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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

231 replies

Stressedout65 · 17/03/2022 22:59

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

OP posts:
axolotlfloof · 18/03/2022 09:14

It's very American to connect to your Great Grandparents.
My Dad is Welsh (but hasn't lived there since he was 6), and I have a Welsh surname. But I am English, because I have never lived in Wales, nor feel particularly connected to it.

ImInStealthMode · 18/03/2022 09:15

And maybe if you wanted St Georges Day and St Andrews Day celebrated in the same way. Do something about it. Start your own parade

If that's aimed at my comment (apologies if it's not) I'm not arsed about any particular national day, I couldn't care less. What I don't understand is English friends with no Irish connections at all going bonkers for St. Patricks Day but not even confidently being even to say when St. George's Day is. I don't get it.

I'd no more celebrate St. Patricks Day than I would Burns Night or American Independence Day or Chinese New Year or Eid. They're not events for me and unless I were invited to join celebrations by people they did matter to then it would feel fake to pretend they were.

ancientgran · 18/03/2022 09:17

I was born in England and have dual nationality, both parents born in Ireland. I grew up in the Irish pub my dad owned, went to a Catholic school where the majority of kids had Irish parents but also Polish, Spanish and Italian kids. There was one English family.

I did Irish dancing, my parish priest was Irish, Ireland was always referred to as "home" as in "Are you going home this year?"

I encourage my kids to enjoy their Irish heritage, why not? No one thinks it strange that they identify with their paternal ancestors who were slaves in the Caribbean why should their Irish roots be any different.

Sailorsusan · 18/03/2022 09:18

I have an Irish great grandmother and my DM was brought up in a Catholic Irish community. I don't celebrate St Patrick's day or claim to be Irish myself, but I would join in if I lived somewhere where it was a big thing (I don't). Why not?!

DillDanding · 18/03/2022 09:20

My parents are Irish but I consider myself English. They’ve lived in England since the 60s and me and my siblings were all born here.

They’ve never celebrated St Patrick’s day and nor have we. I notice my grown up nieces and nephews, all of whom have never set foot in Ireland, are more likely to celebrate it and come over all ‘plastic paddy’ Grin

DedalusBloom · 18/03/2022 09:23

My grandfather was Scottish, my dad remarried a Scottish woman and so my step sister is half Scottish whereas I am only a quarter in that respect. That said, we had a lot of Scottish influences/music and holidays there as a family so I do feel quite comfortable celebrating my Scottish heritage, even though it's relatively tenuous. The rest of my family going back to the 1700s is resolutely English but I guess that doesn't feel as interestingly 'other' as it's so pedestrian.

Disclaimer: I absolutely abhor OutlanderGrin

Ikeptgoing · 18/03/2022 09:25

You have Irish heritage and if culturally being Irish (even though 'part Irish') is important then you have a right to and should celebrate it!

We are part Irish, grandparents are Irish and we all have a Irish names but were born in and live in England. My ex is part African - So my children are mixed Black Irish African etc we always pick Mixed Other

I would 'have a word' with anyone that said neither my children nor I can celebrate St Patrick's day or any part of our cultural heritage, because we're not fully Irish "pure bloods" or mixed race, which is pretty much what you are fearful of!

If it's part of your cultural heritage , your identity and experience, and important to you, then go for it OP!

Jazzy1000 · 18/03/2022 09:25

I'm Irish and have always found St Patrick s day a bit grim (except for a few fun drunk years in my late teens/20s)
However I love seeing anyone Irish or not celebrating St Patrick s day.
Ireland is a mixed bag of good and bad like anywhere else but parts of the culture are very beautiful so I can see the attraction.

Littlebutload · 18/03/2022 09:28

I'm irish and live in Ireland and have no problem with anyone wanting to celebrate paddy's day or talking about their tenuous link to Ireland. I would secretly judge your 'family tartan' though, I've never seen or heard of it here.

ancientgran · 18/03/2022 09:33

I find that if you have any connection to Ireland you are very welcome in Ireland. I remember taking one of my kids back to the part of Ireland where one of my parents was born and where I used to visit as a child to see GP. At the hotel the receptionist asked if it was business or pleasure visit. I said I was showing DS where his grandmother was born and where I used to visit regularly as a child to visit DPs. She said hang on, changed our rooms and upgraded us and was happily chatting away to son about places to go and see.

Ireland and the Irish are very welcoming, it didn't worry her at all that I was referring to him having one Irish GP, in fact he had 2, he was welcomed very warmly.

debwong · 18/03/2022 09:36

Let's rename it St. Plastic's Day Smile

ClenchYourButtocks · 18/03/2022 09:38

I just don't get why anyone who is not Irish would bother celebrating St Patrick's Day. A friend of mine whose only link with Ireland was that she used to go on holiday there kept sending me videos of Irish dancing and At Patrick's Day gifts and memes yesterday. In the end I told her to stop as I had no interest in it. For some it's just an excuse to neck pints of Guinness and get pissed.

Bobodebo · 18/03/2022 09:39

Plastic paddies

Lurking9to5 · 18/03/2022 09:40

@Littlebutload

I'm irish and live in Ireland and have no problem with anyone wanting to celebrate paddy's day or talking about their tenuous link to Ireland. I would secretly judge your 'family tartan' though, I've never seen or heard of it here.
Oh that's funny, Ireland (and Scotland) so far behind in the rear view mirror that the two countries merge. My father's mother was Scottish and she did have a tartan. Well, people with the same sur name did.
liquidrevolution · 18/03/2022 09:41

No and i am half irish.

But my dad was a drunken abusive arse and i would rather forget him.

DownNative · 18/03/2022 09:41

As an Ulster Catholic, I would say anyone can essentially celebrate what they like. My family in Northern Ireland growing up never celebrated St Patrick's Day and still don't.

Patrick wasn't even Irish by any means and he was from Roman Britain which he referred to as "my country". Roman Britain is where he grew up and where his family lived, bit noone knows if that was in England, Scotland or Wales. You could mark St Patrick's Day from that angle anyway. The day IS supposed to be about Patrick's death.

Patrick's colour was always traditionally blue and not green. The green came in the late 19th Century in the United States parades in relation to independence. Hence, I wear blue on 17th March and make things that relates to Northern Ireland only.

But the earliest St Patrick's Day parades was organised by Irish Protestants in the US and these were NOT like the later green tinged stuff from the US. It didn’t even come to the Island of Ireland until 1931 and it wasn't until the 1980s when it became a big thing. Before that, it was a religious day for Catholics and Protestants.

Corned Beef and Cabbage isn't even an Irish thing. Irish immigrants took it from Jewish immigrants.

Patrick wasn't the first to bring Christianity to the island of Ireland either and there's no evidence he taught the Trinity via a three leaf clover.

Leprechauns were always male and not particularly good ones. They wear red jackets in the actual myths....not green ones. As mentioned before, green came in later for political reasons in the United States first before spreading over.

Santaslittlemelter · 18/03/2022 09:44

I don’t believe in Nationality or Nationalism. Causes more harm than good. People should be free to live anywhere, do any ‘cultural’ activity, and adopt any way of living and looking that they welcome comfortable with.

Humans just naturally need an in-group and an out-group which is fundamentally nasty.

And we (in the richer and more developed countries) rely on Nationalism to justify our entitlement and keep our access to wealth, healthcare and luxuries to ourselves.

beattieedny · 18/03/2022 09:46

Do what ever brings you joy, life's short. But don't be afraid to wanker about it.

Thewindwhispers · 18/03/2022 09:50

I’m in English. If you go back a few generations on my family tree I have Irish, Welsh, and Scottish roots.

Go back a hundren years further and there’s also a tiny bit of German and Indian.

Go back 75000 years and all of us were African.

I like celebrating different cultures, but wouldn’t dance about claiming any as ‘mine’ other than the one I was born into.

It all gets a bit silly eh

Salamander91 · 18/03/2022 09:53

My nana was Irish but lived in England since she was a teen and I didnt even realise she was Irish until I was older Grin so we never celebrated being part Irish. I live in NI now though so I do go to the parades.

gabsdot45 · 18/03/2022 09:54

I'm Irish but one of my great grannies was English.
Sorry but I don't feel the need to celebrate St George's Day. Grin
In saying that everyone is a little bit Irish on St Patrick's Day. As a PP said a party is a party

theworldhas · 18/03/2022 09:59

@Thewindwhispers
Sure but that’s different. Many people are legitimately “born into” 2,3,4 or 5 different cultures. Eg, parents of different nationalities, but then raised in two separate countries again. So they may be quite rational in feeling strong emotional ties to several different countries and cultures. It’s often not quite as simple as saying this one is “mine” and all those others aren’t.

theworldhas · 18/03/2022 10:03

@Santaslittlemelter
And we (in the richer and more developed countries) rely on Nationalism to justify our entitlement and keep our access to wealth, healthcare and luxuries to ourselves
That’s not really true though. Many developing countries, China and India just tie pick two at random, have equally strict (or even stricter) citizenship rules.

Dinosauratemydaffodils · 18/03/2022 10:05

One of my grandfathers was Irish. Dh's mother is from Northern Ireland. We both grew up with Irish fairytales and songs. In fact whenever I hurt myself or couldn't sleep my mum used to sing the decidedly secretarian songs that were sung to her in childhood to me (which raised my British military father's eyebrows) . Neither of us consider ourselves Irish though or celebrate St Patrick's day.

In fact drinking Guinness with Bushmills chasers like his grandfather is probably as celebratory of his heritage as dh gets.

Noshowlomo · 18/03/2022 10:07

My great grandfather was Irish, my dad talks about him fondly about his thick Irish accent and talking about where he came from (Wicklow). I love it. I’ve researched my family tree and have so many Irish relatives. I do feel a connection with Ireland. Maybe it’s a Celtic thing as I’m Welsh.
Celebrate what you like if you feel proud of it!!
We only celebrated yesterday was it was also my dads birthday.

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