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

@Stressedout65 I only got as far as a rudimentary google I’m afraid! Which said something about county tartans being more common with a few family name tartans as well which I think a pp mentioned.
My surname is not at all Irish so I’ll have to go with the county one for me new gúna

@Sparkl glad I didn't imagine it then. It's interesting to me to look at the family tree & history of my name, which is defo Irish (same as Everton/MU & England footballer) . Its a good excuse to party & have a good sing song to the Dubliners etc. Sorry for the stereotyping but they are Irish & I love them! but I couldn't go around claiming to be Irish. Its better than St George's Day, which no one seems to celebrate, & I wouldn't even know when it is 🙂

I think it's great you would like to celebrate your heritage. I realise this is an older post but I have just come across it. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned that a person can claim Irish citizenship if one of their grandparents was born on the island of Ireland. Therefore one of your parents could choose to be an Irish passport holder if that is the case. So your connection to Ireland is not at all distant. Besides being about your heritage it's very handy to have dual citizenship.

I join in with celebrations for all the British Isles national days...with friends who are Welsh, Irish and Scottish. None of them seems to mind, and actually encourage me! I like the idea of the four nations being 'together but separate' - celebrate your particular identity but include others and don't be nationalistic about it.

I'm English and I definitely celebrate St George's Day (and Shakespeare's birthday). I'm fascinated by all the other cultures, but if I'm honest, I do feel English - it would be pretentious to feel otherwise!

What I don't like is people using these celebrations to be nasty about the other nations. Also, silly celebs who go on Who Do You Think You Are and make a big deal about 'wanting to be Irish etc', then saying how disappointed they are not to be. Being Irish is great - and also Welsh, Scottish etc - but it's not better than any of the others. That's where I roll my eyes.

Yes, every nation has much to be proud about.

Very sorry Stressedout65 that I missed the last line of your original post. So sorry that you have lost your father. I was trying to demonstrate that you have more of an Irish connection than you might realise x