Let's have a little talk among ourselves, Irish Americans. Let's celebrate our diversity. No, I'm serious; that's the real story of our heritage. There is no pure ethnic identity to be found deep in our ancestry, or in anyone else's. To quote the Harvard geneticist David Reich, whose research on ancient DNA has upended the study of human prehistory, "Present-day populations are blends of past populations, which were blends themselves."
Let's talk about your sort-of-but-not-entirely benign passion for the supposed "Celtic" past: Let's talk about your tattoos, very likely an ahistorical mishmash of definitely-not-Celtic stuff and pseudo-medieval Christian lettering and incoherent 20th-century nationalism. Let's talk about the fairies, the ancient monuments, the spiritual meditations, the mispronounced names of traditional holidays, the cobbled-together bits of mythology and folklore.
