You like australian wine... you must be australian?

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:33 am

It really drives me mad. When I tell people I went to an irish music festival, or listen and play irish music, they ask me "Are you irish?". I really don't get it. Do you need to be australian to appreciate australian wine? Do you need to be japanase to drive a Honda, drink sake or eat sushi? If I wear Nike shoes, does that make me american?

Why do people think you must have irish blood when you do anything related to irish music?

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:39 am

Well if you're not Irish, what the bleedin' blue blazes are ya doin' here on C&F!!??

jus' kiddin

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:41 am

Azalin wrote:It really drives me mad. When I tell people I went to an irish music festival, or listen and play irish music, they ask me "Are you irish?". I really don't get it. Do you need to be australian to appreciate australian wine? Do you need to be japanase to drive a Honda, drink sake or eat sushi? If I wear Nike shoes, does that make me american?

Why do people think you must have irish blood when you do anything related to irish music?

I don't know, but I get the same response...especially if I tell people I'm learning Irish! Heck, I know plenty of opera singers who learn German and Italian, and no one asks them their ethnicity! But even if I mention I'm playing in a session, people will say "Oh, I didn't know you're Irish!"

The interesting thing is, I know plenty of non-Irish people who say they LIKE Irish music (or more usually "Celtic" music...which really drives me round the bend, since most of them actually MEAN "Irish")...it seems to be the act of playing/singing it that people want to associate with "being Irish." It's almost as if they think it's not really authentic if your surname isn't O'Malley or McLaughlin!

Redwolf

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:46 am

Azalin wrote:Do you need to be australian to appreciate australian wine?
Do you need to be japanase to drive a Honda, drink sake or eat sushi?
If I wear Nike shoes, does that make me american?

Good point. It's not just Irish music, I think it's any folk music. When
I told someone I like playing Klezmer on my Clarinet, he said he didn't
know I was Jewish (I'm not).

I think I'll use the Japanese car line next time someone asks me that.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:50 am

Can anyone explain the term "poetic justice" to me?
I have a sudden curiosity about it.
I don't know why.
I am not a cat.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:55 am

Curisosity is only dangerous if you are a cat, Tal, so you should be fine in asking...

Then again, if you're lying to us, and you really ARE a cat...

well...there's more than one way to skin ya.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:55 am

Talasiga wrote:Can anyone explain the term "poetic justice" to me?
I have a sudden curiosity about it.
I don't know why.
I am not a cat.

Since you are as able as anyone else to look this up, I suspect you have an alterior motive to your question. What might that be?

djm

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:05 am

Tyler Morris wrote:...
well...there's more than one way to skin ya.

Now why would a Morris be wanting to skin a cat?

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:06 am

talasiga wrote:
Tyler Morris wrote:...
well...there's more than one way to skin ya.
Now why would a Morris be wanting to skin a cat?

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:11 am

Tyler! There are no bells on that cat.
Not your true blue Morris Dancer!

missy · Post by **missy** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:56 am

be careful on the "Japanese car" comment -
Hondas are made in St. Mary's, Ohio and Toyotas are made in Georgetown, KY..........

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:40 am

missy wrote:be careful on the "Japanese car" comment -
Hondas are made in St. Mary's, Ohio and Toyotas are made in Georgetown, KY..........

Well, I see it as another reason to be able to play irish music without being irish, you can even *make* japanese cars without being japanese.

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:31 pm

Yeah, I get that from Irish people, too, not just Americans. Some of them also seem surprised that I am visiting Ireland if I have no Irish "connections."

J.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:47 pm

feadogin wrote:Some of them also seem surprised that I am visiting Ireland if I have no Irish "connections."

I have heard of this reaction, as well. I guess the Irish are so inundated by the off-spring of the diaspora coming back searching for their roots that the locals find it hard to believe foreigners could be there for any other reason.

This reminds me a bit of a short story I once read by Roddy Doyle, where an Irish guy is trying to relive his youth by having a bit of a fling in Dublin. Everything falls apart as he is unable to pull the old crowd of revellers back together (they've all grown old) and the town has changed, its not his any more. So anyways, at the end, he finds himself back in his hotel setting the American tourists up, asking them questions about his relatives in the US, do they know them?, as he wants to explore his roots. Great fun.

djm

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:32 am

Well in Bangkok (about 20 years ago) the airport official asked me if I was Apache!

Not long after, in London, at the Indian Embassy, when I was applying for a visa to visit India, the female bureaucrat asked me if I was "Red Indian"
and she could even see my name on the passport! BTW, my legal name isn't Nino Cochise and suchlike but pretty clearly South Asian origin.

When I worked in a large corporation here some years ago a guy from New York joined our team and asked me if I was Amerindian background.

What was the trigger for this? I have high cheekbones (from the Nepalese side of my ancestry) and, in those heady days I would often wear my hair in two long pleats. (it was a good way of avoiding questions about tandoori recipes and the intricacies of tuning a sitar and the secrets of levitating. Nobody wants to know about how to skin a deer).

And so it goes Kiddies, believe me .....
And so it goes

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