March 17, 2015 (Tuesday)
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and many people will wear something green to celebrate their Irish heritage. There are 100 million people, many millions in America, worldwide who claim to be born in Ireland or descended from those who were. In comparison, Ireland’s population today is 6.4 million, roughly equal to the population of the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area.
When I was in school, I learned about the Jewish Diaspora, a term I had never heard before. It was a word that described the Jews who were living in many nations throughout the world. Today the word, “diaspora” also describes Irish people living in countries other than Ireland.
My name, “Fake,” is German in origin, but my genealogy includes Irish heritage through my grandmother’s line. Many are like me and gladly identify as Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.
The fact of the matter is that each of us is related to many people of different national origins. Think about it. You have two parents. Each of them had 2 parents. That’s four. So tracing your roots just two generations, including you, adds up to 7: you, your parents, their parents. Count the people in each generation: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512. Total: 1033. And that’s only 10 generations, including your own. Logically, you are related to all those people. Take it 10 more generations and its adds up to.. oh, my, too many to count. If a generation is 33 years, that takes you back to the 1400’s, and known history of civilization goes back at least to 6000 BC. So, there’s no escaping it; even if we didn’t have the Bible and Adam and Eve, we would still have to conclude we are all related. Hello, cuz.
Yes, today we are Irish, and..