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President Biden; impact on UK, Ireland, Brexit, trade etc..

Well Biden has been to Belfast, Dublin and Dundalk in less than 24 hours. He seems to have plenty energy and gave a couple of good speeches.
His latest was from the Windsor Bar in Dundalk where he met his Louth relatives and gave another speech about his ancestors leaving Ireland and the famine.

Have to say...I did like what he said about the Irish. "We are the only people who are nostalgic about the future".

Hopefully the dreadful weather will ease off and he gets to see the countryside in the sunshine.
 
Whatever else you might think about him, he cares about the country, and the peace process. Unlike the golfing guy.

But will the DUP take any notice of the speech in Belfast? Even with the international focus on Biden's visit, they always seem to double down when under pressure.
 
Always find the whole identifying as being Irish (or whatever) thing when your ancestors left a very long time ago (170 years or so in Biden's case) kind of weird. 🤷‍♀️
My Mum who was 1/8th Irish was inordinately proud of that fact and every time she saw my daughter's Galway born husband would mention it to him. She had dementia in her final years so she never remembered she had already told him and he always (bless him) acted like it was a total surprise to him.
 
Always find the whole identifying as being Irish (or whatever) thing when your ancestors left a very long time ago (170 years or so in Biden's case) kind of weird. 🤷‍♀️
I don't find it weird.
Maybe because 3 million Irish left because of starvation under British rule. Being Irish was something detested by those who controlled Ireland so it made Irish people more determined not to forget who they were ..
 
It is very weird. But his referrence to the All Blacks rugby team as the 'Black and Tans' was priceless to be fair...
He meant the All Blacks.

In fairness Black n Tans rolls easy from many Irish tongues. They're still detested.

At least he didnt start singjng come out ye black n tans 🤣
 
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Irish Americans are quite proud of their ancestry, even if some of them are very out of touch.
Sure , but using 'we' in this context to mean 'we Irish' is plain weird.

My Mum who was 1/8th Irish
Did she call herself Irish though? I mean my gran was Italian and I might say 'my gran was Italian' but it'd be utterly weird (IMO anyway) to start calling myself Italian. Because I'm not. :confused:
 
Sure , but using 'we' in this context to mean 'we Irish' is plain weird.


Did she call herself Irish though? I mean my gran was Italian and I might say 'my gran was Italian' but it'd be utterly weird (IMO anyway) to start calling myself Italian. Because I'm not. :confused


It's not at all weird when you come from a group that has been oppressed..ostracised...deliberately starved .
 
Sure , but using 'we' in this context to mean 'we Irish' is plain weird.


Did she call herself Irish though? I mean my gran was Italian and I might say 'my gran was Italian' but it'd be utterly weird (IMO anyway) to start calling myself Italian. Because I'm not. :confused
Have you any ancestry that was part of land grabbed colonial Britain.
 
Yes, Irish grandparents. And again (and despite having a very Irish surname), I'd never call myself Irish. Because I'm not.

Plenty others do. If someone has Irish grandparents they can apply for an Irish passport still...
So there is recognition even in terms of citizenship.

I've shitloads of Irish relatives in the US , UK and New Zealand. All of them trace ancestry back to times of starvation (what some refer to as the famines ) they maintained links to Ireland and even though they know they are descendants of Irish who left Ireland and they were not born here, they still consider themselves to be Irish in many ways. They are involved in Irish community groups and social groups.

There are others who left because of the civl war...unemployment..etc..who still consider themselves to be Irish.
 
Sure , but using 'we' in this context to mean 'we Irish' is plain weird.


Did she call herself Irish though? I mean my gran was Italian and I might say 'my gran was Italian' but it'd be utterly weird (IMO anyway) to start calling myself Italian. Because I'm not. :confused:
Very much so there was the same amount of Welsh in her (my grandad was quarter Welsh and my grandmother was quarter Irish) but she never referred to herself as Welsh whilst she regularly refered to herself as Irish.
I think a lot of it was probably due to much of her childhood being spent with her half-Irish grandmother who was also very proud of it.
I'm very much a mongrel with 1/16th Irish, 1/16th Welsh and 1/16th French (from my Dad's side of the family) but like you I don't consider myself any of those and just refer to myself as British or Anglo-Saxon if called on to clarify it further.
 
Plenty others do. If someone has Irish grandparents they can apply for an Irish passport still...
So there is recognition even in terms of citizenship.

I've shitloads of Irish relatives in the US , UK and New Zealand. All of them trace ancestry back to times of starvation (what some refer to as the famines ) they maintained links to Ireland and even though they know they are descendants of Irish who left Ireland and they were not born here, they still consider themselves to be Irish in many ways. They are involved in Irish community groups and social groups.

There are others who left because of the civl war...unemployment..etc..who still consider themselves to be Irish.
When we visited Dublin we were told that there were 7 million people in Ireland (5 south and 2 north) but 85 million worldwide (especially the US) who identified themselves as Irish.
 
Yes, Irish grandparents. And again (and despite having a very Irish surname), I'd never call myself Irish. Because I'm not.

Would you have had any impressions of Irish culture or language when you were growing up in England? Or maybe trips to Ireland to meet family?
 
Yes, Irish grandparents. And again (and despite having a very Irish surname), I'd never call myself Irish. Because I'm not.

My Mom was born in Ireland and certainly exprienced hostility when her family moved to Birmingham in the 1950's and in the 1970's in particular. But, I don't refer to myself or see myself as Irish.

The idea that someone who had some family from Ireland who moved to America 170 years ago referring to themselves as Irish seems really weird to me. Identity, as we all know by now, is a very individual matter though.
 
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