Why Is Ireland The Only Country Obsessed With Ancestry??

mikemac · 21-05-2011 10:30PM

Bit of a landgrab going on:eek:

Moneygall is in Offaly but it's widely said the GAA pitch and some parts are in Tipperary.

So the Nenagh Guardian is welcoming Obama to Tipperary. Not a mention of Offaly. Cheeky

fryup · 21-05-2011 10:33PM

feelingstressed wrote: »

Obama doesn't give a damn about Moneygall or Ireland

i feel sorry for the bastard having to visit that hole of a place

xflyer · 21-05-2011 10:36PM

Without reading any of the previous posts, I agree with darragh16, we're not. The Americans are worse than us. But there's nothing wrong with it. It's interesting to know where you came from. I found out that I'm related to a landlord, a figure of hate for me at one stage. But at the same time I was related to someone who helped smuggled in guns for the rising. Actually sat in the boat bringing in the guns.

Odd thing though, same family.

Complicated isn't it? History and all.

ascanbe · 21-05-2011 10:53PM

Cybercubed wrote: »

The irony is is that his ancestor was actually a protestant meaning he's not actually ethnically irish at all technically, but yeah whatever. :pac:

Wouldn't normally post this old chestnut, but..

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/chucklesmcnoodle/picard_facepalm.jpg

Mike 1972 · 21-05-2011 10:54PM

Given the whole ancestor tracing malarkey is based on the highly dubious assumption that all your forebearers have been faithful to their spouses its all a pile of shyte really.

xflyer wrote: »

I found out that I'm related to a landlord, a figure of hate for me at one stage. But at the same time I was related to someone who helped smuggled in guns for the rising. Actually sat in the boat bringing in the guns.

Odd thing though, same family. .

Same Person ?

ShooterSF · 21-05-2011 10:57PM

I have worked in numerous pubs and every time the locals have to pin you to someone or you're an outsider. Many Irish are clannish, can't say if we are higher than other nations though...

mike65 · 21-05-2011 10:57PM

I suspect the OP is merely reacting to the fact the British are not interested in sort of thing, they like it when a Yank ups sticks and moves to London esp if its for good (cue tabloid gushing about Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and er David Soul etc) but no-one ever got quizzed on Parky or Ross about their ancestors in Macclesfield and how proud the guest is supposed to be to be 1/32, or 1/64 English/Welsh/Scottish

losthorizon · 21-05-2011 11:00PM

starbelgrade wrote: »

Some people have an interest in ancestry, others don't.

It's all relative.

Wrong word to use

ascanbe · 21-05-2011 11:13PM

mike65 wrote: »

I suspect the OP is merely reacting to the fact the British are not interested in sort of thing, they like it when a Yank ups sticks and moves to London esp if its for good (cue tabloid gushing about Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and er David Soul etc) but no-one ever got quizzed on Parky or Ross about their ancestors in Macclesfield and how proud the guest is supposed to be to be 1/32, or 1/64 English/Welsh/Scottish

Didn't the BBC just have a progamme on called 'Who do you think your are?' based around this very topic, though? I think there's a growing level of interest in this stuff in many countries.
Agree, though, that there is far more stock put on on searching for an Irish angle/connection when someone of note visits here, than there would be in Britain; probably just symptomatic of the fact that we're a small country that still harbours an inferiority complex.

mike65 · 21-05-2011 11:15PM

ascanbe wrote: »

Didn't the BBC just have a progamme on called 'Who do you think your are?' based around this very topic? I think there's a growing level of interest in this stuff in many countries.

Well thats on a different level - personal stories, not political/showbiz schmoozing to win approval.

Son Of A Vidic · 21-05-2011 11:21PM

Cybercubed wrote: »

The irony is is that his ancestor was actually a protestant meaning he's not actually ethnically irish at all technically, but yeah whatever. :pac:

You're having a laugh surely? So people of the Protestant faith can't be Irish? You need to look up your history, because you'll be amazed when you find out about the Protestant influence on early Irish Republicanism/Nationalism.

Jeboa Safari · 21-05-2011 11:27PM

Presumably because so many people have been forced to leave the country

ascanbe · 21-05-2011 11:30PM

mike65 wrote: »

Well thats on a different level - personal stories, not political/showbiz schmoozing to win approval.

Agreed; just saying that there is a growing interest in the search for ancestry in other countries.
In terms of the schmoozing to win approval/looking to foreign visitors for validation, though, i have noticed that it is also on the rise in Britain, now that the penny has finally dropped regarding the end of empire and their diminished power in the world; still have a long way to go to catch up with us, though.

Johro · 21-05-2011 11:35PM

Yeah but if ya go back far enough each and everybody's ancestors were African.

philstar · 21-05-2011 11:36PM

i think the queen this week was the first time we weren't obsessed about where this person came from and we just accepted her for who she is..the queen of england, which was a refreshing change

LordSutch · 21-05-2011 11:37PM

http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html

The ethnic/national ancestry of Mr. Obama, as far as is currently known, can be shown as follows:

50.0 % Luo (Kenya).
35.0 % English.
04.6 % Scottish.
03.9 % Irish.
03.7 % German.
01.5 % Welsh.
00.97 % Swiss.
00.09% French.

100.0 %

paddypowder · 21-05-2011 11:40PM

Cybercubed wrote: »

The irony is is that his ancestor was actually a protestant meaning he's not actually ethnically irish at all technically, but yeah whatever. :pac:

bs... not all ethnic irish are catholic

and not all republicans/nationalists are catholic either

The Princess Bride · 21-05-2011 11:44PM

ShooterSF wrote: »

I have worked in numerous pubs and every time the locals have to pin you to someone or you're an outsider. Many Irish are clannish, can't say if we are higher than other nations though...

Annoying,yes.
Ireland is such a small country, though, and you'd want to ask around or you could find yourself dating your second cousin(d) once removed.
It's only as I get older, I find out I'm (distantly)related to people I wouldn't have even known about.
Scary actually.

later12 · 21-05-2011 11:57PM

4 pages of this and nobody has mentioned Burke's Peerage or Burke's Landed Gentry... mainly focused on the UK, with only small and ambiguous coverage of Ireland. The UK has traditionally been a state positively obsessed with ancestry, heredity and pedigree! We don't have a patch on their documentation of their peoples' ancestry.

I wouldn't even say Ireland is obsessed with ancestry. There is an interest in tracing relatives that is particularly prevalent in rural areas, but this rarely extends back beyond living memory, or perhaps over only three generations, and tends to be much more concerned with current progeny than deceased forbears.

Out of British friends my age and Irish friends my age, I would say my British friends are much more aware, and indeed proud of, their respective family backgrounds. Many Irish people my age wouldn't be able to tell you their great grandmothers' maiden names, nor be aware of what their families were doing, say, one or two hundred years ago. This is so for lots of socio-economic reasons, I guess, but it certainly has been my experience.

For Forks Sake · 21-05-2011 11:59PM

msthe80s wrote: »

you could find yourself dating your second cousin(d) once removed.

In certain counties, this is actively encouraged. Tipperary for example.

Xivilai · 22-05-2011 12:13AM

Theres not much Irish in Obama, such a load of silly bull****

Irish people can't be protestants? :eek:

I haven't a bloody clue about my family's story.. I doubt i'd ever be arsed to do a family tree either.

KINGVictor · 22-05-2011 12:44AM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

The "only" country?!

You should check out a place out there called "Israel", you may not have heard about it, but over there, blood is shed on a daily basis over ancestry claims dating back thousands of years.

But the difference is that people go the extra length to prove they are Jews or have Jewish ancestry for some reason.

It's funny however that most popular or successful people in the US irrespective of race or creed automatically becomes Irish .... Obama is supposedly Irish because his great- great- etc etc etc was born in some place in Moneygall.

Intrestingly, when he was in the race for the democratic nomination, majority of people would have prefered Hillary.

Duckworth_Luas · 22-05-2011 12:45AM

LordSutch wrote: »

http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html

The ethnic/national ancestry of Mr. Obama, as far as is currently known, can be shown as follows:

50.0 % Luo (Kenya).
35.0 % English.
04.6 % Scottish.
03.9 % Irish.
03.7 % German.
01.5 % Welsh.
00.97 % Swiss.
00.09% French.
100.0 %

What's your point?

K-9 · 22-05-2011 01:02AM

The Ulster Scots and Presbyterian history in America is fascinating. Extremely influential and adapted very quickly.

Irish Americans were late developers in that respect, though none the less fascinating too.

2 stroke · 22-05-2011 01:12AM

Tracing ancestry in england is much easier than over here. The main issue in Ireland is lack of proper records. Where records were kept by our overlords, the main interest of these records, was for rent and tax collection. Better records would possibly have allowed the dispossesed reclaim siezed property.

later12 · 22-05-2011 01:23AM

2 stroke wrote: »

Tracing ancestry in england is much easier than over here. The main issue in Ireland is lack of proper records. Where records were kept by our overlords, the main interest of these records, was for rent and tax collection. Better records would possibly have allowed the dispossesed reclaim siezed property.

This is actually nonsense.

Ireland did have pretty extensive records, the 1821 census of Ireland was the first of its kind in the English speaking world for its level of detail. The British collected censuses of Ireland every ten years, which would have been fascinating today, had they survived. Although two historical censuses were destroyed by the British authorities during WW1 (for war materials) the actual reason why very few government census records survive is because of Irishmen - particularly those who attacked the repository of these censuses at The Custom House in 1922.

So if you cannot trace your ancestry back beyond 1901, the reason is not the British Government, but Irish republicans attacks on the Dublin authorities.

2 stroke · 22-05-2011 01:30AM

Were the records not torched, rather than let them fall into the hands of the Irish?

later12 · 22-05-2011 01:47AM

2 stroke wrote: »

Were the records not torched, rather than let them fall into the hands of the Irish?

Eh, no, they were burned during an attack of the Civil war, when Ireland was ruling Ireland. There is no truth in what you are suggesting here.

LordSutch · 22-05-2011 09:53AM

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

What's your point?

No point, just the facts about his ancestry (Post#47).

Sonnenblumen · 22-05-2011 10:01AM

Gnobe wrote: »

So Barack Obama comes to Ireland on monday and his heading to Moneygall, Co.Offally to visit the home of his great-great-great-great irish grandfather making him 1/64th Irish! :pac:

Quick question, do you think this goes on in most other countries in Europe? Apparantly his mother is mostly of English ancestry, with some Scottish, Welsh, French, German and Swiss.

He's going on to the UK the day after, I don't see him going on trips to Wiltshere or anywhere looking for his ancestors? So why only here? Is this the only country this goes on? Why is Ireland so obsessed with presidents ancestries?

People always criticise Americans for romanticizing their ancestries, but it's times likes this where I think we're really just as bad.

More to do with Irish scam to earn a greasy dollar. At the rate we're going, Ireland has a good claim to become the 53rd State?:(

Why Is Ireland The Only Country Obsessed With Ancestry??

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