I can only speak for myself, but when I grew up we didn’t have much here (1980s). When people who were obviously extremely disconnected from our culture showed up claiming to be Irish it felt a bit condescending and like it was a cheap view of our culture that it could be adopted while on a flight over the Atlantic. It seemed quite an alien way of seeing one’s self as well as interacting with people. I thought it cheapened us a bit by implying it just took so little to identify as Irish.
But I know that for others they appreciated the support that came with that and saw it as a positive. I’ve also learned that American’s often say “I’m Italian/Irish”/etc as short-hand for something else and that it’s not always meant to be taken so literally. I’ve never liked it myself, though.
It could equally be argued that someone like myself growing up barely speaking our national language is cut off from our culture. I call myself Irish by default because I was born, but it doesn’t mean I have much connection to my culture either. Some of our best poets write in the Irish language and eventually die with minimal fanfare in the media. Bono dry-humps a mic stand and it’s all over social media. It’s complicated and I don’t know the answer to your question.
I can only speak for myself, but when I grew up we didn’t have much here (1980s). When people who were obviously extremely disconnected from our culture showed up claiming to be Irish it felt a bit condescending and like it was a cheap view of our culture that it could be adopted while on a flight over the Atlantic. It seemed quite an alien way of seeing one’s self as well as interacting with people. I thought it cheapened us a bit by implying it just took so little to identify as Irish.
But I know that for others they appreciated the support that came with that and saw it as a positive. I’ve also learned that American’s often say “I’m Italian/Irish”/etc as short-hand for something else and that it’s not always meant to be taken so literally. I’ve never liked it myself, though.
It could equally be argued that someone like myself growing up barely speaking our national language is cut off from our culture. I call myself Irish by default because I was born, but it doesn’t mean I have much connection to my culture either. Some of our best poets write in the Irish language and eventually die with minimal fanfare in the media. Bono dry-humps a mic stand and it’s all over social media. It’s complicated and I don’t know the answer to your question.