Hey, Irish Americans: Your "Celtic" tattoo isn't Celtic -- because that whole idea was made up

[Doc Sportello]

I post this as an American of Scots-Irish (mostly) descent. I enjoy trad music from the Isles and Guinness beer. But O'Heir makes substantive points about the celebration of "Celtic" culture and how off-base most of it is. An easy, fact-based read that some won't like but here it is:

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/17/hey-irish-americans-your-celtic-tattoo-isnt-celtic--because-that-whole-idea-was-made-up/

snip

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."

...

Where I'm going here with all this, my Irish-American friends, is that the real and endlessly complicated story of Ireland's past is a lot more interesting than the search for some made-up "Celtic" essence that never existed, and which always ends up at two connected destinations: blatantly fake racist B.S., and somebody trying to sell you something. This ever-frustrated quest for plastic-shamrock authenticity is one of the big reasons why so many Irish Americans feel bewildered or alienated by the realities of contemporary Ireland, a small island of abundant contradictions and deep historical ironies that doesn't want to be a misty stereotype of itself — but is still willing to play that role for the Yanks if there's enough money on the table.

There is a darker side to Irish-American bewilderment, although we're on friendly terms and I won't accuse you of that: I mean the retrograde right-wing tendency exemplified by Sean Hannity and Mick Mulvaney and Kellyanne Conway and any number of other Trump-affiliated Republicans, which remains attached to an idealized, nostalgic vision of Ireland as a Gaelic-Catholic-nationalist (but English-speaking) monoculture, the land of saints and scholars and "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads," to quote the 1943 St. Patrick's Day address by Éamon de Valera, the American-born, half-Hispanic leader who shaped 20th-century Ireland, for better and (mostly) for worse.

When those "make Ireland great again" folks look across the Atlantic today and see a country whose current Taoiseach (i.e., prime minister) is a gay man of Indian ancestry, and where the starting goalkeeper for the national soccer team is Black, I can only hope they feel outraged and baffled. They should be: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, how did Ireland turn woke? That's the world telling them that their understanding of Irishness is bound for the rubbish bin of history.

[NewHendoLib]

1. I love the Celtics!

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[yardwork]

2. This is a beautiful essay. Recommended.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

3. Wait. No comely maidens dancing at the crossroads???

Stupid joke being made, excellent read.

[multigraincracker]

4. There is no one more Irish than.....

[TheProle]

5. No Celtic tattoo, family escaped the famine, very happy to see diversity in Ireland.

I don't feel the need to shit on my heritage because it's held forth as something it's not by idiots.

[Doc Sportello]

18. How is it shitting on your "heritage" to point out recent science about Ireland's history?

If you read the article, O'Heir uses recent genetic science about the "Celts" to show that the prevailing cultural history of the group isn't what we thought it was. It is much more diverse and long-standing than the story of invading hordes from Germany that kept their culture over millennia. They were there already and much of what we think of as Celtic was actually infused by other cultures and people far away from what are now referred to as Celtic lands. Or it's just made up to sell something.

As I wrote, I love trad music but I am not afraid to learn new thinking on human history, including my own heritage, which for me doesn't include plastic shamrocks. Your point about shitting on heritage smacks of the same kind of defense used by defenders of the Confederacy who are uncomfortable reading about the truth of the antebellum south and the Civil War.

[mopinko]

6. i'll read it all later, but

i spent a good bit of the plague FINALLY learning my history. it def changed how i thought of the place. and of being irish.
sadly it seems to be getting less woke. so much anti immigrant bs on twitter, anyway. i dont have much more contact than that. but read a fair bit of the news, rte, etc. sad. feel like maybe a lot of folks there dont know their history, either.

[Doc Sportello]

26. Thank you

I know from your posts that you are very proud of your Irish ancestry. Hell I'm a descendant of famous Irish chieftain Nialls of the Nine Hostages (along with an estimated 1-2 million males) but I don't feel the need to venerate him or, for that matter, my fifth great grandfather who served in the Confederate army just because he is my ancestor. We shouldn't keep our heads in the sand about our personal history. Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

[mopinko]

29. well, for me

finding a great rebel in my tree was very- ah ha.
that whole side of the fam r sweet, quiet ppl. but me- i’m the black sheep cuz i’m always looking for a fight. knowing where u came from can be a great comfort.

[bigtree]

7. it's as real as Cinco de Mayo

...

[Mosby]

8. Ireland has an antisemitism problem

Why does Ireland hate Israel?

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-696833

Ireland: Still No Room at the Inn
Not a Welcoming Environment for Jews

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18011/ireland-antisemitism

[mopinko]

30. i see so much of this on twitter.

i get the identification, but yeah, there’s a smell about it. lots of irish accounts w palestinian flags.

[Sympthsical]

9. There's an interesting essay in there somewhere

Unfortunately, the author decided not to write that one. Irish history is pretty interesting, and a lot of the things he writes about - particularly early histories and movements of people and the dissemination of language - tracks with what I've read over the years.

That would've been an amazing piece!

But nah. It's Salon. So he has to go full-bore dripping with condescension, calling everyone racist for some reason - gets that Holocaust reference in there - and generally shitting all over the popular expressions of an ethnic group.

On our holiday.

Well done. The writer has successfully self-identified as an asshole.

Popular expressions of culture are rarely historically accurate studies of the nation or people. It's all romanticized and reduced down to a few easily digested bits that may or may not be accurate. Pick a national or ethnic cultural celebration at random, and you'll find the historical attachments fairly tenuous at best.

Should've kept the historical bits and cut the commentary. I would've liked to have read that essay.

[Ritabert]

20. Agreed

As someone who is of Irish/Scottish descent I deny the racist tone of this piece. I'm a lifelong progressive who has never voted for a Republican nor supported any racist politician. I consider Ireland as a place other people came to to get away from European wars and famines. Somewhere along the way we picked up the ability to eat dairy products as an adult.

[meadowlander]

27. +1. I think it is worth calling out racist appropriation of a romanticised faux Celtic past

but any article on this that doesn't frame Celtic revivalism firmly in the context of colonialism and 800 years of concerted effort to wipe out Irish language, history and culture is talking out of its ass.

[Ocelot II]

10. Nobody is "pure" anything.

Our ancestors moved around a lot more than we might think, and DNA studies are starting to show some of these migrations. For example - if you're Irish you could easily be part Scandinavian (or vice-versa) because of the Viking invasions during the early Middle Ages (Dublin was founded as a Viking settlement). Even so, most nationalities, not just the Irish, have their cultural stories and legends. Most of them are harmless but they can get ugly (as with what Hitler stirred up with his myth of German-Aryan superiority). We can enjoy celebrating our heritage but it's good to know more about where it all came from and not take it too seriously. After all, if you go back far enough everybody is related to everybody else.

[Tomconroy]

11. If anyone is interested in actual accurate information

About modern day Ireland, I can not recommend Fintan O'Toole's best selling book 'We Don't Know Ourselves' highly enough. Five stars

https://www.amazon.com/We-Dont-Know-Ourselves-Personal/dp/1324092874/ref=asc_df_1324092874/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598239487623&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12407200210183633124&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003374&hvtargid=pla-1880708599352&psc=1

[Doc Sportello]

13. Is there something inaccurate in O'Heir's article?

His article is focused on genetics and the true diversity of "Celtic" history and the fact that even the experts disagree on the facts, and that science has changed how we view them.

[mopinko]

33. ok, i finished reading it,

and there’s a link on the site to an interview w o’toole, which is interesting.

i honestly think he’s just splitting hairs here. the ppl who later became ‘the celts’ as we think of them, arent related to the people who created the language and culture. big deal. doesnt change a thing about the culture. it’s an accumulation of a lot of influences over time, like culture is.

he’s right that there is much to take pride in. and that would be the point, imho.

[Polybius]

12. Kinda mean to post on St. Patrick's Day

Maybe tomorrow would have been better, this is their day to celebrate.

[Doc Sportello]

14. Really?

Would it be mean to point out inconvenient facts about Columbus on Columbus Day?

[Polybius]

15. No, but it would be mean to point out if an Italian tattoo was fake on their biggest day

There's a time and place.

[Doc Sportello]

19. I think it's the perfect time to correct the historical record

Maybe the Italians would realize what their celebration or tatoo means to Native Americans.

[Polybius]

21. No thanks

I know you mean well, but it's like pushing dirt in their faces.

[Doc Sportello]

25. Oh please

The article is nothing of the kind. I posted it today because it ran on Salon today. And it's not dirt - just recent genetic evidence that contradicts past thinking. If somebody is offended while they are drinking their green beer, then that's just silly.

[Polybius]

36. Ok

Green beer for me tonight btw.

[Happy Hoosier]

16. Meh.

I love celebrating my Irish heritiage. Yes, a lot of it is manufactured. Like Scottish culture which more or less didn;t exist in its current romanticized form until the 19th century. Who cares?

I love traditional Celtic music. I love the modern Celtic fusion music. I love the knotwork decorations.

I go to Irish, Scottish, and "Celtic" festivals all summer. I'm irish on my Dad's side and German on my Mom's, so come September, I break out the Lederhosen, and enjoy Oktoberfest, and in December, I enjoy "trraditional" German Christmas stuff (even though I'm an atheist). I see no reason to be a buzzkill.

[old as dirt]

17. If I were into tattoos, I'd pick a cool equation.

William Rowan Hamilton (Science YouTuber Collab) | A Capella Science

William Rowan Hamilton— Ireland’s liberator of algebra

‘ONE SMALL SCRATCH FOR A MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MATHEMATICS’

https://www.historyireland.com/william-rowan-hamilton-irelands-liberator-of-algebra/



The annual Hamilton Walk takes place on 16 October , commemorating Hamilton's invention of quaternions and takes place during Maths Week Ireland. The walk was founded in 1990. As the real 2020 walk was cancelled due to Covid, Maths Week Ireland produced a virtual walk. The walk is organised by Fiacre O'Cairbre and Tony O'Farrell of Maynooth University. It is narrated by Eoin Gill with contributions from Prof Peter Gallagher, Prof Tony O'Farrell, Anne van Weerden and Fiacre O'Cairbe.

In an act of mathematical vandalism, Hamilton opened up a whole new mathematical landscape where mathematicians could now feel free to conceive new algebraic number systems that were not shackled by the rules of ordinary numbers in arithmetic. According to Dr O’Cairbre Hamilton freed algebra from arithmetic and was called the Liberator of Algebra.

[robbob]

22. The book of Kells was made around the year 800

By Scottish or Irish monks. Whether or not there was a “Celtic” culture in the year 800 is kind of beside the point. This beautiful ornate manuscripts contains many of the designs and motifs used by tattoo artists, and is a legitimate part of the areas history. Arguing about its claim to be legitimately “Celtic” is kind of a moot point. It’s part of their history, part of their heritage, and they are right to be proud of it.

If the article has other points to make that’s fine, I just took an immediate objection to the premise of the headline.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

23. I don't need to wear a tribal tat to celebrate Britannia Rules! Kicking Romans ass since 43AD

Fuck Hadrian's wall, that crumbled too! They never defeated us northern pagans!

[Mysterian]

31. Hail Brennus!

Sacked Rome before it was cool.

[haele]

24. Anthropologists have followed the Celts all across Europe. Thousands of years before

the rise of the Mediterranean Bronze age cultures where we Westerners like to think Civilization began.

There are Celtic tribal artifacts from the late Neolithic period as far east as Bavaria. The early Celts liked to settle near wetlands; as the glaciers receded, apparently travelled westward out of the Alps, perhaps as early as when Doggerland was still a few islands instead of completely covered by the English channel. There is evidence they settled along Western mainland Europe, primarily in Northern Spain and Southwestern France, eventually building strong enough coricle boats to handle the Irish Sea, and rowed their way to set up settlements on the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Western England, along with some of the islands like Jersey, The Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and the Isle of Wight.

The continental Celts ended up losing the cultural competition with tribes like the Gauls and Goths, and eventually merged into those tribes during the Bronze and Iron ages. There was little competition for those who settled in the west European Islands, so they were able to retain their unique language and culture longer.

The language and some of the culture and art of the Irish and Scottish Celts eventually evolved into what is identified as Gaelic Celt, perhaps evolving due to interaction with the smaller tribes that already lived along the northern parts of the Channel (the Scotti and some Pict).
The Island and Southwestern England/Welsh Celts retained most of the older continental Celtic culture and language, known as Brythonic Celt.

The Celtic culture, art style, basic myths, and traditions are still similar, but the language between the two is different enough that they can be considered branches of a proto-Celtic language.

Oh, and the Celts, no matter what type or where they settled, were always "Woke". Adult Men and Women had equal legal status and could equally apply their skills in trade or professions, children were raised and cared for communally, and Celtic Laws differentiated between a crime of need, a crime of neglect, and a crime of malice.

Just a bit of history.

Haele

[Happy Hoosier]

32. The author's assertion is WAY OOT

“Celt” describes a grouping of languages and cultures in Europe. The Celts were not a single nation, or even a single ethnicity, in the same way the “Germanic” peoples weren’t but there was definitely Celtic languages and cultures. Dude’s just being a kind of a jerk, IMO. Erin go bragh!!!!

[Baltimike]

28. same thing with family crests...nt

[lindysalsagal]

34. Pasta with red sauce isn't italian, either. Sauces in Rome and Venice are brown.

They put veal parmesan on the menu for the american tourists.

Same with american chinese food.

We interperet them in new ways. Same thing if you eat "american" foods in japan. Really, really weird stuff.

[H2O Man]

35. One would need

to understand what "Celtic" means, of course. It is not an ethnic identity.

[Hekate]

37. Read it all at link -- very interesting! Am a bit surprised he didn't mention Yeats' Celtic Twilight

…contribution to the mythology of Ireland. A lot of mysticism flowed thru Yeats and his group, tho Maud Gonne certainly kept her feet on the ground as she founded Ireland’s child welfare system and was a leader in other social welfare reforms.

Meanwhile, Triple Brigid has an honored place on my shelf.

☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️

[Meowmee]

38. I knew the celts did not originate in gb

I think most people do maybe. It had been a long time since I have read over that history. There is definitely a unique culture in those countries. Being part Scottish with my mother from there I lived and traveled in Great Britain quite a lot in the past. My last time there, which was a long time ago, I visited relatives and also went to the islands. People were speaking Scottish Gaelic in the Hebrides, they thought I was from there and tried to speak Gaelic to me. It’s a beautiful language which I have never learned unfortunately. Orkney was very different.