Irish Kilt?

[Tobus]

I can't help but actually feel a bit sorry for the Irish diaspora because fantasy Ireland has taken prescendence over real Ireland and, in some ways I understand that, but fantasy Ireland seems to honestly make Ireland out to be a little worse than it really is. The celebration of St. Patricks Day, a day of a Catholic saint, has turned into one of the biggest drinking days of the year, and green beer has now become what it means to be Irish. Many Irish-Americans have no idea what being Irish is or what being Irish means. Most of us have no idea about the dark Irish history in America and, to be honest, most of us wouldnt care. Being Irish means wearing a "kilt" (or a thigh-length womens pleated skirt like I saw on one man), a bright orange wig, and getting totally and completely s*itefaced on St. Pattys Day.

Yes, sadly, the popular culture of American Irishness is far from anything the Irish themselves would claim as their culture or traditions. However, it is a very interesting phenomenon when studied against the backdrop of immigration from Ireland. Especially when you consider that much of the American sense of Irishness came from the Ulster Scots (aka Scots-Irish).

Two books I recommend on the subject are The Scotch-Irish: A Social History by James G. Leyburn, and Chasing the Frontier: Scots-Irish in Early America by Larry Hoefling. These books go a long way in explaining the unique aspects of how America's culture was shaped by Ulster Scots. Keep in mind that the large influx of Ulster Scots happened just prior to the large influx of Irish, although there was plenty of overlap in immigration between the two groups. The Ulster Scots immigration pattern had its most significant numbers in the early 1700s, while the Irish immigration pattern was around mid-century and later. Their cultures and histories were vastly different, but when they came to America they were simply seen as "Irish", and these two groups (despite their differences and even their mutual animosity) faced the same sort of prejudice from those who had already settled here. They were stereotyped, mocked, and culturally oppressed in a lot of areas. This stereotyping of Irish immigrants played an important part in our (later) perceptions of Irish culture. Especially with regards to such things as eating potatoes, alcoholism, being poor, etc.

So a curious thing happened. As American culture started getting blended with all these different groups (including all the other nationalities that had settled here), a new sense of "Irishness" came about. A lot of the Irish and Ulster Scot immigrants let go of their previous cultural attachments and attempted to embrace a new identity, or their cultural traditions changed over time (as they tend to do when separated from the motherland). Unfortunately, this means that they lost their original traditions and ties to the Old World. It was several generations later before people became interested in reviving it, and by that time, the cultures had been so mixed and distorted that it was difficult to find anything that remotely resembled the truth. That, coupled with the new Irish nationalist movement going on in Ireland, further distorted the American perception of the truth. And it has morphed into what we know today as the American sense of "Irishness". The Irish can't make any sense of it; nor can the Ulster Scots, or Northern Ireland inhabitants, regardless of where they came from originally.

This new perception of Irish culture quickly became a stereotype. It was a blend of the original negative stereotypes I mentioned earlier and the new fragments of Irish culture we were getting from the Irish nationalist movement. In my mind, this is how the non-educated people of America got to the point of thinking that the Irish wear kilts, drink a lot, and talk to leprechauns. It's a mish-mash of insulting stereotypes and incorrect cultural history that has taken firm root in popular American culture and been mercilessly promoted by Hollywood and other 'entertainment' venues. Unfortunate though it may be, it's actually a pretty interesting phenomenon for studying.