this was originally posted on my myspace blog but i’ve moved it here since i’m deleting that.

so i’m back in the states, the trip from dublin to oakland took 22 hours total so when we finally got home laura and i just crashed. walking through the streets here in oakland this morning it was hard to believe that yesterday morning i was in dublin, guess that’s the hardest part of travelling - as soon as you get used to being someplace you’re not there any more.

the republic oif ireland (the 3/4 of the country that’s not a brittish colony any more) was cool, we had massive shows in cork and dublin - 150 folks in cork and over 200 in dublin - and got positive responses for the most part.

At the same time though, walking around and talking to people i could tell my accent wasn’t winning me any favors with folks on the street…. and wearing a kilt in ireland with an american accent was practically an invitation to get shit. in the states i get a pretty much constant stream of compliments from people who recognize my utilikilt for what it is - a practical modern adaption of something traditional; but in ireland some of the folks i ran into seemed offended at the very idea of taking a traditional garment like a kilt and modernising it - and not just old people either. There’s something strange about being an irish/scottish-american wearing a kilt and having a bunch of 16 year old irish kids wearing FUBU and Sean John essentially accuse you of cultural appropriation. I mean, excuse me if you’re offended folks, but it’s my fucking culture too. period. and that’s not up for discussion or negotiation. Besides, if i can’t wear a kilt because i’m an american then why the hell are ya’ll wearing hip hop gear? it’s a very strange combination of extreme cultural conservatism and modernism that i think could only exist in a place like ireland. i got a few compliments too, but a lot more negative and a lot less positive then i get in the states. very strange.

seriously though, I’ve never felt overtly discriminated against for being a irish/scottish-american until i went to ireland. if the subject of ethnicity came up at all (and after the first couple encouters i tried to avoid it) the response was pretty much always “fucking irish americans, you’re not really irish and you don’t know anything about ireland”. which seems a bit harsh…. especially since irish people who come here pretty much alway get a warm welcome from irish americans, maybe it was naive of me to expect that to go both ways but i definately didn’t expect overt hostility. on reflection i guess i can kind of understand the response… after all nationalism is all about drawing boundaries and deciding who’s inside the boundary and who’s outside, and with less then 5 million people living in the Republic and over 70 million irish americans, canadians, and australians out there it’d be really easy for irish people in ireland to get lost in the shuffle if they accepted us on equal terms. besides which, there are more then enough dumb tourists in running around in shamrock hats claiming to be irish to make even the most patient person get pissy. that’s the problem with stereotypes - too often there’s some truth to them. =(

at the same time though, the attitude seemed to be more then a bit xenophobic in general - and not just towards visitors. for the first time in 800 years more people are immigrating to ireland then are emmigrating from it to other places, and that’s created a strange dynamic where instead of being immigrants all over the world irish people are having to deal with playing host to immigrants. polish folks (who form the largest immigrant group since poland joined the EU) have a relatively easy time because they can pass for irish fairly easily once they pick up the language and the accent, but apparently folks who can’t blend in as easily - ie people of color - are having a rougher time, and there’s a lot of general anti-immigrant feeling. combine that with a general disdain for tourists and you end up with a country that’s really not very friendly to be in if you’re not a native and don’t have some serious time to devote to winning people’s trust and respect. not that being expected to earn trust or respect is neccessarily a bad thing, but it’s hard to do when you’re only in a city for a day or two.

having said all that, we met a lot of great folks - the Workers Solidarity Movement folks were all awesome, and the response from the folks who came to my show in Cork was so positive i want to go back just so i can play there again.

I’ve got other thoughts too that haven’t been sorted out well yet, ireland is officially the “most globalized” country in the world in terms of its economy and that definately had some strong effects. for one thing i think it goes a long way towards explaining why so many irish folks seem cautious towards strangers. their entire economy is dependant on the goodwill of strangers in other parts of the world - particularly the usa - and apparently corporate america has used that reliance to essentially dictate irelands foreign policy for the last decade. in a country that fought so long and so hard to escape colonization and foreign domination that doesn’t go over well, so perhaps that explains some of the hostility towards americans. there are a lot of things at work here and i doubt i’ll ever have all the answers, but the one thing that’s for certain is that it’s not all rainbows and shamrocks in the emerald isle.

anyway, guess that’s the official conclusion to my travel journal for now. I’m home and i’ve got plenty of stuff to take care of here. with a little luck i’m going to try to do a longer tour next summer once laura and i are both graduated, but it’s an open question whether that’ll be in the US or in europe again… basically if i end up in grad school in the states i’ll go to europe and if i end up in a grad school over there i’ll do a it here. we’ll see how it all works out…

Comments (copied over from myspace)

crudo	I figured that there’d be some sort of anti-irish american backlash. Seems kind of like the crabs in the barral trying not to let the crab that got out, get back in. I seem to remember Irish American aid to various Irish resistance struggles being most important throughout the 19th century. Posted by crudo on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 10:56 PM

KilnAboy

Hello there fella, it’s Jay here from KilnAboy. I’ve just been reading all your blogs about your trip. Sorry to hear that your trip to Ireland wasn’t the most welcoming. It is a very strange one indeed. I was born in Ireland and lived there for 21 years and although I now live in Wales my heart will always bring me back to Ireland. Having said this I can understand how annoying it must have been for you to have your ethnicity questioned in such an ignorant fashion. I get it too when I go home and I’m as Irish as emerald green grass. I think it’s just a case of jumping ship but I feel more Irish outside of Ireland for obvious reason. I am very patriotic but only for romantic Ireland that still exists mostly on the west coast. The biggest problem I have with this is the fact that my politics conflict with this vague feeling of patriotism. I don’t believe in borders and I don’t hate the English and I certainly feel that the bigger fight exists globally rather than in people’s backyards. Unity and solidarity are more important isues to concentrate on and if this exists regardless of where we are from then just maybe we will collectively manage to knock chips off the real enemy of the people which are the governments of every country. It was great to have you over and I hope you do decide to return someday. Just give us a shout if you come back and we’ll sort you out with a few gigs. Oh by the way Tom of Gwent Anarchists has been arrested along with a few people from CAN at the G8 in Russia. We’re still waiting on the details and trying to get a press release out. Check indymedia uk for info. Peace love and Anarchy Jay KilnAboy Posted by KilnAboy on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 8:49 AM

Posted: July 2nd, 2006 under culture war, personal.
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