I’ve 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 wasn’t bullshitting that the dentist hurt me as a teen. Finally, proof!

like.. were a nation of immigrants. it's part of your identity in the US.

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.

Guatemala is awesome. The countryside is beautiful and the people are descended from one of humanity's major civilizations, the Mayans.

I realize OP is only half-serious, but they still come off as really ignorant.

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.

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.

We as Americans lack a certain amount of culture, we look to our pasts and see what it is our families have come from. So many Irish came here, for so many reasons, the cultural heritage barely came with it, leaving a big gaping hole in what we tend to identify ourselves with.

I like to use the analogy of the Native American Indian who was displaced and massacred, captured and forced to go to Indoctrination camps as children. Where they applied the “kill the indian, save the child” methodology, abhorrent to think of, its not far off from cultural genocide.

So, we look back and find our parents and grandparents nationalities, where they have come from, we adopt what little we know of what it means to be Irish. All thats left here is Irish bars and St Patricks Day, Boston and Chicago. Americans will happily tell you about their heritage but its not a long story to tell. We are the children of immigrants striving to find a way to make a home and anyone else to connect with for community.

What a fucking weird and racist post. "not even the Irish want to be Irish"

It's the same nonsense as invoking "the luck of the Irish". Said by people who have absolutely no idea about Irish history.

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

Uh, 'scuse me, I am proud to be Irish ~and Scottish, both from about 400 years back~ I take pride in my heritage by regularly listening to Celtic music.

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

They want to be European, but don't want the stink of colonialism, whilst also feeling like rebels, so Ireland it is!

I bet they also question "why would anyone want to be a woman?"

Irish and Italians are interesting because they were historically considered 'colored' or at least on the same societal rung as colored people.