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.
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