What does it mean to be Irish? To be honest with you, I have no idea. In fact I didn't know I had Irish ancestors until a few years ago when I started pursuing my maternal grandmother's family. I was quite 
surprised when I discovered my second great grandfather (Thomas Hartford: 1826-1911) was born in Dublin and immigrated with his family to Canada sometime in 1832. For some reason, as I was growing up, I thought this side of the family was English or maybe German, but I wasn't interested in genealogy so it really didn't matter. I've thought hard about the times I spent with my grandmother (Anna Hartford: 1904-2001), and her family, to see if there was any indication of Irishness or Irish customs passed down through the generations, but I mostly drew a blank.
I say mostly because it's possible my family's Catholicism may be the only Irish link there is. I always assumed my being raised a Catholic was a function of coming from an Italian family on my father's side, but because it was my mother who was so devout about church and who attended Catholic schools, I suspect this might be the Irish part coming out. It was my mother who ensured my brother and I attended church and Sunday school - without fail. My father was raised a Catholic of course, but was really ambivalent about the church. It's possible I'm wrong about this though. If religious activities are "mother centered" in Irish families like in Italian families, then my grandmother became a Catholic because of her non-Irish mother instead of her Irish father...leaving my little theory in the dust.
Apparently my family assimilated completely into the American way of life, and the Irish identity blended in and kind of faded away. There are a number of possible reasons why this happened. One might be that my grandmother had no real direct contact with her Irish grandparents where those customs could have been taught and passed down. Her father (John Thomas Hartford: 1869-1916) left the Upstate New York home of his Irish immigrant parents at a young age, and moved to Colorado in the late 1880s - apparently leaving behind all of the family's stories. Another reason I may have lost my Irishness could be the fact John Thomas Hartford married a women (Mary Elizabeth Lamping) in Colorado whose Dutch ancestors came to the New World in the mid-1700s, and had a large extended family in the state. John Thomas died when my grandmother was only 12, so she probably only heard the stories coming from her mother's side of the family.
Ever since I was a kid I've identified as an Italian American. I always knew I also had German ancestors somewhere, but didn't know there was Irish or Scottish blood in my veins until I caught the family history bug in 2003. I wish I had more knowledge of my Irish family and the customs they brought with them from Ireland, but sadly these are probably gone forever. Currently I'm studying Irish history in the 1820's through the 1830s to figure out what the conditions were at the time my second great grandfather left Dublin with his family. I may never be able to feel what it means to be Irish, but through study I may be able to at least understand it instead.
