Why Do Irish Americans Wear Kilts? Are Irish Kilts "Conflating" Celtic Cultures?

Recently someone asked me, "Why do Americans conflate Scottish and Irish (and sometimes Nordic) cultures?"

What started as a quick online comment in reply turned into a musing on the attitude of those of us living in the Irish Diaspora in the United States; how we view ourselves and why we seem to go bonkers for this stuff. Here goes...

As a result of the Great Hunger, by 1860 an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Irish immigrants came here. They went from being less than a quarter of our immigration numbers to over half of all immigrants. They were largely met with bigotry (a very complicated story we are actually doing a piece on now) and this resulted in a passionate adherence to folk culture and tradition that has percolated down to us today. 

But let's talk general American-ness. (yes it's a word now)

As you all know, the American attitude veers towards the energetic, even frenetic. We have been, and sometimes still perceive ourselves as, the new kids on the block of western civilizations: 

"To a European 200 years is nothing and 200 miles is a long ways. To an American 200 years is a long time and 200 miles is nothing."

We find ourselves looking backwards with a degree of longing as well as always wanting to push forward - the "frontier mentality" as some call it. 

And as a country blessed with having a heterogeneous population, we live in the great salad bowl of cultures here. Thus people, not just those of Celtic descent, really enjoy their personal heritage and love to show it off. And in the more "open" parts of the country, shall we say, this is appreciated and enjoyed. We love the exotic, we love color. We love foods and drinks and festive clothing. We love a good party and we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of cultures to explore here. 

You know the expression "Nobody is more Scottish than a Scotsman traveling abroad"? It's a bit like that. People who live in the diaspora of a culture are more likely to have a passionate interest in it than those who live in the native land; for whom it is often just, you know,  normal, "there", boring, what your grandad was into, not reflective of how I am living my life in the here-and-now. (please note I am being intentionally hyperbolic for humor - I am not casting any stereotypes)

So! We Yanks look back at how the Irish Nationalists attempted to create a national dress from Highland Dress and for us it checks all the boxes:

• It has some basis in tradition.
• It's unusual in the greater mens clothing context.
• We see it as celebratory.
• We can use it to really amplify our heritage visibility.

Same rule applies to other forms of dress here. As the new kids on the block we are less concerned with how old a tradition is, we are concerned with whether or not it feels empowering. 

Americans of any ethnicity often have tenuous connections to the lands of their ancestors, so we are fine with taking what we have inherited and getting creative with it. As often as not, the old is mixed with new ideas which were developed by the immigrants. Creole cuisine was developed here and is considered a tradition of it's own. Kente cloth was not worn by any of the Africans who were brought to the Americas as slaves, but it is beautiful and speaks of African-borne aesthetics so it is a powerful force in Black American fashion. Corned beef was a trans-Atlantic ration food, but it became dear to the hearts of Irish Americans and many Jewish Americans as well. 

Irish county tartans were developed in the 1990s by a single mill. Okay. So they are not ancient and were a targeted product. Fine. Have they stuck around because they are good-looking and speak to people's need? Absolutely. 

Now as to the mixing of elements. The other thing a lot of us Americans are proud of is that we are "mutts." With our attitude of "more is more" and our love of the underdog story, we kinda adore the fact that we have immigrant ancestors from all over. It speaks to our sense of people freeing themselves from the past, overcoming boundaries and prejudices.

Imagine a 19th century love story - a Catholic Irish woman marrying a German Protestant. Wow did they have an uphill battle! America is the place of such stories. We are damned proud of them. 

Say someone has Scottish, English, German and Norwegian ancestry. Well, that's me!

I am fascinated by, and proud of, all of it. I want to honor ALL of my ancestors in some small way so I can reflect on who they were and what they experienced from a place of gratitude. And I love the chance to honor them by telling those stories, or at least pointing to them in passing. It is what makes me unique. 

Highland dress, the most versatile national dress in the world, allows me to do all that. How to exercise good taste in doing so is another conversation. 

I rather dislike the word "conflate" as it implies wrong-doing, confusion.  Americans, I would argue, know what we are doing. We see the cultures of our ancestors as part of a mosaic and ourselves as lucky enough to be able to synergize the best parts into something exciting. 

And by the way, we absolutely DO keep cultural expressions in water-tight containers sometimes. Some folks only ever celebrate one inherited culture. Some only use outward expressions in strict contexts. Like Rocky, my esteemed employer and leader. He will only wear lederhosen for Oktoberfest when he is celebrating his German side. The kilts are for every-day personal expression or Scottish occasions such as Burns Night. 

We are not a monolith. Thank Goodness. As Mame put it, "Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," so why not enjoy all this wonderful stuff?  Wear the kilt. Enage with your community. Tell the stories with pride because you don't know who else will.