Trav always makes fun of me for this, but I consider myself Irish (Irish-American, I should say) above all other nationalities. In reality, I'm not really any more Irish than I am German or Danish or English. But I identify more with the Irish side of the family. Maybe it's because I've done lots of research on my Irish family history. Or because my first name is Irish. Or because my middle name is from my off-the-boat Irish great-grandmother. Or because they speak/spoke a really fantastic form of Gaelic (which I tried to teach myself in high school). Or maybe because I do Irish dance. Whenever I mention it, people ask me if I dance because I'm Irish. I don't really (there are far more non-Irish Irish dancers than Irish...but there is a ton of red-headed Irish dancers...); I do Irish dance because it's awesome. It's just convenient that I happen to be part Irish.
Whatever my personal motivation may be, there are dozens of reasons to be proud to be Irish. Here's a short list:
- to speak Irish Gaelic
- to speak Irish Engligh
- to be so feisty! How many other countries are renowned for having such fiery tempers?
- to be green! Sometimes when I see pictures of Ireland, I'm homesick for the land I've never been to
- to have great fiddle music
- to eat soda bread
- to have produced James Joyce
- to believe in leprechauns
- to have done a large chunk of the dirty work in American cities during the early 1900s
- to have a long, rich, fascinating history
- to dance with flying feet
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
3 comments:
Soda bread, fer rills? I could never be Irish like you ;)
are you saying you don't like soda bread, e? that's tragic!
Good list!
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