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rfmcdonaldThinking more about my St. Patrick's Day posts, I've been thinking about the generic "Irish" identity that day encourages as a matter of fact and finding myself unhappy with that kind of category. In one light, it's useless: being "Irish" by the dint of a certain amount of genealogy and imagined positions and plenty of booze has little to do with, well, being "Irish" in Ireland or even in the actual diaspora. In another kind of light, it's dangerous: reducing an identity, any identity, to essentially arbitrary qualities is a great way to draw lines excluding people.
I could actually make more of a claim to being Scottish Canadian, you know. I've Scottish ancestors on my Dad's Catholic side and my Mom's Protestant side--oh, half my ancestry--and you might make a case for a greater amount of cultural influence, in my childhood in the post-Presbyterian United Church of Canada and nearly Deist, for instance. You could, but you shouldn't since--well,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
autopope, feorag, could I have passed in Edinburgh or Glasgow as a native?
So, that's me. You? What nigh-meaningless diaspora identities could you claim?
I could actually make more of a claim to being Scottish Canadian, you know. I've Scottish ancestors on my Dad's Catholic side and my Mom's Protestant side--oh, half my ancestry--and you might make a case for a greater amount of cultural influence, in my childhood in the post-Presbyterian United Church of Canada and nearly Deist, for instance. You could, but you shouldn't since--well,
autopope, feorag, could I have passed in Edinburgh or Glasgow as a native?So, that's me. You? What nigh-meaningless diaspora identities could you claim?
