Biden's Irish ancestry

[prussianqueen]

Been watching Joe Biden's Ireland visit and can see how moved and genuinely loving his trip he is. He is absolutely buzzing about his visit and his Irish roots. Also very sad to see him reflecting on the death of his children.

However... I was then very surprised to read that it is Biden's great grandfather who came from Ireland! The way he talks about his Irish heritage I'd assumed it was his mother, not 4 generations back.

My great grandmother fled persecution from another country but I almost never think about myself as having any ties there.

Do you think it's just the American Irish settlers thing? Is it particularly Irish - eg history of potato famine etc? (Biden has English roots too which he never mentions - don't really blame him)!

Basically is it only those with Irish ancestry who feel tied to it, or do people feel as connected to their heritage if their great grandparents came from somewhere other than Ireland?

Can’t speak for Biden, but I have much more recent Irish ancestry and don’t feel in the slightest bit Irish. I feel like I’m the sum of where I was born and raised!

Yeah, my father's parents were both Irish, I don't consider myself Irish at all and never bring it up. I think the way Americans cling on to really tenuous Irish roots is very strange.

DH’s grandparents Irish but he doesn’t feel a single bit Irish. I think it’s an American roots thing.

What I don’t get with all this is that Biden is not a republican.

His grandmother was from Ballina.

It’s not surprising. I’m assuming that most of the posters who’ve mentioned not feeling any connection with their Irish heritage on here are in the UK, where there’s still significant anti-Irish prejudice. That largely ended a lot earlier in the US, in part because of a very different pattern of immigration and associated attitudes to it, hyphenated ethic identities, and in part because of a powerful Irish-American political and labour lobby. And key figures like Grace Kelly marrying into Monagesque royalty, or JFK.

I don’t think it’s an Irish thing, but rather a USA thing.

I think that so many settlers emigrated to America that people gravitated towards people who came from the same nation. So traditions from their original heritage are celebrated and passed down, neighbourhoods become associated with particular nationalities or ethnicities.

I think it’s very difficult to pinpoint an American national identity especially as there is so much trauma associated with it- the First Nation people were massacred and pushed off their own lands, the devastating impact of widespread slavery and the fact that many settlers from places like Ireland were escaping disasters like famine which decimated the home nation.

I know Italian-Americans who are fiercely proud of their Italian heritage - they’re 3rd generation, possibly even 4th but really see themselves as Italian. Likewise some Chinese-Americans. So to me it’s not an Irish thing, just an American thing.

Yes it's a USA thing. I once took some American friends of distant Scottish descent to Edinburgh and our first stop was a shop where they could kit themselves out in various items of their family tartan. Bizarre.

Many American’s seem obsessed with ‘where they came from’ = ancestry from several generations ago. It’s especially weird since they also hold the belief that the USA is “the best country in the world” 🤷‍♀️ I’m half Irish, raised in England with an Irish Father and an English Mother. I feel Irish, as well as English, but then I visited and stayed with extended Irish family as a child and visit as an adult. Jo Biden and other Americans with distant Irish ancestry act as if they too have close ties. It’s really silly!

Some people are interested in their heritage, why do you think DNA kits are so popular 🤷‍♀️ aren't you proud of your greatgrandmother and what she went through and that she is part of who you are today?

It’s an American thing. They love knowing where they came from and love if they have Irish ancestors to talk about. It gives them a sense of belonging to another nation and well, let’s fact it, everyone loves the Irish (and if they don’t well, shame on them 😂) so why not associate yourself with being Irish. Ireland has an incredibly sad history which is why the story is so moving and American in particular love to associate with it.
I think it amazing what Joe Biden is doing for Ireland. Such a small nation.

*let’s face it

Grr! His harping on about "We Irish" has really got my goat.

My father is from Tipperary and my grandparents and everyone else backwards is from the Republic and I wouldn't dream of referring to myself as Irish. (Although I love the connection but being Irish belongs to true Irish people.) From what I know of my Irish relatives, they will be quietly pissed off by Biden's constan claims. 🤬

FFS! If I was able to trace my ancestors back 173 years- when Biden's distant relatives last left Irish shores - I might find I'm part Zulu or something.

Sorry but his constant harping on to some
ancestry from 173 years ago is political and pathetic.

Would love to hear thoughts from our true Irish Mnetters.

constant

Many people have no choice but to hold on to the link with the land their great , great, great fathers came from because just in sight, they’re declared as not British, etc etc

Others do so because that’s how their families bring them up- with a string link to the land of their ancestors’ births.

So no i don’t think it’s an American Irish thing

I lot of this is for the Irish American voters in the US. I'm sure he's loving it and, yes, I think a great grandparent is quite a close relative but it's also got resonance in the US.

I have cousins in New Zealand and Australia. We have common Irish grandparents. But they refer to us (English born to English born parents) as their Irish cousins. So I don't think it's just an American thing.

Great-grandparents are 3 generators back, not 4.

I think he’s a lot closer to his Irish background as well because he and his pate us lived with his maternal grandparents when he was a child. His grandmother had Irish parents to emigrated, so it’s all recent history he grew up around rather than 300 years ago like some previous presidents.

Generations, not generators

I'm uk born of Irish born dad and English born mother. All 4 grandparents were Irish. I consider myself Irish and not English. I have no English blood in me (did myself dna test and unsurprisingly I'm 100% Irish). I visited every summer til I was 18 and go back when I can to see my cousins who welcome us. Growing up we only hung out with other Irish families (I'd say 80% of my Catholic schools parents were Irish). It's how you're brought up. I guess Joe Biden was brought up Irish. My kids too are being brought up Irish. My ex (their dad) also has Irish parents. I just don’t consider us English.

Joe Biden's ancestors left Ireland during or shortly after a period when over 1 million people starved to death. Ireland was at the time under the rule of Queen Victoria ( now there's a family who like to talk about their ancestry). Ship loads full of grain, cattle etc left Ireland for the empire while the Irish starved.A million people in a tiny country, just imagine that..Co Mayo along with Galway , Sligo and the south west suffered the worst. Most Americans will have ancestry in this part of Ireland. There are some very good books to read on "The great hunger ' as it is called. It should be required reading in British schools.

Joe Biden' will have heard stories handed down by those who left Ireland. That is why he is clearly very emotional when talking about Ireland. It seems to really bother people in Britain but America loves Ireland.I have Irish friends who work in the US and it's still a great place to be Irish.So many companies are now led by people with Irish surnames, I imagine the Irish are still drawn to the US because of this.

Ireland what’s not to love? Obama loved it too, he’s even got a service station named after him 😂😂

Joe Biden identifies as being Irish and is proud of it.
i don’t think I ever heard Trump talk about being Scottish and his mother was born and grew up in the Outer Hebrides.

I think it all depends on how you feel your heritage

Both of my maternal grandparents were Irish.
I would never presume to refer to myself as Irish, yet I feel a strong identification with and connection to the country. It is a place that I have visited often and that I love dearly. Growing up extremely close and strongly bonded with my Irish grandmother I think has created this feeling.

I'm Irish and not offended - it's an immigrant and especially American thing, you get Italian Americans who have to go back a couple of generations but their Italian identity is important to them. The Irish weren't welcome in the US at first, so didn't have an option to assimilate, which kept the Irish identity strong- same with Italians.

Biden has been to Ireland before, he didn't just discover his roots for re-election, but sure even if he had, a la Obama, he knew he'd get a great welcome, particularly with the contribution of the US to the Good Friday Agreement.

To the PPs who have Irish parents but would never call themselves Irish, have you not applied for an Irish/EU passport - go for it, and for your kids if you can.

Irish Americans are extremely proud of their heritage because they encountered the same prejudice and abuse when they arrived in America but managed to overcome all obstacles in their path, ending up dominating cities and city governments, forcing their way into professions that did not welcome them (medicine and law), and creating their own education system to provide a pipeline to prosperity when alternatives remained bastions of anti Irish and anti Catholic prejudice. Catholic universities and professional schools remain very attractive third level iand fourth level institutions.

The RC parish system was the means by which communities were built, centered around the church and school. The churches were social centers, with musical evenings, talent shows, skits, am dram groups, men's and women's clubs, and charities providing food, clothing, job offers, and furniture for families down on their luck. They were little worlds unto themselves.. even today, if someone asks you in Chicsgo where you're from, the answer is the name of a Catholic parish, not a city neighbourhood.

Communities were built out in the newly settled lands of the Plains too - there are little towns along the east/ west railroads where you'll still find St Patrick's and St Joseph's parishes in the same town. These were the parishes founded by the Irish and the Italians, respectively. In cities, there are German, Polish, Bohemian,, Italian and Irish parishes, and intense rivalry between them. A mixed marriage was one involving individuals from different ethnic parishes... Suburban parishes tended to be more integrated as they weren't the first built, serving individual ethnic neighbourhoods.

Biden himself spent a lot of time with his grandparents when he was young, and would have heard a lot about his family's story of struggles both in Ireland and the US.

It's generally assumed that the US was always a place that welcomed the Irish with open arms, but it was a very hostile place initially. The Irish ( and other RC immigrants) stuck together because there was strength in numbers.