Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Luck o' th' Irish

As far as I know, my ancestors were primarily English, Scotch-Irish, and German. If I remember correctly, the Ex's ancestors were French-Canadian, Polish, Danish, and German. Since we're pretty much generic Americans, you'd think it would be a sure thing that we'd produce pretty much American kids with a standard Heinz 57 trans-European heritage, like a lot of other Americans. And we did.

Except for Lovely Daughter.

As a young teen, she latched on to the words "Irish" and "French" and decided that's what she was. I think the primary factor was that she looks Irish, and what young teen girl wouldn't want to be French? Très romantique!

It didn't matter that she is half as (Scotch-)Irish as I am and half as French(-Canadian) as her father. Nor did it matter that 'Scotch-Irish' refers to primarily Scottish and English folks who migrated to Ireland then to America, so there may be little to no actual Irish-ness involved.

She declared herself Irish, and it was so. And now, every March 17th I wonder how many green beers are bought for my wee Irish-ish lass.

Sláinte! Éirinn go Brách!

 

3 comments:

  1. I'm Dutch. My wife is Dutch. My kids are Dutch. We believe that inbreeding = purity.

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  2. Yeah, I'm thinking it's just as well that you keep your gene pool distinct from the rest of humanity.
    :)

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  3. Well if inbreeding equals purity then mark me unpure, i've got a dad who's Irish & English and a mum who's German. I say the world needs gene pools like ours. =]

    ReplyDelete

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