The letter-writer is certainly correct, at least from a certain very limited point of view.

But culture is what people do. That's all. "Irish culture" is nothing more than what Irish people do. So any understanding of Irish culture depends first and foremost on defining what is an Irish person. The writer in effect argues that only people born and currently living in Ireland are Irish, so only their culture is "real" Irish culture.

But for every person of Irish descent living in Ireland, there are seven people of primarily Irish descent living in the United States. Irish-Americans have long maintained some distinctive cultural traditions in the United States. Maybe it would be more proper to call this "Irish-American culture" than "Irish culture," but the sense of "Irishness" remains quite strong among Irish-Americans. The boisterous, not-true-to-the-homeland celebration of St. Patrick's day dates back to before American Independence. I just read a diary snippet from a Union soldier who described the start of the federal march on Manassas in 1861 as "like a thousand Saint Patrick's Day picnics, without the lemonade."

Which is to say, the popular celebration of St. Patrick's Day in America is actually an older tradition than Irish independence from Britain -- older, in fact, than the modern Irish nationalist movement that led to independence. Along with a number of other things, it's a distinctively American flavor of Irish culture. But that doesn't make it fake or plastic or inauthentic. It's a real cultural heritage that informs the lives of about 44 million Irish-Americans.

So if Irish-Americans wear kilts, then the wearing of kilts is an authentic part of Irish culture in America. Since there are 44 million of us here, and only 6 million people of Irish descent left in Ireland, who is to say which is the "real" Irish culture, if only one can be?