My maternal great-grandfather fled Ireland after the Civil War ended because he was a republican fighter. Does that count?
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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My dad's side of the family was supposedly Irish. Bunch of reprobates and thieves. I would admit to being related to none of them even if they could prove it with papers lol
Nothing against Irish people. Just thought I'd share.
What a fucking weird and racist post. "not even the Irish want to be Irish"
It really is. As an American with some Irish, (if its a white from eastern europe it turned up on our dna test thingy) Im not sure if I or actual Irish people should be more offended.
The Irish have had a very ~~shitty~~ troubled past, is probably what they're getting at
Nah, don't agree. They established a hierarchy of "good nationalities" to be and put others like Irish and Lithuanian below them.
They didn't choose to be brutally colonized by the English
My wee Irish grandmother would take issue with this. Her pride was more about being Catholic, but she was definitely Irish. Soda bread. Weird Easter pastries. Ya, cabbage and alcohol too. Just little bits and bobs of Irish culture.
... Um ... I personally claim that I'm a European mutt. Drunkards all.
Idk lol some of our ancestors are just from a place and sometimes that place is Ireland. Want my white-ass to lie to you instead?
I'm Hatian now.
It's just a very foreign thing for us eurooeans. If we're born in Italy, but some grandparent was born in Germany, we don't consider ourself to be german in any way. We'd consider ourself italian and nothing else. It just seems so incredibly odd to even consider oneself to be german if you didn't spend time growing up in Germany.
I think the reason it's so prevalent here in the US is because the vast majority of the population ended up here at least in part due to immigration. So identifying as ethnically originating from elsewhere is a part of that self identity.
The disparity however, is knowing that while traveling through Europe, this style of self identification falls flat because simply being ethnically from a place doesn't mean you can claim to be born and raised from there. And that meaning is what's different between the US and Europe.
I wonder if some of it doesn't come from the people who came to America through forced immigration (I.e. the slave trade).
I think it makes sense for people brought unwillingly to America to hold on to that ethnic heritage and culture work hard to instill it in their children, even if they were born in America.
Very unlikely, the people who claim to have some european origin are generally not the descendants of slaves. Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors. Slaves in America came mostly from Africa, most likely even displaced within Africa. Very little records were kept of individual slaves origins, because why would anyone do that, they're slaves. These people identify as "just" African Americans.
I think you misunderstood. I wasn't talking about the people who claim to have some European origin but the practice in general in the US of acknowledging ancestral ethnic heritage as part of where you're from.
Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors.
This might be true now, but 200 years ago people were brought here from other countries unwillingly and had children here. If we're were forcefully taken to another country and then had children at some point I would talk to them about the people left behind and where I came from.
I guess that makes sense. We have our "heritage" pushed on us from a very young age, or at least we did when I was a child. In the 4th grade we did an entire reenactment of immigrating through Ellis Island, NY in which we had to research our countries of origin, then draw from a hat to see if we died on the journey, got small pox, or any other number of things all before being "accepted into the wonderful cultural melting-pot that is the United States".
Then we grew up and learned that all immigrants are evil and must all be deported. /s?
Regardless, my family immigrated from Ireland after having lived in County Cork for a very long time. This whole post just seems like shitting on people just to shit on people.
Sad thing to be, nonsensical thing to want to be
Well, thanks for calling me sad for a thing I'm mostly indifferent about and have no choice in, OP.
It's the same nonsense as invoking "the luck of the Irish". Said by people who have absolutely no idea about Irish history.
Darn those extra lucky Irish.
In Fact it's well known that they fought overwhelming on the north side of the US civil war because they knew which side was gonna win from their luck, and it had nothing to do with recognizing slavery as another form of the serfdom they just escaped from.
My great grandparents came to the US and claimed to be Irish. We strongly suspect this was a lie and they were German but arrived during a time where Germans were... unpopular.
Citizenship question: my grandfather's parents were born in Ireland. My grandfather, who didn't know he had been adopted until much later in life (by a Jewish woman), became an Irish citizen in his 50s and had dual citizenship until his death.
As a desperate American.... can I get Irish citizenship through my grandfather, a naturalized Irish citizen who was not born in Ireland?? I can (understandably) not find an answer to this on the Irish citizenship website.
Sincerely, an American who spent 12 hours protesting at a No Kings rally yesterday
I donβt think so, it has to be more direct IIRC. Iβve been looking into it too, for the same reasons. My Great Grandmother emigrated hereβ¦ nope.
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I have a friend who came over from Moscow and is an immigrant to the U.S. herself. A few years ago she started telling me she has Irish heritage and she knows it because she felt it in her bones and can see it in her dreams. Now she goes twice a year to 'reconnect with her roots.' She was so confident that she did a 23andme and it showed that she was 99% of her heritage with a 1% broadly european. That 1% is what she is now claiming is her Irish portion.
I don't know. I really don't even know.
Mine said I was 0.2% Mongolian so now I endearingly tell stories of my Grandpa Khan.
You need to be listening to The Hu now all day every day to reconnect with your roots. And also just because they are awesone
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It's economically stable white people trying to find a way to be the victim.
You don't see actually marginalized white people (poor, disabled, etc) doing this, just suburban Karens and shit
Edit:
All these down votes but no counterarguments.
It's almost like people are mad because not only does this perfectly explain the phenomenon, but we can see tons of examples in American society of the oppressors trying to claim victimhood for repercussions to their actions. The glove fits.
I use it to explain my massive capacity for alcohol
"I'm scotch/Irish on one side and German on the other, 3 generations both sides and they bred in the community until my parents!" as I'm on my third boot and finally starting to slur my speech lol
I usually joke "The Polish in me knows how to drink, the Irish in me doesn't know how to stop."
Beat me to it. Take my upvote!
Iβve got Irish heritage. My dentist asked me about it because I have a red beard (brown hair). She explained that people with red hair are less responsive to Novocain. I always knew I wasnβt bullshitting that the dentist hurt me as a teen. Finally, proof!
Not only Novocain, but lots of different types of anesthesia. Im a ginger and have woken up in several procedures, even after warning the doctor I probably would.
Sounds like hell.
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I think some people just like to be in touch with their ancestry which isn't suddenly cringe when you're white. But I think for some other people it's genuinely part of their victim complex. Irish people were among the most oppressed white minorities back in the day.
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I think Americans caring about there heritage lives rent free in too many European heads. It doesn't affect anyone's day to day, and explains some weird idiosyncrasies in life.
It's toned down since 23andMe was new, but I absolutely know people that will regularly call themselves by whatever European group they think gives them character.
I always ask if they have an EU passport.
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