From: morna@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Morna J Findlay)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Secondary Identities (Was Re: USA go home (Was Re: Shooting))
Date: 16 Apr 92 12:03:52 GMT
Reply-To: morna@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Morna J Findlay)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U

In article <15311@optima.cs.arizona.edu> gln@cs.arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell) writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.202532.6159@pony.Ingres.COM>, gmcquary@Ingres.COM (George F. McQuary) writes:
>> resent the attitude that Irish-americians should keep quiet about Irish politics.
>
>Bravo - as do I. It seems that we should be expected to give up our
>heritage and in effect bend over for those who see fit to portray us as
>a group of madmen wanting nothing more than blood on the streets and
>death counts on TV. We, who are the descendants of those who were forced
>from their land or jailed for their views should simply ignore the
>continued injustice and allow things to "progress" as they currently are.
>After all, we do not live in Ireland and thus, it seems, have given up all
>rights to expressing our views with respect to the futre direction of the
>land that our mothers/fathers/grandparents called home. This is a common
>European attitude it seems to me, one which I've heard expressed by 
>most countries of Western Europe 


I remember being very surprised ( and amused ) when I moved to Edinburgh
and started work in a kilt shop, to meet many Americans who would
introduces themselves as "Pearl, a Scot from Texas" etc. I found this 
incomprehensible. Then I noticed on one of my favorite US telly programs
(Cagney and Lacey) references to "Irish cops", "Irish wakes" etc, so
I realised this phenomenon wasn't just restricted to "Scots".

I also like the "Golden Girls", and , let me see, there's one "Sicilian"
( who was born there) and a Swede of some sort??

What interests me is how a 4th or 5th generation American chooses to
identify their preferred "nationality".

If your surname is "Findlay", for example, then you are obviously
of Scots descent. But perhaps in only one of many other lines
of descent. Maybe your great-grandpa was a Scot. Your other 3 great
grandpas may have been - a Swede, an Italian, a Mexican. Your four
great-grannies may have been - a Frenchwoman, a German, a black
slave and a Cherokee.

But for various reasons you see yourself as a Scot.

Does it depend - I only conjecture - on a dominant parent and how
he or she sees themself? Is it your peers? Are there some nationalities
that it is more popular to be associated with than others? If you could
choose between an equally split German and Irish background, is one
"hipper" than the other?

I'm interested because I've always been of a Nationalist bent, which my
parents always deny nurturing in me. I remember being outraged at the
suggestion that the Battle of Culloden wasn't a straight and simple
fight between the Scots and the English, at the age of eight....

M

--
Morna Findlay 					JANET:morna@uk.ac.ed.dcs 
	Thanksgiving For a National Victory (Robert Burns)
Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks? To murder men and give God thanks?
Desist, for shame! Proceed no further: God won't accept your thanks for murther.