, there’d probably be just as many Americans searching their ancestry for a Lithuanian connection.
I bet they also question “why would anyone want to be a woman?”
It’s fun to make fun of Americans who are proud of their Irish ancestry. I dunno why. But it is.
Source: american cheese American with Irish composing a decent chunk
There are some great YouTube videos of Irish people having to deal with American tourists who think they’re Irish.
The best is that one ‘follow me, I’m delicious’ Irish guy. He said ‘‘Everyone I know is Irish, so it’s hard for me to get excited about it’’
They want to be European, but don’t want the stink of colonialism, whilst also feeling like rebels, so Ireland it is!
Irish and Italians are interesting because they were historically considered ‘colored’ or at least on the same societal rung as colored people.
Eh it depends on who you are and where you’re from. Chicago and Boston have a lot of Irish heritage. Everywhere else it’s mostly just St. Patrick’s Day, aka amateur night. So it’s mostly just an excuse for the lightweights to go get drunk on shitty beer.
Seriously, who gets drunk on Miller or Budweiser? It’s like trying to run a car engine on Kool-aid.
The population of Ireland is around 5.3 million. More than 6 million people have immigrated to the U.S. from there. Factor in kids, grandkids and such… It makes sense that there would be a number of people claiming Irish heritage. Also the number of people who find an Irish accent attractive is non-zero.
Edit: a quick search found 9.4% of the U.S. population is of Irish decent. (Mixed obviously). So more Irish than all Asian decents combined if I read it correctly.
Yup there are more people of irish decent in usa the there are humans in Ireland
We err they obsessed because red heada are hot and irish beer os better the American beer
What a fucking weird and racist post. “not even the Irish want to be Irish”
Looks like it’s just trying to be controversial. The Irish are fine, they have nothing to be ashamed of and lots to be proud of. Most of the world either doesn’t know who they are or loves them.
It really is. As an American with some Irish, (if its a white from eastern europe it turned up on our dna test thingy) Im not sure if I or actual Irish people should be more offended.
The Irish have had a very
shittytroubled past, is probably what they’re getting atNah, don’t agree. They established a hierarchy of “good nationalities” to be and put others like Irish and Lithuanian below them.
They didn’t choose to be brutally colonized by the English
My maternal great-grandfather fled Ireland after the Civil War ended because he was a republican fighter. Does that count?
Idk lol some of our ancestors are just from a place and sometimes that place is Ireland. Want my white-ass to lie to you instead?
I’m Hatian now.
It’s just a very foreign thing for us eurooeans. If we’re born in Italy, but some grandparent was born in Germany, we don’t consider ourself to be german in any way. We’d consider ourself italian and nothing else. It just seems so incredibly odd to even consider oneself to be german if you didn’t spend time growing up in Germany.
Americans keep their ethnic identity distinct from their national identity. If an American national tells you they’re Irish, they’re invariably referring to the former.
Sure, but are they really ethnically irish because their great grandfather was from Ireland? At what point do we consider americans to be their own thing?
It’s not like the irish, italians or the danish are ethnically pure. Some bloke on my fathers side came to Denmark from Germany in the 1800s, and before that, one of his ancestors came from france, and before that from Rome. Same shit on my mothers side.
My point is, it’s not like european countries are monoethnic. So why don’t we view someone from Texas, as ethnically texan, when their ancestry probably dates back to 1700s Texas?
I think you touched on why. Ethnic identity is somewhat arbitrary, and tied up with national / cultural identity. In the US, despite our xenophobic phases most of us culturally identify as a nation of immigrants. So in terms of ethnicity, we’re more concerned with where our lineage existed before arriving in the United States, rather than how long it’s existed in the United States. There’s a bit of a hierarchy of “who’s family has existed in the US the longest”, but all of those claims are still anchored by which nations their ancestors came from.
There’s also the fact that American genetics haven’t been sedentary long enough - And probably never will be - For us to mix evenly enough to develop a unified physical appearance. Ethnicity is of course not just skin deep, but ethnic identity and identification often uses it as shorthand, and there is as far as I know no stereotypical American ethnic appearance.
Because we generally see ethnic groups as stretching back very far, like pre history far. At some in the future will people be talking about the American erhnic group? Maybe but it take a veey long time or a massive change in what we think of as ethnic groups for American ethnogenesis
I think the reason it’s so prevalent here in the US is because the vast majority of the population ended up here at least in part due to immigration. So identifying as ethnically originating from elsewhere is a part of that self identity.
The disparity however, is knowing that while traveling through Europe, this style of self identification falls flat because simply being ethnically from a place doesn’t mean you can claim to be born and raised from there. And that meaning is what’s different between the US and Europe.
I wonder if some of it doesn’t come from the people who came to America through forced immigration (I.e. the slave trade).
I think it makes sense for people brought unwillingly to America to hold on to that ethnic heritage and culture work hard to instill it in their children, even if they were born in America.
Very unlikely, the people who claim to have some european origin are generally not the descendants of slaves. Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors. Slaves in America came mostly from Africa, most likely even displaced within Africa. Very little records were kept of individual slaves origins, because why would anyone do that, they’re slaves. These people identify as “just” African Americans.
I think you misunderstood. I wasn’t talking about the people who claim to have some European origin but the practice in general in the US of acknowledging ancestral ethnic heritage as part of where you’re from.
Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors.
This might be true now, but 200 years ago people were brought here from other countries unwillingly and had children here. If we’re were forcefully taken to another country and then had children at some point I would talk to them about the people left behind and where I came from.
If we’re were forcefully taken to another country and then had children at some point I would talk to them about the people left behind and where I came from.
That’s not how that works, especially when their cultures were specifically purged by the slavers. Your comment reads like the equivalent of saying “I would have just roundhouse kicked the gun away and saved the day” as if it’s the slaves’ fault for not giving their kids rich lessons on their history. It’s amazing that even some of it survived at all.
I guess that makes sense. We have our “heritage” pushed on us from a very young age, or at least we did when I was a child. In the 4th grade we did an entire reenactment of immigrating through Ellis Island, NY in which we had to research our countries of origin, then draw from a hat to see if we died on the journey, got small pox, or any other number of things all before being “accepted into the wonderful cultural melting-pot that is the United States”.
Then we grew up and learned that all immigrants are evil and must all be deported. /s?
Regardless, my family immigrated from Ireland after having lived in County Cork for a very long time. This whole post just seems like shitting on people just to shit on people.
Sad thing to be, nonsensical thing to want to be
Well, thanks for calling me sad for a thing I’m mostly indifferent about and have no choice in, OP.
What if you knew your family came over before Ellis island was open.
Didn’t matter. Unless you were indigenous, for the lessons sake, you came through ellis island lol
My wee Irish grandmother would take issue with this. Her pride was more about being Catholic, but she was definitely Irish. Soda bread. Weird Easter pastries. Ya, cabbage and alcohol too. Just little bits and bobs of Irish culture.
… Um … I personally claim that I’m a European mutt. Drunkards all.
My dad’s side of the family was supposedly Irish. Bunch of reprobates and thieves. I would admit to being related to none of them even if they could prove it with papers lol
Nothing against Irish people. Just thought I’d share.
It’s the same nonsense as invoking “the luck of the Irish”. Said by people who have absolutely no idea about Irish history.
Darn those extra lucky Irish.
In Fact it’s well known that they fought overwhelming on the north side of the US civil war because they knew which side was gonna win from their luck, and it had nothing to do with recognizing slavery as another form of the serfdom they just escaped from.
Citizenship question: my grandfather’s parents were born in Ireland. My grandfather, who didn’t know he had been adopted until much later in life (by a Jewish woman), became an Irish citizen in his 50s and had dual citizenship until his death.
As a desperate American… can I get Irish citizenship through my grandfather, a naturalized Irish citizen who was not born in Ireland?? I can (understandably) not find an answer to this on the Irish citizenship website.
Sincerely, an American who spent 12 hours protesting at a No Kings rally yesterday
I don’t think so, it has to be more direct IIRC. I’ve been looking into it too, for the same reasons. My Great Grandmother emigrated here… nope.
One of your grandparents had to be born in Ireland, not just obtained Irish citizenship later in life. If he was born in Ireland, you’ll need his original birth certificate. More info here.
That said, I have a few formerly US coworkers who did get Irish citizenship by naturalization. That requires life in Ireland for at least 5 out of the last 9 years. Studying doesn’t count, so you’ll either have your current employer transfer you here, or you’ll find a job and move here. Your employer will apply for a 2-year work visa, which can be extended for another 3 years, after which you can apply for permanent residency. If you are employed in one of the critical skills jobs, you can apply for permanent residency in less than 2 years.
