Yes, I'm Irish!
Or rather an "Irish" wannabe! I say this because of my family (more
about that in this blog) and when I was in college, I met more Irish-Americans than I have ever had in my life and was intrigued with their homegrown culture and perspective as US Americans of Irish descent.
My only exposure to all things Irish was more of a stern warning from my mother to "stay out of Southie," i.e. South Boston because me as a Chinese American would get promptly beat up or at least harassed. Although she didn't outright say it, she was concerned about the racism that was prevalent in Boston and was sincerely worried for the safety of me and my siblings.
For us the slums or "urban" areas or "inner city" was in fact Chinatown in the heart of Beantown. The gangs were the Chinese boys clubs, and hearing about shootings or thuggery in the streets was par for the course even for my family that lived in White suburbia. That's because our family was the only one that made out to the suburbs whereas most of our family friends were living in public housing, and we visited them often because, well, that's what family friends do.
Anyway back to being Irish...I met so many Irish-Americans in Lowell where I attended college that I actually bought a Claddagh ring for my birthday and celebrated Easter with my Catholic Irish friend and her family from Winchester rather than my own. Her family had such a wonderful wide embrace of me as a non-Catholic and non-Irish person that when my friend passed away at a much too early age in her 30s, I wrote a note to her dear parents telling them how much their kind hospitality meant to me.
And I do think it counts towards my "Irish-ness" that my brother-in-law is Irish-American and in my family that, yes, we have Colemans. All kidding aside, the point is that we (me, you) can't ever presume who is around us and who that person may be or has in their family especially with the prevalence of So, yes, I think I can say I'm de facto Irish and proud of it!
My only exposure to all things Irish was more of a stern warning from my mother to "stay out of Southie," i.e. South Boston because me as a Chinese American would get promptly beat up or at least harassed. Although she didn't outright say it, she was concerned about the racism that was prevalent in Boston and was sincerely worried for the safety of me and my siblings.
For us the slums or "urban" areas or "inner city" was in fact Chinatown in the heart of Beantown. The gangs were the Chinese boys clubs, and hearing about shootings or thuggery in the streets was par for the course even for my family that lived in White suburbia. That's because our family was the only one that made out to the suburbs whereas most of our family friends were living in public housing, and we visited them often because, well, that's what family friends do.
Anyway back to being Irish...I met so many Irish-Americans in Lowell where I attended college that I actually bought a Claddagh ring for my birthday and celebrated Easter with my Catholic Irish friend and her family from Winchester rather than my own. Her family had such a wonderful wide embrace of me as a non-Catholic and non-Irish person that when my friend passed away at a much too early age in her 30s, I wrote a note to her dear parents telling them how much their kind hospitality meant to me.
And I do think it counts towards my "Irish-ness" that my brother-in-law is Irish-American and in my family that, yes, we have Colemans. All kidding aside, the point is that we (me, you) can't ever presume who is around us and who that person may be or has in their family especially with the prevalence of So, yes, I think I can say I'm de facto Irish and proud of it!
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