Originally Posted by
Gray77
I think you're both jumping the gun yourselves in what you're saying. It was merely an anecdote to describe a certain mentality, not an accusation of Carney's secret desires.
One of my best friends is Irish, but he's lived in the US for over a decade now after living in England for a few years. He has gained a certain ex-pat professional Irishman persona over various issues now that he is nowhere near Ireland, which he never displayed when he was back home or even in England, but I think it's natural in a way. I was always more aware of where I was from when I lived in London, whereas now I'm back up North it doesn't really cross my mind too much, and the world is full of areas with centres of ex-pat Brits who go wild for stereotypes of British culture that they probably ignored in the main before they upped sticks.
The Irish-American phenomenon is quite strange as well, I agree with Belgian. You listen to Biden telling the BBC he can't stop to talk to them because 'I'm Irish' and you just roll your eyes really. I happened to go to my Irish mates wedding in Austin, Texas and when we all turned up for the practice ceremony we were all informed not to mess around in the service because the priest wouldn't stand for it, because 'he's Irish'. The 30 guests all stood there bewildered given that 90% of them were actually Irish and had travelled there from Cork and Limerick, and when the priest showed up and gave us an anecdote from his favourite tv show 'Everybody Loves Raymond' in a thick Texan accent I thought 'yeah, it doesn't get more Irish than this!' But that fella was probably more acutely aware of what his version of Irishness was, and how it gave him some identity and set him apart from others in south Texas than a lad walking around Cork, Dublin or Galway will ever really give thought to. It's natural, and I think Carney displayed such an ex-pat attitude this year despite it coming off as massively hypocritical.