Well, I survived another Saint Patrick's Day

[Doktor Howl]

Not that everybody drinks green Bud Light. It's just that once you've seen it, you can't UNsee it. 

It's hard to unsee the whole thing. Sunglasses with shamrock shaped rims (Who needs sunglasses in Ireland?), stupid green plastic bowler hats, "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts, that sort of thing.

Why would you dye your river green? There are no green rivers in Ireland. Truth be told there's not as much green as you'd be left to believe. It's more like the forty shades of grey.

What really gets me about this is that it seems that every Irish person in the world has bought a suit that they wear every day, that has "I'm Irish" stencilled all over it.  They have a pregenerated narrative that they are expected - demanded - to spout at every conceivable opportunity.

For example, your screen name. 

It's a trap that isn't unique to the Irish, but certainly demonstrated most prominently by them:  "I am Irish.  As such, I must do certain things, speak a certain way, and make sure everyone knows this."

"Kiss me, I just blew up a police station I'm Irish." 

I have never heard anyone say, "Defecate in my mouth, I'm German."

[Doktor Howl]

That said, I think we should institute your hypothetical St. Boots Day.

He drove the ocelots out of Cornwall.

This sounds better and better. What color should we overdo?

Brown.  For mud.

Good. Good beer is already brown. No dyeing necessary.

But Cornish people don't drink beer.  They drink distilled bile.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Not that everybody drinks green Bud Light. It's just that once you've seen it, you can't UNsee it. 

It's hard to unsee the whole thing. Sunglasses with shamrock shaped rims (Who needs sunglasses in Ireland?), stupid green plastic bowler hats, "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts, that sort of thing.

Why would you dye your river green? There are no green rivers in Ireland. Truth be told there's not as much green as you'd be left to believe. It's more like the forty shades of grey.

What really gets me about this is that it seems that every Irish person in the world has bought a suit that they wear every day, that has "I'm Irish" stencilled all over it.  They have a pregenerated narrative that they are expected - demanded - to spout at every conceivable opportunity.

For example, your screen name. 

It's a trap that isn't unique to the Irish, but certainly demonstrated most prominently by them:  "I am Irish.  As such, I must do certain things, speak a certain way, and make sure everyone knows this."

"Kiss me, I just blew up a police station I'm Irish."   

I have never heard anyone say, "Defecate in my mouth, I'm German."

Howl, didn't they find some pits in Cornwall where people were sacrificing animals continuously into the 1950's?

Have you hit the pagan boards with this? 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Texas Irish are a lot less into the culture than Boston Irish, though. It's basically an excuse to drink Bud Light with food coloring in it. 

We Bostonians who are less than 50 proof Irish do that, too. If I'm going to celebrate Irishness by drinking, the clear choice is stout and whiskey. I don't know what all this ridiculous overdoing the green stuff is. Bet it tastes like shit too.

Bud Light would gag a maggot no matter what you put in it.
Texas does a kind of token nod to Ireland on St.Paddy's...what they really beat into the ground is Germany

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Found the link:
http://www.archaeology.org/0811/etc/witches.html

The biggest shock of all came from the radiocarbon dates for these pits. The cat pit dated to the 18th century, while the dog pit dated to the 1950s. "And I doubt it just suddenly stopped in the 1950s," says Wood. "It is plausible that it could still be continuing now."

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Not that everybody drinks green Bud Light. It's just that once you've seen it, you can't UNsee it. 

It's hard to unsee the whole thing. Sunglasses with shamrock shaped rims (Who needs sunglasses in Ireland?), stupid green plastic bowler hats, "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts, that sort of thing.

Why would you dye your river green? There are no green rivers in Ireland. Truth be told there's not as much green as you'd be left to believe. It's more like the forty shades of grey.

What really gets me about this is that it seems that every Irish person in the world has bought a suit that they wear every day, that has "I'm Irish" stencilled all over it.  They have a pregenerated narrative that they are expected - demanded - to spout at every conceivable opportunity.

For example, your screen name. 

It's a trap that isn't unique to the Irish, but certainly demonstrated most prominently by them:  "I am Irish.  As such, I must do certain things, speak a certain way, and make sure everyone knows this."

"Kiss me, I just blew up a police station I'm Irish." 

I have never heard anyone say, "Defecate in my mouth, I'm German."

Fair point. As for embracing my father's homeland, I can't really give a neat answer as to why I do, or why being Irish is a strong part of my identity (Though Twiddleton was originally devised to be a fake Welsh name). Having a parent from Ireland obviously does it to a degree. Growing up in Boston does it to a degree. Shaking my head at what Bostonians of Irish descent do to express their heritage does it to a degree.

As far as the bilingualism in Ireland, part of that is trying to preserve and promote the language, and probably a healthy dose of being mad that they're using the conqueror's language. (It should be noted also that use of Irish was banned every so often by London and that rebels used it to communicate with each other.)

to the rest of it, and if my minister friend were not a minister, I would send him a shirt that says "Defecate in my mouth, I'm German." I may give LMNO such a shirt for Oktoberfest this year.

[LMNO]

Considering the people I associate with, that could be a very dangerous shirt to wear.

[Juana]

  Possibly.

There's also the Irish in the Great Lakes states. That's where my super WE'RE IRISH CATHOLIC DAMMIT family is from.

Want a serious answer? Because I have one.

Yes.

Ireland under the English was...Ireland under the English (clinging to their culture was as much of a political statement, iirc, as a desire not to change). Immigrants remembered that, and anyway, you don't leave your culture at the door when you immigrate to a new place.
America inherited English distaste for the Irish/Catholicism in general and while the No Irish Need Apply thing is definitely overblown, they were the first group of voluntary immigrants to be treated differently. We also had a tendency to think of new immigrants by nationality-religion (eg, Irish-Catholic, German-Lutheran, etc.) for much of our early history, which again, made retaining Irish culture as much a political statement as anything else. Combine that with not being considered white until about 1840 or so (with the transition from "not white" to "white" being completed in the wake of Reconstruction when the descendents of the Irish actively participating in a lot of terrorism against the Black community), being treated as such, and close ties with the people back in Ireland* and you get families who still remember the name of their ancestral landlords 100 to 200 years later.

Then there's the American (or at least white American?) obsession with genealogy. A lot of us don't really have roots in the area we live in because we tend to be fairly mobile as a people, so knowing where your ancestors come from means more than it might otherwise.

*sending money, weapons, and expertise to the Fenians, for example.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Considering the people I associate with, that could be a very dangerous shirt to wear.

Fair point. Maybe it will say, "Let me defecate in your mouth, I'm German"

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Disclaimer: The link I posted is not a jab at Dok or his family. I have Cornish in the family as well as Scots Irish, English, German, Swiss French, and Dutch plus who knows what else and really can't afford to throw stones. One of my ancestors was a psycho Puritan who rode off a cliff on the way to tell the other buckleheads that the Indians were righteously pissed off. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Possibly.

There's also the Irish in the Great Lakes states. That's where my super WE'RE IRISH CATHOLIC DAMMIT family is from.

Want a serious answer? Because I have one.

Yes.

Ireland under the English was...Ireland under the English (clinging to their culture was as much of a political statement, iirc, as a desire not to change). Immigrants remembered that, and anyway, you don't leave your culture at the door when you immigrate to a new place.
America inherited English distaste for the Irish/Catholicism in general and while the No Irish Need Apply thing is definitely overblown, they were the first group of voluntary immigrants to be treated differently. We also had a tendency to think of new immigrants by nationality-religion (eg, Irish-Catholic, German-Lutheran, etc.) for much of our early history, which again, made retaining Irish culture as much a political statement as anything else. Combine that with not being considered white until about 1840 or so (with the transition from "not white" to "white" being completed in the wake of Reconstruction when the descendents of the Irish actively participating in a lot of terrorism against the Black community), being treated as such, and close ties with the people back in Ireland* and you get families who still remember the name of their ancestral landlords 100 to 200 years later.

Then there's the American (or at least white American?) obsession with genealogy. A lot of us don't really have roots in the area we live in because we tend to be fairly mobile as a people, so knowing where your ancestors come from means more than it might otherwise.

*sending money, weapons, and expertise to the Fenians, for example.

The English tried pretty hard to erase Ireland's sense of identity. If you have an emerging empire, it does you no good to have the island next door considering itself culturally, linguistically and religiously distinct from you. Then you end up losing 13 colonies in a go, and hey, look, France is arming this island and telling the inhabitants who don't consider themselves to be the same as us that a republic is preferable to a monarchy. Oh, well, squashed that rebellion and oh hey! There's a well timed famine for ya. Maybe now's the time to tell them they can have food if they're English speaking Protestants. A bunch of them seem to be heading towards those colonies in droves anyway. Let's put some Scottish people in the northern part for being loyal.

It's a great way to keep a population under control. Keep em poor and keep em hungry if they're not playing ball. Not a great way to give up their identity or ease their bitterness towards history.

Interesting side note- the Irish would often form whole regiments in foreign armies, often against the British (The French Army, the Spanish Army, and the American Army) and sometimes against the United States (there's a reason why San Patricio's Day is celebrated in some parts of Mexico).

[Doktor Howl]

It's a great way to keep a population under control. Keep em poor and keep em hungry if they're not playing ball. Not a great way to give up their identity or ease their bitterness towards history.

Terrible, what all those dead Englishmen MADE you do.   

[Doktor Howl]

Then there's the American (or at least white American?) obsession with genealogy. A lot of us don't really have roots in the area we live in because we tend to be fairly mobile as a people, so knowing where your ancestors come from means more than it might otherwise.

I think this is a bunch of it.  It also explains White people that have convinced themselves that they have Indian blood.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Then there's the American (or at least white American?) obsession with genealogy. A lot of us don't really have roots in the area we live in because we tend to be fairly mobile as a people, so knowing where your ancestors come from means more than it might otherwise.

I think this is a bunch of it.  It also explains White people that have convinced themselves that they have Indian blood.

Or have 1/32nd Indian blood and grew up in suburbia but consider themselves qualified to run sweat lodges.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Kundalini sweat lodges.