Am I Irish?

I hate when people equate Catholic with Irishness. Not the same thing at all at all. It shouldnt even be mentioned in the debate IMO.

1. I speak English - it doesn't make me English

2. Being Catholic doesn't make you Irish, could make you Italian tho!!!

3. Your father is Irish so you can apply for citizenship, I don't know about whether or not your marriage qualifies....

4. Sorry but it has to be said.....

steveod wrote: »

all the chaps at my (catholic) school

........ CHAPS? ......... Definitely British!

Frowzy wrote: »

1. I speak English - it doesn't make me English

2. Being Catholic doesn't make you Irish, could make you Italian tho!!!

3. Your father is Irish so you can apply for citizenship, I don't know about whether or not your marriage qualifies....

4. Sorry but it has to be said.....



........ CHAPS? ......... Definitely British!

He would have Irish citizenship because he married Irish woman from cork.

steveod wrote: »

No: I have Irish citizenship because the state recognises me as an Irish citizen and regardless of my marital state. I am of Irish decent.

It depends on how long your married. They changed the law some time ago about marital nationality. I looked into it when I got married! However it did apply a good while ago, but having said that, your are entitled to Irish citizenship because your father is Irish!

If two people are Irish and they move to England to work, she becomes pregnant, has the child there and moves back four years later does that make the child English? Nope

It's more to do with how you identify yourself rather than what other people think you are OP, even if that is complex.

I am obviously the kid from the scenario above I have never thought of myself as being of Irish decent I am Irish with a connection to England.
I am much more Irish than English, but you grew up there but you don't feel connected to the place so than that doesn't matter.

Having something written on a document doesn't mean anything I have friends who were born abroad and don't remember anything about that country, never been there since have no ties to it so it would be ridiculous to call them whatever ish or ese. Their parent(s) was just working there at the time.

Tis a quandry alright...

I was born in the UK to an Irish Father and an English Mother, who happened to be half German.
So have you any affinity with Germany then? And if your Mum was raised in England, as were you, surely that culture is a big part of your identity?

I grew up a Catholic and went to catholic school and all of my friends, without exception, are of Irish decent, many of whom refer to Ireland as "home" in spite on never living there.
As mentioned by earlier posters, Catholic = Irish isn't really a valid argument, but if that school was an irish catholic school then that is a slightly different argument.

I never read Peig at school but I now speak the Irish language better than most Irish people.
Again, a lot of Irish people don't really identify themselves with the language, more's the pity. There are many non natives that can speak gaeilge better than most of us.

I have an Irish passport, but I do not know the words to the National Anthem (yet).
You only need to know the last 2 lines - and be able to bellow them at a GAA match!

Am I Irish? Or to put it another way...an Eirinneach me?
Home is where the hearth is (yes hearth, not heart!). Where do you feel most comfortable? Where do you think of when you say HOME? That's where you're from. :rolleyes: The rest is just your history.

Really down to the influence of the parents, how attached they are to their own nationality and desire to/not get their children to connect or engage with their culture or background. Also, some pride in certain nationalities seems to be stronger in certain individuals or expats. Is it more acceptable to be of German descent or Irish for example in the UK?

For some children of expats, it may be more preferable to adopt the more accessible and more dominant nationality of one of the parents.

Based on the 2 viewpoints, according to offficial documents from the country of birth, you belong to that nationality while on the other hand your upbringing could be tied towards one or both of the home country. Hence, the extreme of Irish or Italian Americans for example towards their parents heritage and homeland.

Do you want to be Irish? Is it a sense of belonging you're looking for or would you just like to get people's opinion whether you're Irish or not based on paperwork?

I totally get what you mean about not feeling English or Irish. I don't feel my nationality represent my persona and who I am. My country is known for drawn back people, who are hesitant to talk to strangers and make new friends. I'm not like that.

I believe you are what you feel.

So perhaps there's a third option for you, perhaps you'd feel Spanish if you got to hang out with some Spanish people? Perhaps you'd feel that sense of beloning then
I'm not saying it to be cheeky or anything, I'm saying it because that's what happened to me. I got to know some wonderful Irish people and I began to understand that the Irishness was what I had been missing for so many years. It may sound stupid, but those days when I feel Irish - I am Irish

Papers are only papers. They don't decide what you are and how you feel

Absolutely wrecks my head when people claim there Irish yet they've hardly any link to us. There relationship is normally that there grand-uncles wife's brothers aunts dog was from Ireland...or something along those lines!!
Well your not Irish no matter how many times you've visited! :rolleyes:

Really interesting thread. I have to agree with other posters that equating Catholicism with Irishness is way off the mark. It is perfectly possible to be100% Irish and Protestant and indeed Unionist. The only reason that the Catholic = Irish equation gained any traction is partition.

My father was brought up as an Irish person in England. In Manchester, where he grew up, it is normal to be ethnically Irish. The only people who seem to have any issues with accepting that people like the OP are Irish (if they choose to self-identify as such) are people living in Ireland. In my experience Irish people often associate nationality with accent. If you have an English accent it is hard for people to get over the idea that you are not English.

The irony of course is that Irish people abandoned their own language en masse in the nineteenth century and effectively chose to become more culturally British as a result. An Irish person can live a life that looks like a clone of his British counterpart's. There are some specifically Irish elements of life like the GAA or Orange parades but a look at the Irish Independent website on any give day will show you that what happens across the water is very important to Irish people.

My own children are half-Polish and half-Irish growing up in Holland. My experience is that it is very difficult to impart any Irish culture to your children outside of Ireland. Things like the GAA and the Irish language have no real support network abroad. Of course you can pass on the English language, which I do. I read them books written in English by American, British, Australian, Irish people etc. English language TV is largely produced in the UK or the US. Where my children interact with English it is not in a specifically Irish context but a global English one.

On the other hand my wife's Polish culture is much easier to transfer with the advantage of having a proprietary language. Polish television has countless autonomous output. Poland has its own music industry, literature, fashion, food, traditions. It is almost almost impossible for a half-Polish kid to be at least partly Polish but a kid with two Irish parents growing up abroad can lose every tie to Ireland very easily. In my own family some of those who grew up in England maintained Irishness but others only identify themselves as being British.

My children would regard themselves as Dutch first and Polish second. Being Irish is a very vague idea for them now. They know I speak English but that I am not English but what does being Irish actually mean? It is a lost easier to understand what being Polish means when you are seven years of age.

steveod wrote: »

This might be a clincher, which I forgot to mention:

When England play Ireland at Rugby, I shout for the green team.

Given the current state of English rugby, that just proves you are sane