Irish-American

An individual born in America who is Irish on both sides for every generation back to the last family member born in Ireland. I find it offensive that some of the "Irish - I was born here" are so hostile to Irish-Americans. My family - whose names are Hughes, Rooney, Mullin, O'Brien, Daugherty, McMannus, among others - all left County Monaghan, Ireland in April of 1847 when they were put off the land by and English landowner and told to take the offered passage and go to British North America (Canada) or go to the poorhouse and starve with the other million people who died. It's not like they left Ireland by choice. They were forced out, those who were able to stay in Ireland and keep body and soul together through the An Gorta Mor, who maybe had a decent landlord or owned a little land of their own - should be grateful to God that they didn't have to suffer the passage on the coffin ship my family came to Canada on. I am the 4th generation not born in Ireland, but I am probably a lot more Irish than some born there. No English blood flows through my viens. I don't tell people I am Irish, I tell them I am American of Irish ancestry.