Hello, I'm not Irish.

I was born in the USA. So were my parents. So were most of my grandparents, so were most of my great-grandparents. I'm not Irish. Never been there, not applying for citizenship. I'll go so far as to as I'm not even a proper "Irish-American". I don't have a single shamrock-themed item in my possession. If I wear something green, it's because I think it looks good on me. My favorite foods have names like "vindaloo" or "tikki masala" (which actually might put me a bit closer to many real Irish than many in the USA who run around calling themselves "Irish"). My liquor of choice is bourbon, and my beer style of choice is porter. I'm neither Catholic nor Protestant/Evangelical/Non-Denominational, although I am Christian.

Why am I bothering to be on this web site? I may not be Irish, but the part of my family I've best been able to trace was Irish a century and a half (or so) ago. In my studies, I've come across things that oddly resembled things my family did without thinking about them, things like "I'm after X", where "X" is some activity expressed with the gerund form of the verb; like never quite actually flatly saying "yes" or "no" when a far more detailed and nuanced explanation that gets all the p's and q's lined up quite nicely so there's little chance of misunderstanding would do much better; sucking in stress and turning it into a reason to smile. Thus, I've studied more. I've concluded that, while I am not Irish, I like what I've learned so far of the Irish.