I find being Irish quite a wearing thing. It takes so much work because it is a social construction. People think you are going to be this, this, and this.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
I don't really go around feeling very Irish at all. I don't go to Irish pubs. I've lived so many places, and I'm still so curious about the bigger world. It's grand to be alive in a time when mobility is so accessible.
Being Irish means you belong to the clan. It's what you feel. They feel Irish.
I'm a product of my Irish culture, and I could no more lose that than I could my sense of identity.
We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.
I have encountered on this long road an enthusiasm for an Irishness which will be built on recognising again those sources from which spring the best of our reason and curiosity.
I'm just a true Irish boy at heart.
I'm Irish and always will be, but America has taught me so much. Maybe it's here in the U.S. that we find a healing, for in the broader melting pot we get to look at some of these self-destructive attributes that we bring to bear upon our own quarrels and begin to solve them in ways other than just splitting apart.
The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese.
Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me.