Yet another Irish Times columnist attacks Irish American identity as not Irish

Eireannach, "What most Europeans don't realize is how badly Americans need to identify with a "homeland" in Europe." "Despite the fact that Americans have more German....BLAH BLAH BLAH." "IRISH people have Irish DNA and blood going back into ancient history on the island." I was born in NY. My father was an emigrant to America in the 1950's. My grandfather emigrated to NY in the 1920's. I have "Irish DNA and blood going back into ancient history on the island.' And yes, all Irish, there is no other blood mixed in with that. But under your assumption, which we all know about assumptions, I would come over there and be told I am 'not Irish". Yet by your own definition, I am Irish. So really, what is YOUR problem? Does it make you feel good to say to someone who obviously meets your own criteria for being Irish, "You are not Irish?" What, really, is the point of that? All my ancestors are Irish. Every single one. There is not one person in my bloodline who was not. Not one. In fact, a law was passed, in recognition of the extreme number of people who HAD to leave Ireland, to give then an opportunity to come back, if your parent or grandparent had to leave. Well guess what? I am one of those. And I do have a passport that states I am an Irish citizen. So, by your own reasoning, I am Irish. And by Irish law, I am Irish. So, why does that bother you so much?

Religion is culture..........which group more faithfully and enthusiastically celebrates Catholicism???? I'd say the Irish-Americans more so than the Irish. Numbers count too...do the math, 60 million vs. 4 million.

The subservient anglo-oriented Dublin establishment is much less Irish than the descendants of the real indigenous population who were displaced to the U.S. (without whom there would be no independent Ireland). Most of the emigrants were disproportionately from the West and descended from the Irish aristocracy in the central and eastern parts of the Country whose land was targeted and stolen after the Cromwellian slaughter (even old anglo land holders such as Edmund Spenser's son were targetted and forced to transplant to the West). The more common types were allowed to remain in central/eastern areas to provide labor to the new anglo planters. Therefore, the easterners who display the types of obnoxious attitudes depicted in the article are Irish in a very diluted sense and it is unclear how they would be able to identify as a distinct group in any respect.

so kind of mr. clarke(is that really an irish name)for sharing his self hatred with the world.without those of his ilk the irish americans would stay ignorant of the slavish attitudes so common among the established sycophants who loot ireland of wealth and attempt to inculcate a sense og inferiority in its inhabitants. the success of the irish americans should be imitated by the irish people and those like mr. clarke migth be more comfortable establishing themselves amongst their brethern in a class ridden britain. arise one more time and show the gombeen men the wharf.

he is backed up with whiskey farrts once he relieves himself by blasting gas out of his hindquarters , he will be okay but everyone back away from him as he sits on his bar stool and lifts an azz cheek for that will be a sign of a major eruption

BTW Donald Clarke like most Irish Times writers is not native Irish, and would like to be British according to a recent article!

What Europeans may not realise is how badly Americans need to identify with a 'homeland' in Europe. Despite the fact that most Americans have more German, and possibly Scottish/English blood they seem to feel that they can 'choose' which 'strand' they want to identify with and often for some reason, it is Irish (though in truth many are more likely to be of Scots Irish descent than native Irish). That is why they don't always get the reception that they want when they 'come home'. Irish people simply don't understand the mentality. To them they are Americans/Yanks and should be proud of that - without forever trying to 'blend in'. Irish people have Irish DNA and blood going back into ancient history on the island. They don't have some long dead ancestor who may have been Irish. All their ancestors are Irish. That = Irish. Irish (or any) ancestry is fine. But to claim 'I'm Irish!' is to invite eye rolling and mirth or ridicule. Think about it!

You know what they say about haters...they gotta hate.

You know there are people in all countries who are just completely worthless. And so many times they write columns for some archaic news rag. We, the fair skinned, reddish haired people in the United States don't give a big rat's ass what these so called experts say or think. I was in Ireland a couple of years ago and I was treated like gold. I was advised to get out of Dublin as fast as possible in order to see what Ireland really is. And I did. Once outside that circle of tourist traps I found the Irish people to be wam, friendly, and very proud of their country. They didn't care if I was from America or Antarctica they were just pleased that I also loved their country. So call me Irish American or any other name you want, but this one guy is thankful that the vast majority of the "real" Irish just love people of all sorts. And I bet if you took a poll the majority of them would wish these so called journalists would make a one way trip to any damned where but Ireland.

Larry, Is it possible to show the hypocrisy of this thinking by asking these critics if they would think of a second generation Chang or Pollasky living in Ireland as 100% Irish then? By their own logic these people would be purely Irish... there is no cultural or ethnic difference right? It's hard to believe people who think this way really lack the critical thinking to understand that much of the problem lies in the use of the word Irish to describe both a nationality and an ethnicity (perhaps it's not a true ethnicity but I was told the Irish use it as an ethnic term). Why is it that when I say I'm Irish, many Irish seem to think that means I think I understand what it's like to live in Ireland? Don't they have the thought process to understand we are speaking of a genetic connection? I agree with you that much of it just a prejudicial snobbishness. It reminds me of the same sort of insular attitude one often finds in a small town. How tragic that the diaspora are treated worse than strangers of a different ethnicity. My sister and I visited Ireland and the 1/4 French, 3/4 Irish bus driver who had just relayed to my sister about how he was taunted and rejected throughout his life due to his French last name in Ireland responded sarcastically that he was sure "She was more Irish than the Irish" when she gingerly spoke of her Irish-American heritage. He obviously failed to see the irony of how he was treating my sister and the prejudices he faced.

In response to hooligan6a: Northern Ireland is part of the UK because that's how most people there want it. That part of the island has a different history, culture and demographics than the south and the will of the majority there needs to be respected.

"For Mr. Clarke and all too many others in the small coterie of disproportionately influential people in Dublin who shape the contours of Ireland’s civic discourse" Eh, easy on the Dubs there Larry - you'll find these self important social commentators are as plentiful in the middle class areas of Belfast, Cork, Derry and Limerick. Infact as an Irish American complaining about the narrow definitions some Irish people put on Irishness it's ironic to be attacking the one community who are often on the receiving end of this kind of rubbish at home - with their unique accent, traditional urban poverty as opposed to rural poverty (it was all poverty back in the day wasn't it!!), their disobedience of church, state and traditional Irish societal norms - single mothers, hard drug use, prostitution etc etc their shunning of national games in favour of association football and their all round inner city air of thugishness - the Dubs or jackeens recieve the same kind of crap Irish Americans put up with regarding living up to a "proper" Irish caricature.

My All-Ireland-winning father happened to be in Africa with his wife when I was born. We returned to Ireland where I grew up but left again in my late teens & my Dublin accent has since had time to be "compromised" by other accents while I have made a home abroad.

But let any of this "vocal minority" tell me I am anything BUT Irish & they will feel the whip of my tongue in a brogue they understand!

I'd prefer to be paying my taxes to Ireland than to where I am now, but I don't have that option. The country's woes would be sorted pretty quickly if we all had that choice. If we all chose to go home though, the island would sink, so maybe the locals should be grateful we keep our distance.

I spent time in Ireland some 30 years ago, and was told that so long as I did not open my mouth to reveal my american accent, no one would ever know I was not Irish. During that same period, I studied in Paris, France, and took great offense my my professor (who of course was a short obnoxious frenchman) called me “têtue comme une âne irlandaise” (stubborn as an irish mule)... which, as an Irish-American upset me a great deal... the children and descendants of the "Irish Diaspora" have it drilled into their heads from a young age the injustices visited upon them upon their arrival in America... from the "no Irish need apply" to far worse. We often wonder what our lives would have been like has our ancestors not been forced to leave their beloved Ireland... Mr. Clarke can spout his intolerance from every tree-top... that does not mean that I recognize I am NOT Irish, but Irish-American -- and very proud of that fact. I define who I am, not some snobby elitist, such as Mr. Clarke (who, in all likelihood is an Irishman of English descent -- not a fact that makes him terribly popular in my opinion/book, since the bloody English oppressed the Irish from millenia, and then withheld aid when the Great Famines struck.

BorderFox it's not what the U.S./Canada/Australia or other nations have done for the Irish .It's what the Irish have contributed to these nations. I am an Australian resident and 25% of the population claim Irish ancestry.