Interesting email from an Irish fellow about Irish kilts.

[Mr. MacDougall]

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?

Something about this part of your statement makes me uncomfortable. Is culture a numbers game? Is it about geography? Is it about genetics?

I think part of my problem is that I, personally, am a mutt. My maternal grand-father came from Germany, so I'm a quarter German. My maternal grandmother was Scots / Cherokee / French / Dutch, so I've got splashes of all of those. My paternal grandmother came from Ireland, so I'm a quarter Irish. My paternal grandfather was Danish / English / Dutch / Greek. So what am I? My answer has always been "an American," but it seems like a lot of people don't want to accept that as an answer.

Most of us who are Americans, whose families have been here for more than a generation, can hardly point to one area of the world from which our ancestors came. Most of mine at least came from Europe; I have friends whose ancestors, while as varried as mine, came mostly from Asia, or Africa. What are they, if not American?

Of the 44 million Irish descendants you quoted, how many have more than a thread of Irish in their cultural heritage? I'm 1/4 Irish, which, as I understand it, means that I could apply for Irish citizenship currently. But I would never claim that I have a better understanding of what it means to be Irish than someone who actually lives in Ireland, even if I and my distant cousins here in America out-number the distant cousins who live in Ireland.

I think the best solution is to say, "this is an Irish-influenced part of an American sub-culture," and let it go at that.

[arrScott]

Something about this part of your statement makes me uncomfortable. Is culture a numbers game? Is it about geography? Is it about genetics?

My point was that it's not a numbers game, and it's not a geography game. The only "real" culture is what real people actually do. The "Irish" traditions of Irish-Americans are no more or less authentic than the "Irish" traditions of people who live in Ireland. Sure, there's a lot of counterfactual nostalgia in the Irish-American sense of Irish-ness, but there's also a lot of deliberate artificiality in the Irish sense of Irish-ness, too. I mean, the potato is a Peruvian crop brought to Ireland by Spanish sailors. So are all the potato dishes I was served in Ireland not really Irish? Does the shepherd's pie I saw on the menu make the pubs I visited in County Kerry really Peruvian pubs or Spanish pubs, not Irish establishments? Of course not. That's a silly way to think of culture, but it's what the original emailer would have us do.

I'm 1/4 Irish, which, as I understand it, means that I could apply for Irish citizenship currently.

Under Irish law, you need to have at least one grandparent who was born in Ireland or who was an Irish national to be eligible for citizenship. I'm about half Irish by ancestry -- my mom's side -- but since the last direct ancestors to come over did so in the 1870s, I won't be getting that EU passport.

It took me a few days to look it up, but the original email talking about plastic Paddies and whatnot reminded me of an old Hawaiian saying I came across once. When a Hawaiian was embarrassed by or ignorant of traditional Hawaiian culture, he was said to be "he Hawai'i 'uwala Kahiki." Or, in English, "An Irish-potato Hawaiian."

Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind being an Irish-potato Hawaiian!

[Kid Cossack]

Something about this part of your statement makes me uncomfortable. Is culture a numbers game? Is it about geography? Is it about genetics?

Maybe culture is about how you feel?

I think part of my problem is that I, personally, am a mutt.

That's not a problem! That's a blessing. We mutts are blessed with hybrid vigor. Neat stuff!

My maternal grand-father came from Germany, so I'm a quarter German. My maternal grandmother was Scots / Cherokee / French / Dutch, so I've got splashes of all of those. My paternal grandmother came from Ireland, so I'm a quarter Irish. My paternal grandfather was Danish / English / Dutch / Greek. So what am I? My answer has always been "an American," but it seems like a lot of people don't want to accept that as an answer.

If they don't want to accept "I'm an American" (or "I'm a Canadian" or "An Aussie, mate, right down to the marrow") then that's THEIR problem.

Most of us who are Americans, whose families have been here for more than a generation, can hardly point to one area of the world from which our ancestors came. Most of mine at least came from Europe; I have friends whose ancestors, while as varried as mine, came mostly from Asia, or Africa. What are they, if not American?

Of the 44 million Irish descendants you quoted, how many have more than a thread of Irish in their cultural heritage? I'm 1/4 Irish, which, as I understand it, means that I could apply for Irish citizenship currently. But I would never claim that I have a better understanding of what it means to be Irish than someone who actually lives in Ireland, even if I and my distant cousins here in America out-number the distant cousins who live in Ireland.

I think the best solution is to say, "this is an Irish-influenced part of an American sub-culture," and let it go at that.