Northern Irish

[Black Wolf]

What about the Protestant Ascendancy? Are they "fake" Irish? All of those great poets, writers, soldiers and statesman? They're all limeys?

To be totally honest I am not sure. People may call them fake Irish but I know for a fact that my North Irish Protestant relatives still thought and do still think of themselves as being Irish even though they were/are different from the Catholics.

[Longbowman]

What about the Protestant Ascendancy? Are they "fake" Irish? All of those great poets, writers, soldiers and statesman? They're all limeys?

Being born in a stable doesn't make a man a horse.

But to me the genetic differences between us and the potato people are so small as to make the difference negligible. What separates us is religion and republicanism.

Still, culturally, yes.

[Celxon]

To be totally honest I am not sure. People may call them fake Irish but I know for a fact that my North Irish Protestant relatives still thought and do still think of themselves as being Irish even though they were/are different from the Catholics.

They're Irish. To say otherwise is like saying that only Native Americans are true Americans. The rest of us are "fake". Seriously, these aren't the 1600s. By sectarian logic, descendants of the Jamestown colonists are English, not American.

[Smaug]

There are also some Catholic Ulster-Scots. Don't know if they have Gaelic in them though.

[Celxon]

Being born in a stable doesn't make a man a horse.

But to me the genetic differences between us and the potato people are so small as to make the difference negligible. What separates us is religion and republicanism.

Still, culturally, yes.

That's true in parts of Ulster, but Anglo-Irish historical figures, like Bram Stoker, are seen as Irish. Where is the delineation point where one become a "real" Irish person? Do we find the line of demarcation at the birth of the ROI, or do we go all the way back to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans and Cambro-Normans? Are the descendants of the Barrys, Burkes, Butlers, Fitzgeralds, Nugents, etc. not Irish?

[Baluarte]

They're Irish. To say otherwise is like saying that only Native Americans are true Americans. The rest of us are "fake". Seriously, these aren't the 1600s. By sectarian logic, descendants of the Jamestown colonists are English, not American.

It's a problem because of these Protestant "Irish" that the whole island has been unable to be reunified again.

[Longbowman]

That's true in parts of Ulster, but Anglo-Irish historical figures, like Bram Stoker, are seen as Irish. Where is the delineation point where one become a "real" Irish person? Do we find the line of demarcation at the birth of the ROI, or do we go all the way back to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans and Cambro-Normans? Are the descendants of the Barrys, Burkes, Butlers, Fitzgeralds, Nugents, etc. not Irish?

We generally consider it to be a case of self-identification. The cultures are so similar anyway.

[Black Wolf]

They're Irish. To say otherwise is like saying that only Native Americans are true Americans. The rest of us are "fake". Seriously, these aren't the 1600s. By sectarian logic, descendants of the Jamestown colonists are English, not American.

Ya exactly I agree.

[Celxon]

It's a problem because of these Protestant "Irish" that the whole island has been unable to be reunified again.

Well, the United Irishmen, many of whom were Protestant, would beg to differ.

[Celxon]

There are also some Catholic Ulster-Scots. Don't know if they have Gaelic in them though.

Their great-grandmas had plenty of Gaelic in them.