How Irish are you ?

[Big Dick Whittington]

Had an Intresting conversation the other night with a few friends that got quite heated . It started with St George and why it' not a holiday and it evolved into why American Irish are so Pro Irish and why 2nd generation Irish in England tend not to be even with Irish relatives and gran parents .

Personally I think it's the struggle for identity for Americans you always seem to identify yourself with a certain ethnic group , obvious reasons in the Irish case being the great settlements after the famines .

There were 7 of us the other night and when the subject came up the least enthusiastic to contribute was an Irish Girl named Eve . she was fromNorthern Ireland grew up in the troubles and I ( for once ) was trying to steer the conversation in the right direction .
I suddenly realised 3 of my mate's arguing has Irish sirnames! 1 was wearing an England football shirt and english Rose tattoo ,1 had never given it any thought and Gregan was shouting about how the Irish are the best pissheads in the world .
They've all got Irish Granparents Gregs is fully Irish on all sides yet was born here and is the most xenophobis wanker ever


I suddenly wondered to myself how different the conversation I was having would hae been if I was in New york .
All 3 of the guys have always been as english as Fish and chips,red sunburn and beer gardens.

On the walk home Eve who barely said anything all night and had not been herself at all said that there's only one thing in the world that's true 'united we stand divided we fall'
It bugged me for ages she'd come over at 14 and has the most beautiful Northern Irish accent she's never ever talked about Belfast ( I'd briefly mentioned something about the atmosphere at the Linsay Appleby fight) yet her reluctance spoke volumes.

She's a good Catholic girl which to me means she doesnt go to church ( that's a joke we share ) her mother took her here and my Mother came from Glasgow when she was 21 and my Mum's Protesant ( she doesnt go ) yet they are the best of friends . My mum has told me all kinda fucked up shit about living next door to a Catholic chapel and having bricks tossed at her by grown men .
She doesnt look through Jock tinted glasses nor does Eve . they both seem so fucking weary of Nationlistic bullshit .

It seem's to me the most stupid thing in the world to fly any kinda flag sometimes, I still do though if the football is on or the cricket .
In the end though it seems so stupid

[Gandalf]

I don't think I am very Irish.

[VictorCharlie]

Not Irish at all but I do know some people who WAY overstate their Irish heritage. Definitely on my short list of places I'd like to travel.

[Scrap]

Dont get me started

[donnydarkoIRL]

I'm as Irish as is possible.



Dick - Belfast is a beautiful city, I love it myself, but when you meet people who come from there a little needling will often reveal a LOT of scar tissue.

I won't ention names, but there was a world championship kickboxing tournament in my town recently (in the lovely west btw.)
I have a close friend from Belfast who blatantly refused to attend.
I was curious as to why and it turns out one of the fighters on the bill was an ex "Catholic Killer."
Belfast is an large city in context, but when its divided into factions, as it still is, confrontation and discrimination is pretty rife. I'm not surprised a Catholic lady wouldn't want to speak about it

[Big Dick Whittington]

Yeah I get ya!

she is a cracker truly unique for all her charm which is undeniably Irish she never speaks about it though.

If there's one thing that's true about Jocks,Welsh and Irish people in general it's that they don't take themselves too seriously !
I watched that ' 50 dead men walking ' and it was summed up perfectly ' you're not short of an opinon'

I'm of an English senseability , think english people are not as open about their feelings or as easy to get along with they are more reserved, Glaswegians in particular are very loud and opinionaited ,down here that can run people up the wrong way completely by accident!

She's the only person I know from Ulster she can be loud and a difficult bitch and she has a certain fieryness about her except when it come's to that one subject .
Just weary I suppose