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?

I have Irish and Scottish ancestry from my great grandparents but don’t see myself as either Irish or Scottish. I don’t feel any particular strong patriotism towards England either, I’m English because this is where I was born and raised but I don’t feel any kind of bond with that identity.

It's an Irish American thing. Romanticism for a country you have fictionalised in your head and is nothing like the real Ireland The Irish can be very sentimental for the old country. My grandad was I know despite leaving it because of the poverty and backwardness.

Biden clearly has bought in to the hatred of England.

I always find it weird that Americans never claim English ancestry. Always Scottish and Irish.

Pretty sure I have relation closer than most Americans to Ireland and Scotland (great grandparents/ grandparent). But in the US they say they're Irish and Im the evil Brit!

To me it smacks of white people trying to cling to a heritage of persecution because they themselves have not faced persecution. White guilt trying to be assuaged through proximity to hardship.

The US is often called a “nation of immigrants.” It is a patchwork of different nationalities and cultures that came over in waves at different times. It is not the same as countries that have been established for a thousand years or more. Many Americans can go to Ellis Island and find the names of the relatives that first went over and from which country.

It’s not hard to understand why they pass this down. It’s part of their heritage.

I’d hazard a guess that’s the reason most women are pissed off with Biden/the Democrats for not recognising what women are and what they went through.

It becomes meaningless if any old Tom, Dick and Harry can identify into a sex category.

Safe to say Biden doesn’t know what day of the week it is.

It’s not a US thing, it’s a coloniser / settler / immigrant country thing, so Aus, NZ, etc.

If you’re not indigenous to the country you’re from, then yes, you often are interested in your ancestors and where they came from.

I find it odd that people think this is odd.

It’s not like he’s obsessed with it, or that it dominates his life. He has a passing interest in his heritage, and of course is going to talk about it while visiting that country.

That’s strange, why?

Maybe that's why so many posters are annoyed because no one wants to claim to be English 🤣 I did say on another thread there was alot to unpack, I think you may have hit the nail on the head! Scottish and Irish are definitely "sexier" ... people always do say that when I've travelled around 🤔

I find it a bit patronising and cringey to be honest.

When he talks about his sense of irishness, it’s all a bit generic and I don’t see how it aligns with the values of modern Ireland, any more than with any other Western European country.

He’s also come out with some real clangers about people who wear orange and more recently a comment about the Black and Tans. For someone representing the nation that helped bring the Good Friday Agreement into existence, he doesn’t seem to have a grasp of how tenuous relations are in the north at the moment.

Just makes me grateful for Michael D to be honest.

What do you mean by “raising the kids as Irish?”

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.

You think an 80-year-old man who has been in US politics since forever only had a mother coming over from Ireland?

He was instrumental in the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement - the Good Friday thingy which is already 25 years old.

Anyway OP, love how you are educating yourself. I mean that sincerely.

Irish history is not taught in British schools. I wonder why?

Someone on these threads always complains that Americans don’t focus on their English heritage. This is 1) false, 2) ahistorical, 3) just a very superficial grasp of American history and culture. The early US settlements were british descended and culturally shaped by the parts of England that settled there. Read Albion’s Seed for a thorough ethnography of the earliest period—i.e prerevolution. Those people identified as white and English, then post revolution as American.

the southern slave states very much emphasized a faux aristocratic “English” identity while the North, midwest and far west encouraged multiple streams of foreign/non English workers who would become citizens eventually.

As immigrants poured in from Ireland and Europe and Eastern Europe the older white settlers created a new designation “Anglo Saxon” and even White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WAsp) to distinguish themselves from impure/nonwhite or lower class white immigrants of all kinds: Irish, Italians,Jews, etc (and that doesn’t even touch on the racial exclusion of Native American, Mexican, African, South Asian, Chinese and Japanese people).
The point Im trying to make is that a lot of this battle for identity and the dream of a return to the homeland for the exiles was continously important—is important—right up through the 1960’s for some groups and some groups—including the Irish—have continued immigrating and refreshing those ties.

@purpledalmation Hi Arlene, cheer up hun.

What do you mean by “raising the kids as Irish?

Not surprising at all.

Different cultures.

No more different to raising your kids as English, Welsh, Scottish.

It's beautiful. We have to keep the individual cultures going for future generations.

Yes, but what does that actually entail, like what are the actual practicalities of raising a child “as Irish” in GB?

Bemused that people think Americans don’t claim their English heritage.

Isn’t coming over on the Mayflower deemed the be all and end all?

WASPs on the Upper East Side?

I have one set of Irish Great Grandparents, and feel I am missing out now as I adore Ireland but didn’t know them so don’t feel a connection. Also have a Welsh Grandmother and when my Mum
did Ancestry DNA she is also part Spanish. Would never have guessed that. I love the rich tapestry of connection to our past.

If he's Irish, I'm Russian.

Also, I bet he pulls out the God Bless America bullshit all the time which always irks me. What, just America?

He's playing it for votes and for feels. It's all nonsense.

@FirstFallopians

I really can't be bothered to explain actually. Sorry.

Having 5 cultures in my family. Dutch, Irish, Scots, Spanish and African.

And no. We just live in Europe.

Pathetic that he's the best they can come up with.

If he's Irish, I'm Russian.

Good luck with fuckin Putin.

Give me Biden any day.

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I guess maybe because those families claim to be all-American, founding fathers etc we never hear of them saying they're English-American. And they rarely ever 'revisit the homeland'

Eh, good for you, but I was asking about the previous poster I’d quoted, not yours.

Still interested to hear how you’d raise a child as “Irish” without actually being rared there yourself without referencing outdated stereotypes though.

I dunno, since Brexit a lot more English people have been hunting through their ancestry in the hope of finding a granny tucked away in the outskirts of the family tree who will help them get an Irish passport. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Britain celebrating their Irish roots these days 😂

^Still interested to hear how you’d raise a child as “Irish” without actually being rared there yourself.
Rared? LOL

without referencing outdated stereotypes though.

What does that even mean?

None of your business actually....

Get a fucking hobby. History maybe.