To feel like a fake Irish woman?

[bumbleebe]

So I was born in Ireland. All my grand parents and great grand parents born in Ireland. But before that, only about 1/4 of them are from Irish families. Rest of them moved over from England to Dublin (as a huge number did). So ‘genetically’ I’m only 1/4 Irish.

My parents gave me a very very Irish name. Sent me to Gaelic school etc.

I now live in England. People always sort of view me as being Irish Irish. But I feel like a fraud, because compared to many Irish folk, I’m not. I didn’t know this out until I did my family tree, and now I just sort of feel deflated.

Yeah. That’s right…..

I absolutely identify as Irish. Moved to Dublin when I was 32, found out 5 years later that I was actually 1/4 Irish through birth (I was adopted - grandmother was from Wexford). Left Ireland in 2007 but got an Irish passport in 2016 - guess why. Will let my British passport expire next year.

Big Irish heads…
Ffs, stop it. This is getting ridiculous.

why do you think anyone cares OP
are you racist?

I have Irish ancestry on both sides. One was Anglo-Irish and one emigrated in the 19th century. I don't go around wearing a green hat labelled "Kiss me I'm Irish" on St Patrick's Day but I do wish they'd left it a generation later to emigrate (grandmother born not in Ireland in the very early 20th C, I think some older siblings born in Ireland) so I could get a passport.

I think you've been in England too long. That's a very English, small minded way of looking at your heritage. Stop being daft and cop on, of course you're Irish.

It struck me as strange for Biden to claim "that he was home" when he visited Ireland recently when it was at least 2 of his Great Grandparents who were born in Ireland and emigrated.

He had 8 great grandparents - and at least 2 were from Ireland, 2 were born in the USA and I am not sure about his family on the Biden side but it looks like they had more American roots

Joe Biden: Unearthing the president's unsung English roots - BBC News

Joe Biden in Ireland: President says 'I'm at home' - BBC News

Some of my great grandparents were Irish but I don't claim to be Irish or have Ireland "in my soul" - but it's Ireland that people seem to want to make a claim to.

But I have 8 great grandparents - how far back do you go to claim Irishness and can you ignore where other people in your family tree come from?

On the contrary, she’d probably be pleased. Unlike most nationalities, the English are taught to hate themselves. It’s one of the few things we’re good at.

I think it probably just shows that there has always been a lot of movement between England, Scotland, wales and Ireland, and also many other places, such as Scandinavia and more recently India and so on. I have Irish ancestry on my mothers’ side who are apparently from cork. My dh is from NI and may well actually be more ‘English’ than me (just started some research), which he isnt too happy about! I don’t know why people find your post offensive but I think it does show that we probably put too much value on nationality and heritage when we are all probably a good mix.

Well that's really what I was getting at. People who are English (or American, as per @cakeorwine 's post above) through and through find out they have some tiny grain of Irish ancestry and suddenly they're Irish too and shouting it from the rooftops, even if the nearest they've been to Ireland is when they once patted a red setter in the park.

Somebody Irish through and through finds out they have some equally tiny grain of English ancestry and she's embarrassed and upset. One way round this (tenuous at best) link is great, the other it's not and I'd like the OP to explain to us, including the many English people I'm sure are here, why having a few distant English family members which nobody else will ever know or care about is such a catastrophe?

American concepts of nationality and identity and citizenship are not the same as in other countries because they are shaped by a unique history and culture, a younger generation than other world powers.

I think it is more that you can tell where people aren’t from - nobody would ever mistake me for a German, because basically nobody in Germany looks like me (short, pale redhead).

It is probably partly physical features, but also clothes choices, body language etc. I wouldn’t be confident telling an Irish person apart from an English or Scottish person, but I’d be relatively confident telling an Irish person apart from an American or Austrian.

So by your estimation am I more Irish than you? All grandparents Irish, but moved to England. My family have a very long history in Ireland, many generations of family buried in the same place for hundreds of years... Can trace the family back further.

I think what you are talking about is heritage. So I am of Irish heritage, but I am not Irish (although my grandparents think I am!). You are both of Irish heritage and English heritage, but you are still Irish as you were born there.

There used to be a lot of different species of human and it seems there was a good deal of interbreeding. Since then there have been so many migrations of tribes and further interbreeding. Nobody is a "pure" anything.

Oh come on OP. Even I'm Irish and I've never been there and have no Irish relatives.

I've absorbed so many Irish memoirs I'm convinced it's in my blood now.

🤣 no idea what that makes me then if you feel fake ! I was born in England lived there for 18th months then moved to Germany there fir 1 year then back to Scotland where all the family lived dads side hardly moved more than 10 miles in over 15 generations ! Now after many years back in England

What a strange post... I feel that you may have other issues OP if you are having an identity crisis over something so irrelevant. FWIW tracing the family tree is very much the irish emigrant thing, ppl here meet parents at school gates that they suspect are 3rd cousins but no one bothers doing the research. Its a small island and the population who stayed is not that big - dig up enough and you are probably related to your partner so best to let it be. Most people I know have no idea who their great grandparents and don't care. I feel like you are making drama out of nothing.