More Irish than the Irish

The Irish have a saying: "more Irish than the Irish". They use it in jest (or perhaps sometimes, not so much) to poke fun at foreigners who come to their land, load up on Aran sweaters and tweed jackets and proceed to wear them around, soaking up all that is stereotypically Irish. You might say that my grandfather epitomized the saying, so long as you mean it in good will. No one was ever sure why, but it was a bit of a running joke that Grandpa always claimed to be Irish. The man was as Polish as a paczki, but ask him to his face, and he'd tell you he was an Irishman.

As a brief aside, he did, in fact, finally make it to Ireland in his last few years. Which is the bigger miracle of that trip--his exhausted and failing old knees supporting his climb to the top of Blarney Castle to kiss that stone, or my grandmother getting on an airplane--is open to debate.

While Grandpa made a game of his confused sense of nationalistic identity, I really can not recall one instance of him openly and consciously influencing my love for the place. It must have been there in the subconscious, if not the gene code, though, as some degree of Irish infatuation has been floated down to not only myself, but my father, and my uncle, who took it to a whole different level when he married a lovely woman from Cork several years ago.

So, then, am I, too, "more Irish than the Irish"? I suppose I might have a hard time justifying why I'm not, but I will say that there is a shade to all this. There's a tinge of awkward embarrassment each time someone asks me if I'm Irish. I'm very self-conscious about the perception that I may be infringing upon someone else's culture and traditions, and taking them as if they're my own.

The only way to counter that embarrassment is with respect and education. I always tread carefully in my interactions with the Irish-American community here in in Chicago, and figure to do so while I'm abroad as well. It's important to know my place and that while it may be okay to appreciate and submerse myself in Irish culture, I need to be careful not to cross any boundaries that some would find offensive. To aid in this, I always seek to learn as much as possible about the roots and history behind the modern culture, to help understand it and the people whose lives are its fabric.

By continuing to follow those two basic principles, I hope to enjoy an enriching and enlightening time furthering my understanding of a culture that I admire and respect, while maintaining a sense of self-awareness so as to avoid being seen as a typically naive, "More Irish than the Irish", ugly American.