Being Irish Means Nothing to Me, and therefore...

ClovenHoof

No reason why it shroud. Accident of birth and all that.

So it never ceases to amaze me how so many Irish people are 'ashamed' to be Irish when such and such Irish knobhead embarrasses themselves on the world stage.

Why are you bothered? Being Irish or any other nationality is hardly an achievement.

The_Valeyard

This will go well.


My opinion? :popcorn, that is all.

EoghanIRL

Begrudgery and all that .

El Weirdo

The_Valeyard wrote: »

This will go well.


My opinion? :popcorn, that is all.

I'm with The_Valeyard.

NoMore MrNiceGuy

ClovenHoof wrote: »

No reason why it shroud. Accident of birth and all that.

So it never ceases to amaze me how so many Irish people are 'ashamed' to be Irish when such and such Irish knobhead embarrasses themselves on the world stage.

Why are you bothered? Being Irish or any other nationality is hardly an achievement.

The number of irish people to whom being irish means nothing and who yet continue to live is growing rapidly. I blame inbreeding.

EoghanIRL

NoMore MrNiceGuy wrote: »

The number of irish people to whom being irish means nothing and who yet continue to live is growing rapidly. I blame inbreeding.

Not everyone in Ireland is from Cavan.

A person isn't personally embarrassed if someone else of the same nationality screws up, they feel embarrassment on behalf of the collective identity.

People's relationship with their nationality is an individual thing, being Irish might mean nothing to you but that is irrelevant to the next person to whom it might be very important.

El Weirdo

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Not everyone in Ireland is from Cavan.

Pfft. Speak for yourself...

IsaacWunder

It obviously means enough to you to go start a thread about it.

braddun

your European not irish

El Weirdo

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Not everyone in Ireland is from Cavan.

El Weirdo wrote: »

Pfft. Speak for yourself...

No... hold on... I'm from Sligo.

Chucken

El Weirdo wrote: »

No... hold on... I'm from Sligo.

Thats ok too.....

NIMAN

I feel more sad for the idiot who thinks that because he once seen an Irish person do such-and-such, that it means I will also display that personality trait just because I was born on the same island as him.

EoghanIRL

Only weirdos in sligo

RobYourBuilder

braddun wrote: »

your European not irish

Can you not be both?

Talib Fiasco

Being just Irish means nothing much but if you happen to be from Cork then you're in the top 1% of all time human beings.

bodice ripper

Being Irish means everything to me, because I actually had to learn it.

I didn't realise I had succeeded until I emigrated.

NoMore MrNiceGuy

braddun wrote: »

your European not irish

Everything about that sentence is wrong, from grammar to logic.

spongebob89

I hear ya op from a point of view that were all equally human at the end of the day from the same planet.. Some of the friendliest people ive ever met are foreign. Alot of people like my brother are very proud to be Irish tho with our history and all that..

El Weirdo

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Only weirdos in sligo

Fucking right.

creolebelle

There is nothing wrong with being proud of your nationality. There is something wrong with being ashamed of it. It's absolutely ridiculous to be ashamed of your nationality or ethnic group because you share it with a couple of idiots.

madmaggie

What is OP's definition of being Irish? Is it parentage, or geographical location at birth? Can a person be called Irish if they gain citizenship, like many non-nationals?

Links234

Being Irish Means Nothing to Me...

...OOooOOH VIENNA!

kfallon

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

Being just Irish means nothing much but if you happen to be from Cork then you're in the top 1% of all time human beings tits.

FYP there trout....

:pac:

Galwayguy35

Wouldn't say I'm proud to be Irish, it's my nationality but I would never say I'm ashamed to be Irish either because Ireland is a good country to live in.

Lyaiera

Links234 wrote: »

...OOooOOH VIENNA!

WOOOAAAH VIENNETTA!


I'm as Irish as expensive tapas and a nice wine.

creolebelle

NIMAN wrote: »

I feel more sad for the idiot who thinks that because he once seen an Irish person do such-and-such, that it means I will also display that personality trait just because I was born on the same island as him.

Well said

Galwayguy35

madmaggie wrote: »

What is OP's definition of being Irish? Is it parentage, or geographical location at birth? Can a person be called Irish if they gain citizenship, like many non-nationals?

They would be Irish citizens, not Irish seeing as they weren't born here.

creolebelle

madmaggie wrote: »

What is OP's definition of being Irish? Is it parentage, or geographical location at birth? Can a person be called Irish if they gain citizenship, like many non-nationals?

I know quite a few irish Americans who very proud of being irish

madmaggie

I see what you mean galwayguy 35. In the same way that an Irish born person might take out US citizenship, for example. Creolebelle, lots of first generation Irish regard themselves as fully Irish, and hold Irish passports, and not a passport of their birth country. Me, I'm just a mongrel, part Irish, Scots, English born, Irish raised. Utterly confused, but still when I land back at Dublin Airport, I'm home.

Talib Fiasco

kfallon wrote: »

FYP there trout....

:pac:

Well Cork women are also the hottest so in a way you are right.

omen80

F*cking Brits!

Anyone here know a good rebel song?

ireland.man

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

They would be Irish citizens, not Irish seeing as they weren't born here.

What if they had all the attributes we associate with native Irish people, they partake in all the cultural activities and speak fluent Irish? What's preventing them from being actually 'Irish'?

RobYourBuilder

ireland.man wrote: »

What if they had all the attributes we associate with native Irish people, they partake in all the cultural activities and speak fluent Irish? What's preventing them from being actually 'Irish'?

"That person is Irish" can plausibly mean at least three different things:

●That person is an Irish citizen.

●That person is ethnically Irish.

●That person is culturally Irish.

They are all orthogonal concepts and you can be any of those without being the other.

ireland.man

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

"That person is Irish" can plausibly mean at least three different things:

●That person is an Irish citizen.

●That person is ethnically Irish.

●That person is culturally Irish.

They are all orthogonal concepts and you can be any of those without being the other.

So you mean a person from Nigeria can become Irish through adopting our culture yet not have citizenship or Irish ethnicity. I'd agree with that, it's very progressive.

RobYourBuilder

ireland.man wrote: »

So you mean a person from Nigeria can become Irish through adopting our culture yet not have citizenship or Irish ethnicity. I'd agree with that, it's very progressive.

If you think that is possible, that's your perogative. I don't. I think that one has to be all three, or at least a mixture of all three, to be considered Irish. If I moved to an African country, learned some of the customs, came home, met you in the pub and when you asked me where I'm from, if I said (insert particular african country here); you would laugh at me. No?

madmaggie

omen80 wrote: »

F*cking Brits!

Anyone here know a good rebel song?

Oh very good! Now if I had a euro, or even a good old pound sterling for every time.......

ireland.man

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

"That person is Irish" can plausibly mean at least three different things:

●That person is an Irish citizen.

●That person is ethnically Irish.

●That person is culturally Irish.

They are all orthogonal concepts and you can be any of those without being the other.

What you wrote is very clear. A person can be only called Irish with only one of those three indicators and those indicators are all distinct (orthogonal). So a Nigerian man, or a Roma woman can be considered Irish by you if they have our culture alone and not the ethnicity?

man98

Getting to buy the 20 pack of Tayto for Christmas is why it's so great to be Irish.

Lyaiera

man98 wrote: »

Getting to buy the 20 pack of Tayto for Christmas is why it's so great to be Irish.

Tayto from a box is the true meaning of Christmas.

RobYourBuilder

ireland.man wrote: »

What you wrote is very clear. A person can be only called Irish with only one of those three indicators and those indicators are all distinct (orthogonal). So a Nigerian man, or a Roma woman can be considered Irish by you if they have our culture alone and not the ethnicity?

I said that all three are plausible and correct definitions of an Irish person. Each one is subjective. Personally, I believe that one has to be all three, or at least an admixture of all three, to be considered fully Irish. You don't and that's fine.

I just watched a tv show on RTE2 called Féile Dreams. It was about a group of South London kids that were on a GAA club together. Bloody good players. They atteended the Féile in Derry and left with the big one. Very few, if any, of the lads had Irish heritage of were of Irish ancestry. But they play our national sport. Are they culturally Irish? Should we consider them Irish? I wouldn't. Perhaps you would consider them culturally Irish. If so, again that's fine.

As for Irish citizenship; our citizenship by descent laws are pretty laxed. If ones parent or grandparent was born on the island of Ireland, then they are automatically an Irish citizen. There may be some paperwork involved, but it's pretty straightforward. Once the family registers the birth, with the Irish foreign birth register, this can continue until the great grandparent was the last one born in Ireland. This is a huge advantage to our diaspora. Especially when it concerns relocating to one of the other 27 EU member states. Would you consider somebody with a grandparent born in Ireland, as Irish themselves? I wouldn't. But legally they would be considered as Irish.

As I said, I suspect that our opinions differ here.

man98

To be Irish it's not so much if you're perceived to be Irish, as if you think of yourself to be Irish. Personally I'm quite proud of my nationality, knowing the sacrifices many made in the hope of an Irish Republic. However if someone fron eastern Europe lived here and embraced us, they could feel free to say they were Irish. A nationality isn't so much a state of being, it's a feeling.

catallus

But whither are we going?

Yurt2

There's a Frenchman in the town where I'm from, he's been there donkeys. He's taken Irish citizenhip, learned a decent bit of Irish, plays handball and sups pints to bate to the band. No matter what he does, he's always and always will be 'the French lad' in the town. Everyone loves him to bits but he's still the Frenchman with the mop of hair.

Galwayguy35

Yurt! wrote: »

There's a Frenchman in the town where I'm from, he's been there donkeys. He's taken Irish citizenhip, learned a decent bit of Irish, plays handball and sups pints to bate to the band. No matter what he does, he's always and always will be 'the French lad' in the town. Everyone loves him to bits but he's still the Frenchman with the mop of hair.

Kinda the same as Michael Flatley is to Cork people.