Abby Murray
Telling Lives
In the mailbox of my Facebook account sits an invitation to add the “Heritage” application, which encourages users to “Take pride in your roots and share your heritage with friends. Display small flags of what you are or where you are from on your profile.” Heritage and roots have enthralled Americans for years. As a nation of immigrants, third and fourth generation descendants often seek to uncover the experiences of their ancestors, and take pride in their origins. As an Irish American, I have struggled to understand how my heritage fits in with my personal identity. Irish American interest in Irish culture manifests itself in many ways, including the production of dance shows, like Riverdance, and in the popularity of Irish themed pubs. Bars and Riverdance are two of the strongest indicators of the exchange and relationship between Irish Americans and Irish culture, and both factored into my personal understanding of my Irishness.
When I was young, as a special treat my mom would sometimes take me for an early dinner at Tír na nÓg, before the bar crowd filled the narrow pub with smoke and noise. Even though I was shy, when the session players arrived I would dance a jig or reel on the small platform where they sat playing. Tír na nÓg was one of many Irish pubs which sprang up all over the Boston metropolitan area the 1980’s, during the wave of “new” Irish immigrants[1]. My mother explains that she was not a big drinker, but that the vibrant Irish social life centered around pubs. “You wouldn’t believe what it was like then,” my mom tells me. “You could walk into a bar and hear Gaelic being spoken.” Tír na nÓg would have resembled the bars she had frequented during the 80’s, and where she met my father, Brendan Murray, an illegal immigrant born and raised in Belfast, Ireland.
The arrival of “new” Irish immigrants revitalized the Irish community in Boston, as well as New York and other hubs of immigration[2]. My dad entered the United States as one of these “new” immigrants. My mom described living in a house with several illegal Irish immigrants, who worked as nannies and waitresses. But as economic conditions in Ireland improved, and as American law enforcement cracked down on illegal aliens, many Irish returned to Ireland. Of the many Irish immigrants my mother knew during the 1980’s and 90’s, only her friend Yvonne Sullivan has remained in the United States.
My mom took advantage of the cultural climate during the Irish cultural “renaissance” in Boston to connect with her own Irish heritage. I tend to associate Ireland with my father, because his being a native seems to trump her being a descendant. In talking with my mother about this assignment, I discovered how she too had expressed her Irishness: she lived with Irish immigrants, socialized in Irish pubs, married an Irish man, acted as Boston correspondent forThe Irish Voice, and after her divorce, harbored a hope that my sister and I would be able to maintain a relationship with our father, and Ireland, through summer visits to Ireland.
My memories of our visits to Ireland, the last of which was when I was seven, are misty. Maybe it has something to do with the ceaseless drizzle. Americans note that Belfast is in Northern Ireland, but my father would have refused to acknowledge the distinction, being from a Catholic family with strong ties to the Irish Republican Army. My Uncle John, my father’s brother, served six years in jail for IRA activities. I remember my Auntie Patricia’s house the best, and how it filled with smoke when my father’s brothers came over. I remember seeing them troop into the cramped living room dressed as women, in preparation for a parade. My cousins loved to hear my American accent. While playing in the street, my cousin Fiona would try to get my to speak for the entertainment of her and her friends, but I was so embarrassed that I just kept stuffing my mouth full of candy so I wouldn’t have to. I quickly adopted their brogue, and brought it back home with me. My experience with my Irishness has been very different from most Irish Americans’. Having an existing relationship with Ireland and my relatives there sets my experience apart from most Irish Americans, who are third or fourth generation.
Although my dad is Irish, I step dance, and I have been to Ireland several times, these things are part of my personal history, and I do not think of them as part of my heritage. My heritage lies in the stories of my ancestors, but those stories and experiences do not influence my personal identity. Someday I would like to know more about my ancestors on both sides of my family, but the knowledge will not change my identity. Heritage is something to be proud of, but not because of what it says about us personally.
My connection to Ireland lies in the family I have there and the visits which are part of my personal memory. Irishness is part of my identity because of my present connections to Ireland, and because of the role it has played in my life. My dad had some stereotypical Irish qualities which he exposed me to: he instilled in me the habit of daily tea and loved soccer. He also demonstrated less laudable stereotypes of drunkenness and temper. However, his Irishness did not define his identity: my most vivid memories of him are the tree house and rope swing he built for me, and the time he shoveled steps into all the snow piles blocking the sidewalk.
During the time that I was growing up in Somerville, Irish Americans increased their interest in “a distinctive cultural tradition that set them apart from other citizens of the United States.”[3] The renewal of tensions in Northern Ireland brought Ireland into international news, and the Irish called for support from their Irish American counterparts in the struggle for freedom from Great Britain[4]. Irish Americans experienced a renewal of allegiance and solidarity with native Irishmen. Another factor which spurred American interest in tracing genealogy was the wildly successful television series “Roots”, which acted “as both a catalyst and symbol of the genealogic industry.”[5]The success of Riverdance and U2 represent changing ideas and representations of Irish culture on the world scene.
Riverdance changed how Irishness was presented to an American audience. It packaged Irish culture in a flashy, contemporary package, while playing to the “diaspora” story Irish Americans associate with their heritage. In fact, it’s basically a testament to the success of the Irish in America, and their ability to adapt to a new culture.[6] In a snapshot which my mom’s note identifies as my first day of SMILE pre-school, I pose for the camera, ready for my glamour shot: My arms are outstretched, like tilted plane wings. My right leg crosses over my left, my toe jauntily stubbing the grass. I’m showing off the starting position I’ve learned in Irish dance class, which I have been going to for about a year now. It’s amazing how much I resemble the lead of Riverdance, in his striking, show-ending pose. Michael Flatley and Jean Butler wouldn’t dance their way into American consciousness for another two years, but I certainly look ready to greet them when they do.
The question “what are you” has come to be synonymous with inquiring about that person’s ancestry. It’s an interesting jump to make from the nationality of our ancestors, to our personal identity. In efforts to be politically correct by recognizing the diversity of their students, it has become common for teachers in school to ask kids to “say what they ‘are’,” no matter how irrelevant that identification may be to the child’s circumstances, or how complicated their ancestry may be.[7] Irish American heritage has become a very popular heritage to claim, because it enables the claimer to retain status as a white person. Claiming a heritage provides a way for white Americans to differentiate themselves. “By now it was clear that I wasn’t simply white, or American, but that I had a bond with those protestors in Northern Ireland,”says Tom Hayden, a fourth generation descendant. “So what was I? A recovering Irishman trying to apply an ethnic past to the American present?[8]” Through research of his ancestry and their history, Hayden adopts a heritage which was not passed down to him through his family.
Authenticity in Irish American heritage has become difficult to determine, when the Irish American population has been consuming a multitude of Irish-themed cultural products. “Almost all aspects of Irishness became marketable on a global scale.[9]” In Ireland, genealogy bureaus offer to trace back Irish American’s lineages (for a fee), and “Less scrupulous agencies will concoct entirely fictitious genealogies and heraldries, sometimes alleging the client’s descent from the nobility of pre-Conquest kingdoms of Ireland…”[10]When Irishness can be claimed at will, and verified through various means, it marginalizes the experiences of Irish Americans, like myself, who have had actual interaction with the Irish and Irish culture.
The concept of heritage determines our identity to whatever extent we want it to. It depends on individual desires to lay claim to a set of values and characteristics associated with a foreign heritage. I have not decided what role Ireland will play in my future, but I am proud of my personal Irishness.
1
[1] Stephanie Rains. The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007). 133.
[2] William D. Griffin. The Irish Americans. (Hong King: Hugh Lauter Associates, 1998). 209.
[3] William D. Griffin. The Irish Americans. (Hong King: Hugh Lauter Associates, 1998). 201.
[4] Dennis J. Clark. Irish Blood. (London: Kennikat Press, 1977). 65.
[5]Stephanie Rains. Irish Roots: Genealogy and the Performance of Irishness. In Diane Negra (Ed.), The Irish In Us: Irishness, Performativity, and Popular Culture (pp. 130-160). London: Duke University Press.
[6] Stephanie Rains. The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007). 135.
[7] Reginald Byron. Irish America. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999). 290.
[8] Tom Hayden. Irish on the Inside. (London: Verso, 2001). 102.
[9] Stephanie Rains. The Irish American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000. (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007). 135.
[10] Reginald Byron. Irish America. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999). 129.