Today, as some of you will have noticed, is St. Patrick’s Day. Around the world, Irish communities are celebrating, and in many places, being celebrated. The world’s most powerful Irishman, by his own description, is to host Leo Varadkar at the White House. To mark the occasion, our beloved and wise President said something yesterday that I thought interesting, and, well, wrong:
Higgins said that whether someone is "Irish by birth or Irish by choice", they are bound together as part of a vibrant global community.https://t.co/FqMFzyiQUW
How can you be “Irish by choice”? I asked that question on twitter yesterday and got various responses, but the most popular seemed to be along the lines of “if you have Irish citizenship you are Irish”, which is legally perfectly correct.
And yet, if the definition of Irishness is purely legal, then the claims of most of the Irish diaspora overseas to be Irish are flat out fraud. Joe Biden is not an Irish citizen, but often describes himself as an Irishman. Indeed, there are millions of Americans who claim Irishness based on heritage, and who will be marching in St. Patrick’s Day Parades today, often under the watchful eye of some Irish cabinet minister who has been despatched overseas for the occasion.
All of this suggests that Irishness is not merely a legal designation.
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