Do you have to have been born in Ireland to be Irish?

Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 11:15 AM

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Well there's a question that bedeviled me during my youth.

I never felt as if I could join in the more "Irish" events at school, oh, you know, the singing and the dancing, because, as I would hear repeatedly through secondary school; "You're not really Irish."

Being Irish, in Drogheda in the early 1980s meant being born there.

It didn't matter that my mother was born and raised in Drogheda before leaving to train as a nurse in Ireland.

It didn't matter that everyone on my mother's side of the family is "Irish, Irish."

It also didn't matter that my dad's mother left Ireland even earlier in search of work in England.

The only thing that mattered was that I had been born in England and had a funny accent.

Martin McDonagh's plays are pure mad but he has a point in his row with fellow playwright Conor McPherson

Do you have to have been born in Ireland to be Irish?

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YoungPike | May 09, 2010, 03:12 PM EDT

Yes I think you do. Having Irish parents doesn't make me Irish! Being raised a Roman Catholic doesn't make me Irish! Being born, raised and educated in England makes me English! John Lydon and Morrissey spring to mind. Despite having Irish parents, they are about as English you can get.

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Ajreaper | Mar 13, 2010, 12:32 AM EST

Must you be born in America to be an American? If you are born on U.S. soil to foreign parents are you really an "American"? Does it matter one way or the other? LOL, I'm sure it matters to someone but not to me in either case.

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Spiritranger | Mar 10, 2010, 04:13 PM EST

...the rest just arrived there somehow with Irish names and roots... must have been an Ellis Island typo... "Ireland or Iceland, you protestant, conservative Reagan-Repulican scum?" Truly, an Irishman should be born in Eire, the rest are sons of Ireland at best. My opinion only...

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Spiritranger | Mar 10, 2010, 04:03 PM EST

I am not sure but according to much of what I read in IrishCentral you must be liberal, Democratic, pro-Kennedy and Roman Catholic to be counted as an Irish-American. And you must express your ethnicity by wearing green and getting drunk on St. Patrick's day.

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