You know you’re Irish in America when… give aways you were not born in the US

I have noticed that in Asia or Europe, a Yankee is an American, in America a Yankee is a northerner (states from Minnesota to Michigan and beyond, to a northerner a Yankee is someone from New England (those states just above New York), when I lived in New Hampshire a Yankee was considered a Vermonter, but when I crossed the Merrimack, they claimed a Yankee was only someone who ate pie for breakfast. Apparently it's a matter of perspective.

mreinhar2001....may I add my two cents! It has been well founded in American history and folklore that the term yank or yankee was thick with contempt. It was used by the British Army in Colonial America to describe American Soldiers. However, it origins may Dutch, as the Dutch name Janke was anglicized to yanke and was derisively used by the British to show their contempt for the Dutch settlers who were in New York when it was called New Amsterdam. The Irish like to use the term to describe native Irish who return to the old country and it is a euphemism for all manner of negative connotations. Later as you may know, the rebels in the south used the term to describe their northern enemies and the term was used well into the twentieth century by them to describe people from the north. For all I know, it may still be used in some of the unenlightened hillbilly regions south of the Mason Dixon line.

Stevenstar: I think you may have misuderstood the word "Yank." "Yank" is a slang term for an American, not one frm Ireland. Etymologists are uncertain of the origin of the word. I like author James Fenimore Cooper's claim that it derives from an Iroquois (American Indian) corruption of the word "English." Various supposed Indian words, such as "Yengees," are claimed to support this hypothesis. Washington Irving, another American author, in his "Knickerbocker's History of New York," facetiously claims it comes from a MaisTchuseg (Massachusett) word "Yanokies" meaning "silent men." Those are rather recent sources for the word, so I lean towards the idea that it is derived from the Dutch "Jan Kaas," literally "John Cheese," a nickname that parallels the British "John Bull." Do remember though, that only those in the Northeast part of the US really are part of that "Yankee" heritage. It is only outisde of the US and in wartime that all the other Americans are also referred to as "Yankee" or "Yank."

ciaradexy....ah the oinseach is at it again. Ireland's unofficial ambassador of ill will. I left plenty for you to ponder on the other blog, "foreigners wanting in on Ireland's property bust" but the usual is for you not to respond and to go into a state of denial and ignore whatever is said as you are sure it will go away. Don't be confused by the facts, they should never get in your way when your small ethnocentric ghoulish mind has something to spew out. Your comment about the, "granny rule" must be a major effrontery to your backwater village mentality, to think people who have never set a foot in Ireland and whose ancestors may have left their home place here in Ireland 75 or 100 years ago are granted the same rights of citizenship as you, who claim to be born in Ireland. How can you go to sleep, knowing that the Georgia cracker you speak of could be voting in your next election. On the other blog you stated you get your world view not from TV but from travel, I'll bet you have never traveled beyond walking distance of Ballymun.

Just ask for green tea

crisp sandwiches? YUK, never liked that one

You know when George is in Ireland when Burger king runs out of whopper meals, you hear that air lingus had to bump someone off a flight cos someone needed 2 seats, you can smell his fat sweaty body from the other side of the city and see the sweat on the back of his beige chinos, the peak of his baseball cap blocks out the sun, his fanny pack and ridiculously massive camera around his neck nearly knocks you out as youre walking along minding your own business, you hear some Africans have been racially abused and told to 'go home' by a foreigner with an 'aawweessoommee' Georgia accent who keeps boring the locals by telling them hes 'EYE-RISH' but not from 'EYRE-LAAND.'

You know you’re Irish in America when ... you're ashamed to be from the same place as ciaradexy.

Lee, I bring paper-double shopping bags with me to re-use for dog poop in the back yard. Also, would never think to have plastic bags. Always bring fiber shopping bags for the smaller stuff. Don't know of potato crisp sandwiches. On my trips to Beautiful Ireland, never saw chip sandwiches.

lee, its about the Irish, not Irish Americans. Steven, you use a sunbed? maybe you should go on Tallaghtfornia. They seem to love meatheads.

Um - as an Irish American, I can already cross off two mistakes on this list: 1)A growing number of Americans now take their own shopping bags to the store, and 2)I have lived in the US all my life, and have never eaten, seen, or even heard of a potato crisp sandwich.....

I 'cringe' when i read the AMERICANS IDEAS OF WHAT IRISH PEOPLE ARE..(1) FIRSTLY I HATE TAYO SANDWICHES AND I DONT KNOW ANYONE IN MY FAMILY WHO EATS THEM.... 2ND I HAVE AN ALL YEAR ROPND TAN AS I USE A SUNBED MOST OF THE TIME... WE IRISH NEVER CALL EACH OTHER YANKS PERSONALLY ID FIND THAT OFFENSIVE IM IRISH THEN EUROPEAN.. IM THE FURTHEST THING YOU WILL FIND FROM A 'YANK' AS POSSIBLE..DIVORCE IN IRELAND ? MY AUNTS DIVORCED 8 YEARS NOW...WHEN MAKING TEA I ALWAYS JUST USE A TEA BAG...My god who ever writes these articles for this paper you really really need to travel more and perhaps get to know some real Irish people over here IN Ireland

George, if you had any cop on then youd see i already posted that Im a tea drinker! Scarlet for you!

"Coffee has become very popular in Ireland and more often than not you see people walking around with their take away coffees". That's right. The Irish are real sophisticated. Look at the poster Ciaradexy for example. Real sophisticated.

An American person of Irish ancestry who once tried to sound Irish in Ireland, big mistake. Tea is one of Ireland's national beverages of course - "Would like a cup a?".