Do you still celebrate your Irish roots, even if you're not Irish

[Stressedout65]

One of my paternal great grandfathers was Irish & I had an Irish surname until I got married. I even have a piece of clothing made from the Irish family tartan with the family name coat of arms emblazoned on it. I wanted to wear it to work today as we had the option of dressing for St Patricks Day (in England). I chickened out as it felt false & attention seeking. An Irish colleague said I should have worn it if I wanted to as it's part of my Irish roots & heritage. I feel my Irish roots are now so diluted it didn't feel right. How far back do you celebrate your roots & heritage if they're different to what you actually are now?
I do feel drawn to Ireland, it's culture & music. I don't know if this "connection" I feel is exaggerated because I lost my dad a year ago

Bump

I’m not even slightly Welsh but I do live here and my children are born here. I’m happy to celebrate St David’s day!

I feel like St Patrick’s day is definitely the day for your wardrobe item. When else would you wear it??

No, it's weird.

I'm from the west of Scotland and have the usual 'mongrel' background of mostly Highland/Lowland Scots, North of England, Northern Ireland etc, but I was born and brought up in Scotland and therefore I am Scottish.

The one rock thrown into my personal genetic pool is that my paternal great grandfather was Romanian: but I never met him, I've never been to Romania, I don't know any Romanian people, and I know fuck all about the place if I'm being honest.

This 'tying your identity to something you're not' is bizarre and smacks of cultural appropriation. Just drink Guinness if you want to, nobody cares.

My grandparents were Irish. St Patrick's Day was always a big day in our house growing up. But we also grew up with lots of Irish music, learnt Irish dancing, lots of books about Ireland etc. There was a strong sense our GPs wanted us to know and celebrate our heritage.

I’m half Irish and my bf of 2 years is Irish. I’ve always lived in England though. I love Ireland and everything about it, I would love to live there one day…from visits it just seems so much better than England. I think being in a relationship with an Irishman has definitely made me thing about the Irish side of my family more. He’s gone back ‘home’ for st Patrick’s day and I wish I was there with him.

My paternal grandparents were both Irish but my dad was born in England as was I. I don't consider myself Irish at all. I'm visiting Ireland for the first time soon and want to go to the towns my ancestors were from, but it's just mild curiosity. I've always thought it strange how people, particularly Americans, exploit any Irish ancestry, even really weak links.

No…my great, great grandfather was Irish, he came to Scotland to an industrial area for work, but the link is so tenuous, I never consider myself anything other than Scottish.

My childrens great grandfather and mother (didnt meet them) were dutch but they wouldn't claim dutch heritage.

It does seem lots in America do claimIrish (or scottish) descent many generations pn though.

I'm an English atheist with a tenuous connection to Ireland from great or great great grandparents.

A couple of years ago I spent the evening of the 17th wearing a green top, n a parochial hall singing along with everyone else.

A party is a party.

Odd. I had an Irish great grandmother. It wouldn’t occur to me to have anything to do with St Patrick’s day.

@Aspidistra1 I’d say that’s different if you’re actually in the country (I’m Welsh).

How do you celebrate roots you don’t have?

@AffIt

No, it's weird.

I'm from the west of Scotland and have the usual 'mongrel' background of mostly Highland/Lowland Scots, North of England, Northern Ireland etc, but I was born and brought up in Scotland and therefore I am Scottish.

The one rock thrown into my personal genetic pool is that my paternal great grandfather was Romanian: but I never met him, I've never been to Romania, I don't know any Romanian people, and I know fuck all about the place if I'm being honest.

This 'tying your identity to something you're not' is bizarre and smacks of cultural appropriation. Just drink Guinness if you want to, nobody cares.

I’m west of Scotland too and it always annoys me that st Patrick’s day is celebrated more than St. Andrew’s day - just another excuse for a piss up.

I've got an Irish great grandparent and don't feel any more connection to Ireland than to any other country. Had completely forgotten about the fact til I read your post. I think it's a bit of a tenuous connection to be honest. I'd be interested to know what percentage of people in the UK, particularly in certain parts, have an Irish great grandparent - a lot, if have thought.

Just googled and apparently 10% of people in Britain have an Irish grandparent so the number with great grandparents must be loads. According to Wikipedia anyway.

I'm actually Irish. Didn't acknowledge St Patrick's Day at all, which is about how much I celebrate being Irish in general 😁.
It's not that I don't like being Irish, I'm just neutral I suppose!

I am originally from North America and where I grew up everyone celebrates St Patrick’s Day. We celebrated at school, later at work and in the pubs. We had themed parties and a parade every year. Even my friends who are now living in countries with large expat communities still celebrate.

My grandfather was irish and im awaiting my irish nationality/ passport but I dont celebrate st Patricks day

My parents are Irish and my partners grandparents are all Irish but we live in England. We have both been brought up visiting Ireland, listening to the music, watching GAA, Irish dancing etc so we are very much Irish culturally. Our son will be brought up the same. We have Irish passports too.
You should have worn your item of clothing if you wanted to! I don't see any harm in doing so.

My dad is Irish so I celebrate as much as I can! I probably wouldn't feel as connected to it if it was more distant than that though.

I do feel a connection to Ireland, both paternal grandparents were Irish and my father - though born in England - spent half of his childhood in Ireland. So he's always seen himself as part Irish and I've been brought up to be aware of and proud of my heritage.

Saying that, I didn't do anything for St Patrick's as it largely involves going down the pub for my family, and I don't often drink. I did get my usual photo of a pint of Guinness from my dad and uncle though 😂

I suppose it depends on how much of your Irish heritage/culture you were exposed to growing up. Like others on the thread I have an Irish grandparent & it was very much a part of our lives growing up with music, dancing, stories & food and regular visits to & from our Irish relatives still living in Ireland.

I do agree with the PP that it's a shame St Andrews day isn't celebrated in the same way. I don't mean an excuse for a piss up but in the "it's great being Irish" sort of way.

St Patrick's Day is an excuse for a piss up.

Nobody, English, Irish or otherwise celebrates St George's Day in the same way.

I’m Irish and I never heard of anyone with ‘family tartan’. I thought that was a Scottish thing. Who knew.

@Sparkl

I’m Irish and I never heard of anyone with ‘family tartan’. I thought that was a Scottish thing. Who knew.

Theyre different to scottish tartan. Its definitely a thing as my ds1 and also my brother have looked a lot into this stuff and ours. I imagine theyre more into it than the ones actually in ireland though

I think claiming to be Irish in particular due to one (of 8) great grandparents being Irish seems "fake" or like cultural appropriation because in certain circumstances it's a "fashionable" identity to claim. Nobody ever claims to be Rumanian or Polish or German or Russian having never lived in the country or spoken the language because of one great grandparent who they never met ...

If you'd honestly say you're Bulgarian under the same circumstances if you swapped out the Irish great grandparent for a Bulgarian one then I guess you aren't being fake.

An American lady told me once that she's Irish because her (several generations of great) grandfather was an Irish stable boy who ran off with the English landowner's daughter. This sounded like a family urban legend or the plot of a soft porn film or mills and boon paperback and unlikely to be true, but what I thought at the time was that that made her English and the descendant of the landowner as much as it made her Irish... funny how she picked the romantic sounding great grandparent to define herself by...