Just don't claim you are Irish if you weren't born and raised there. "Being" a nationality is more than just dna/ancestry, it means knowing and having lived / live the culture. (I think I speak for most Europeans).

You can say you're of Irish ancestry, but don't say "I'm Irish!".

No you can say your grandmother is Irish.

Unless you're living in Ireland or have moved from there then no not really, I think unfortunately many Americans have killed this for everyone by claiming they have Irish ancestry but having no clue about their actual heritage and Irish culture. Its just bragging rights.

Donna, you can of course say your granny was from Ireland. However, please remember, that doesn't make you Irish, (unless you apply for Irish citizenship etc.) and you don't have to be announcing it to everyone. Having an Irish granny is not going to make the locals immediately think of you as long lost kin. Well... if you go to the area granny was born and grew up, and mention her, then you may well be talking to long lost kin, and you'll be treated as such. But if granny was born in Carron, County Clare, and you announce to a pub in Dublin that your granny was Irish people would not care less.

Saying that your grandmother was from Ireland is fine, but don't claim to be Irish yourself if you weren't born and brought up there. My mom is from Dublin. Like many Irish people she moved to England in the 60s for work. She met my English father and here I am. Most of my maternal family still live there. I hold both UK and Irish passports. However, I myself was born and brought up in the UK and while I'm very proud of my Irish dna and ancestors, I would never claim to be from Ireland because I'm not, my mother is. Given that I speak with a distinct West Midlands dialect, I would probably be laughed at if I went up to a born and bred Irish person and claimed to be from the same country as them.

No, say "My grandmother was from Ireland." All four of my grandparents came to America from Belfast, and that's how I put it.

Not just Americans, but MOSTLY Americans: claim to be 'Irish' or 'Polish' or 'Dutch' etc., although neither they or anyone of their generation was born there, has been there, or speaks the language, and their link to the country is one person who emigrated to the US back in about 1878.

My family moved to Canada from Ukraine, so I say I’m Canadian with Ukrainian heritage.

You'd likely be entitled to citizenship, but even that doesn't make you truly Irish. Culturally, people from Ireland and Irish Americans have diverged quite a bit

We're you born or raised in Ireland? If not, then you're not Irish.

I get this confused too cause my great grandparents are from Lebanon and we have a big Lebanese’s family but anyone from Lebanon is long gone by now .. both my grandparents on my dads side were Lebanese but my mom is from Tennessee/ Georgia Chattanooga area ..

Get the passport, but say "my grandmother is Irish" not "I'm Irish".

In 1795 one of my white grandpas married a "mulatto" (hateful term) in New Orleans. I would never claim to be black. I have not lived that life. I do, however, proudly brag about my black grandmother at every opportunity

yeah...

Doesn't make you Irish unless you were born there

No you get to say what I do. I'm second generation Irish born in (insert country of birth)

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I've never understood this. If you have citizenship in a country, or anyone in the last 10 generations did, you are that nationality. People need to stop gatekeeping. I'm Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Asian, native American, Israeli, Ethiopian, and a few others. Irish is the latest part, and I'm proud of being Irish.

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Persecution complex much?

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My grandmother was a leprechaun

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Well, except for drinking Guinness and eating potatoes...you have to open your mouth for that...

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Having a living godmother there scores more points.

The problem is foreigners claiming to be Irish - that is, citizens of Ireland - are are born and bred foreigners who understand very little about the people and culture of the nation they're claiming to be part of. It's somewhere between irritating and offensive. Having a great-great-granny who was Irish doesn't even mean you've got any Irish heritage - it just means you've got Irish ancestry, of which there is an awful lot in the US thanks to various aspects of Irish history mostly involving usually callous and often brutal misrule by colonialists from that somewhat bigger island to the East. Sorry (says the Englishman, even though he knows it wasn't his fault).

How can you be proud of something you know f all about? I'm not claiming to be African, even though homo sapiens originated from there. Good grief.

Because it isn’t nonsense to the people objecting. Not a direct comparison but it holds elements of a guy leering at a woman and saying “I’d do you”. Would you deny her right to be offended? He’s paid her the compliment of finding her attractive while suggesting that her thoughts and feelings are irrelevant to his desires. Those Americans who describe themselves as [other nationality] may find the notion attractive but that doesn’t confer the right to claim something they aren’t entitled to or yell “it’s a compliment” when those having the nationality tell you the appropriation is offensive to them. If you can handle the concept that some comments are micro aggressive, others are blatantly offensive and should never be used, why is it so hard to comprehend that there are less offensive ways to claim heritage than claiming nationality?

Totally agree.

The UK's full name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so it's dubious to claim that the Northen Irish must be British because they are part of the UK. There is no demonym, so far as I know, for UK citizens.

Or both? As a third culture kid it really irks me when people feel the need to make me choose- “are you this or that?”. We are complex beings and I feel English AND Spanish. I don’t need to choose just because close-minded people want to put me in their tidy little box.