Oscars presenter Conan O'Brien among many in US reflecting on Irish-American identity

The Irish diaspora in the US is getting older and is mingling in new traditions with the old, writes Sean Murray in Boston

People during the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Philadelphia. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Ahead of hosting the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, host Conan O’Brien gave an impassioned account of his sense of Irishness and the immigrant experience in a chat with Jimmy Kimmel last week.

He described visiting the site of his great-grandfather's former home on a recent trip to Ireland, and the emotion it stirred within him.

“I did not expect this because I'm not someone who wears my emotions on my sleeve, but I got emotional,” he said. “It was very powerful.

“What's amazing to me is when you have that experience, and you stand there, I have incredible empathy for people who have immigrated to another country.

“It takes an entire lifetime to go to a country where, often, people don't speak the language. They have to spend their entire lives just getting things started for the next generation; it's a whole lifetime that you're feeding into this process.

"I was just thinking about this guy, whom I'll never meet, who had to do that. I think I was overcome by the fact that there's a lot of sadness in that story, and in a lot of these stories. People leave not because they think: 'Hey, I just want to go have fun in America.' They leave because they have to.” 

Such an interrogation of one’s sense of an Irish identity in modern-day America was not on the cards in Boston on Sunday as hundreds of thousands descended on the area affectionately known as 'Southie', wearing green and drinking beer from early on in the day.

Some of the younger attendees proudly displayed boxes of the cereal Lucky Charms, which would surely raise a few eyebrows back home, while others stood on rooftops and cheered as the parade went by.

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A million people were expected to line the streets of South Boston for the parade, with Mayor Michelle Wu marching alongside foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee.

St Patrick's Day is always a joint celebration in Boston, as March 17 also marks Evacuation Day, when American forces ejected the British from the city during the War of Independence 250 years ago.

“You won’t find a celebration that is more passionate, more exciting, and more reflective of the culture, the heritage and the patriotism of our country than right here in South Boston,” Ms Wu said.

“The story of Irish American immigrants is the story of our city and the story of America. So thank you so much for being part of this. We're going to have a great day today.” 

'There's something real here'

Tom Mackey is the president of the Eire Society of Boston. The 33-year-old, who grew up in Detroit, leads the organisation that will mark its 90th anniversary next year. It aims to promote Irish history, language, and culture among the population here.

Mr Mackey, whose family hails from Templetuohy in Tipperary, is acutely aware of the perception that Irish-American traditions may appear far removed from modern-day Ireland.

But, the more modern revival of Irish music and the language embodied by groups like Kneecap and Chasing Abbey — who held a series of concerts in Boston coinciding with St Patrick’s Day, while the Mary Wallopers were also in town — is helping younger Irish-Americans to form a new connection with the birthplace of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

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“I would say people our age or younger, there's a resurgence in terms of, like, ‘hold on a second. I'm Irish, or Italian, or Polish, or Jewish', whatever that looks like here in America. But what does that, like, really mean?’ 

“I think there are really people looking for that, and I don't think that's all that dissimilar from what's happening in Ireland to a degree, with the renaissance of the interest in language going beyond, you know, what was taught in the classrooms and going: ‘Hold on a second, like there's something real here. There's something that I felt like I've missed in my experience as an Irish person that I'm really trying to reconnect to’.” 

He said this is helping to bridge the gap between the songs people will have grown up with as Irish-Americans, such as The Chieftains and Wolfe Tones, and bringing it into the modern day.

Mr Mackey went on: “And the challenge becomes the mismatch between how the older generation found their way to those things versus where the newer generation finds those things.

“For most young people, most of their existence exists in a digital space, whereas the older generation, it was real, it was tangible, and it was in places like this [bar], or it was in the Irish clubs, and much of the community, certainly in Boston, was centered around the various parishes, the clubs, the pubs. And it's about trying to bring those two things together, I guess.” 

People during the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Philadelphia. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

After the pandemic, Mr Mackey travelled to Ireland and spent time in Templetuohy, visiting the graves of his relations who lived in the town. He was the first of his family who moved to the US to do so, as it wasn’t exactly seen as a holiday destination.

“The Ireland that was described to [my father] by his grandfather, who had come over, was a desolate, sad, depressing place,” he said. “It was that place. But it hasn’t been that place for a long time.

“I think that sort of demonstrates where, at least partially, the disconnect comes from. For the Irish-American, increasingly, the more disconnected they are generationally from Ireland, they are rooted in an Ireland of a time long since passed that is virtually unrecognisable to somebody who was born there.” 

'Opportunity to strengthen our economic ties'

Ms McEntee had cultural events on her calendar here to be sure, but the well-oiled machine that is the Irish Government’s St Patrick’s Day programme meant opportunities to sell Ireland Inc abroad will be plentiful during her visit to Boston in between the parade marching and handshaking.

She told reporters on Sunday ahead of the parade: “It's a really important time of the year, I think, for Ireland in particular, to acknowledge and to celebrate our culture and our heritage right across the world.

“But as we see, and I'll see from my next few days, it is a really important opportunity to strengthen our economic ties.

 It's an important opportunity to engage on issues that are important and significant in the here and now. 

It's also an opportunity to make sure that our diaspora and the people who actually help create those economic ties and other connections, that they're supported and that we continue to support them.”

Ireland has benefited greatly, in an economic sense, from these plays of soft power and boxes clever by getting the doors to open for them every year for St Patrick’s Day, trading on that strong diaspora. But a diaspora that is also getting older and is mingling in new traditions with the old.

Irish-American identity in modern-day America can be both about learning the language, or going out drinking when it’s St Patrick’s Day, according to Mr Mackey.

“The value or significance of the day isn’t lost on me,” he said. “There’s much to be celebrated because St Patrick’s Day, at its root in America, is a celebration of ‘we’re here, and we’re not going anywhere’.

“I’m articulating my understanding of why an Irish person doesn’t think I’m Irish, but on the other hand, I’ve no desire to gatekeep. 

"Who gets to call themselves Irish? I think in Irish culture, they would say you’ve quite the 'head' on you to think that you’re entitled to tell somebody what culture or ethnicity they have. I’m not wired like that.”