I grew up very proud of my heritage (my dad pretty much sat me down in front of Braveheart when I was about 5 years old and then went out and bought me Scottish Barbie and the soundtrack the same day) and displaying my Scottish and Irish roots has always been very important to me. However, I will say that I try not to cross a line by confusing myself as "Scottish or Irish" over being American. At the end of the day, I was born and raised in America, conditioned in American culture, and this is the only country ive even seen. Ive never been to Ireland and Scotland so fancying myself "A Scot" or "an Irishwoman" would be a little incorrect, and probably a little irritating to people from Ireland and Scotland.

I see no problem whatsoever with Scot/Irish Americans owning kilts regardless of how far back they can trace their ancestory because Americans love to hold on to their ancestorial past because America is too new of a country to have many substancial roots that bonding with heritage can offer. The only thing that I would be careful about is claiming to be part of a specific clan or showing pride for a specific clan unless you ARE part of the clan. I think showing basic Scottish or Irish pride is absolutely justifiable regardless of how far removed you are as long as you are aware that you are Scot/Irish-AMERICAN and not a Scot or an Irishman.

I am not terribly far removed from the motherlands since I still own the death certificates of my Scottish and Irish ancestors (I think I am only 4 generations removed) but my last name is very hard to trace to a particular clan. Walker is a very common last name and I've heard a lot of different things that we teamed up with bigger clans or were part of another clan but used the name "walker" as an alias, etc. etc. Claiming a clan is somethign that I would love to do but I dont have enough knowledge to even know where to start looking. I would have to go to Scotland and trace my great-great-etc. grandfather, Robert Walker, back even further to see where his line goes.

As for displaying pride in tartans, I certainly do plan to own a number of them but I feel I have full right to wear the ones that I have my eye on: County Cork, Ireland considering my Irish family came from Cork and I have the certificates of them, American National, and if we can trace Robert Walker, it would be nice to get his district tartan as well. If I can't trace myself back to a specific clan, I plan to stay away from clan tartans since they seem a little more personal and specific. At least to me.