Home is where the heart is – and where roots run deepest

The remarkable thing about Americans is that most of them claim to be from somewhere else; rarely will you meet one who won’t be claiming their ancestors were from somewhere else.

You have the Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, Hispanic – and the only ones described as Native Americans are those who were once described as American Indians, and who were hunted onto reservations by the colonial invaders.

About 33 million Americans — or just over ten per cent of the total population — described themselves as being of Irish ancestry in the 2017 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A huge percentage of them have never set foot in Ireland, and if they did, they’d probably be shocked that it isn’t populated by Little People with Darby O’Gill as their leader.

But even from far away, they love all things Irish; just look at the Parades for St Patrick’s Day where the big cities’ rivers are turned green and everyone is a leprechaun for the day.

Those who emigrated across the Atlantic – whether by choice or circumstance – also hold their Irishness dear; it’s a generalisation of course, but you’ll know of emigrants who are more Irish since they left Ireland than they ever were when they were here.

Because whether we like it or not – or indeed even choose to acknowledge it – there’s an unbreakable gravitational pull towards the place we first called home.

For many the bond is simple; they never left their childhood town or village, but for others – on different continents and in different time zones – that pride in their place or parish remains the invisible anchor.

Because it doesn’t matter when, or how you leave home; you can never deny your roots or where you come from. And while we’re all citizens of the world, blessed with a global outlook, you are the sum total of all that has gone before – and that starts with home.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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