What Defines My Irish and Roman Catholic Identities

Having a rather diverse background three primary identities appear to me in this year of 2019 as the most salient those being my identity as an American, my identity as an Irishman, and my identity as a Roman Catholic. I define each of these identities based off my own personal experience of having them. These identities maintain their salience in my subconscious due to all of them being interrelated and being a stable constant throughout my life. There has never been a time in my life where I felt that I was not part of one of these three identities. Furthermore each of these identities compliments the other I cannot fully express one of these three identities without having to recognize that of the others.

A cultural identity is defined by the daily activities an individual partakes in which define which social group that person falls under (Korostelina 2007). My cultural identity is very complicated. This is because I have the traditions of numerous cultures under my belt to me this multifaceted identity falls under my identity as ‘American’. My cultural identities encompass many different cultures these cultures include the standard WASP American culture, Austrian culture, German culture, and Irish culture and from a spiritual perspective Christian culture. I subconsciously include these cultural identities to my everyday life. For example I try to be thrifty and enjoy playing golf which reflects WASP American culture, I am a lover of singing and dancing which reflects Irish culture, and I enjoy drinking beer and managing my life very strictly which is a reflection of Austrian and German culture.

Due to my ethnic background containing a plurality of various cultures with no one culture being dominant other than my Irish culture I share customs most closely with is that of other individuals who grew up in American culture as opposed to who did not. In this sense I subconsciously create a social boundary around Americans as opposed to non-Americans (Tilly, 2005). This does not mean that I have animosity towards those of an alien national culture rather that I have a natural drawing towards those who share a more similar cultural identity to my own in this regard.

A reflective identity is defined, as a reflection for the identity that surrounded you during your adolescence. This is the culture you adopted from your family and the environment you endured during your development into an adult (Korostelina 2007). In my case my reflective identity would certainly be the Roman Catholic identity of my parents. This is largely due to the fact that I spent the majority of my life with my parents and in the company of Roman Catholics. I ‘reflect’ this identity by participating in family gatherings on Christmas and Easter. Despite the fact that I do not always personally reflect the Catholic part of my identity I reflect the parts of it that are most pertinent to my upbringing, which is celebrating Christmas and Easter in the company of my family. I do this because I have a great appreciation for Roman Catholic heritage, traditions, and culture. Recently my Roman Catholic identity has become more salient due to the Islamic State terrorist attacks against Roman Catholic Churches during this past Easter.

This growth in salience is very personal being that I knew the priest who was killed in one of the churches while saying mass and that many of the churches that were attacked by the jihadists resembled the architecture of some of the many churches I attended as a child. According to Volkan certain aspects of the history of a group unite the group be it a victory, traumatic event, or shared resources (Volkan 2001). This certainly was the case for me following the terrorist attacks this past Easter.

An example of me outwardly expressing the new salience of my Roman Catholic identity would be the fact that I have started to attend more sacraments. By sacraments I mean that I more frequently have gone to confession, something prior to the Easter attacks I had no done since my senior year of high school, and by receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist on days other than Sunday. Receiving the Eucharist or “communion” as its more commonly known in the United States is typically done on Sundays during Mass as the bare minimum me receiving on days other than Sunday demonstrates the growing salience of my Roman Catholic identity.

The final identity that is the most salient to me is that of my identity as an Irishman. I have an Irish surname and an Irish middle name, that being Patrick after St. Patrick of Ireland. My Irish identity has always clung on to my two other salient identities in a way that I cannot reflect either identity without having to remind myself of my Irish heritage. A reason for this is that my father’s Irish side of the family are relative newcomers to the United States when compared to other Irish Americans and much of the my father’s side of the family is in either Ireland or Australia making part of the my American background intrinsically Irish and to a lesser extent international. In regards to my Roman Catholic identity my Irish family often tell me old family stories going back to the 1600s of family members who were persecuted by the English crown for refusing to denounce their Catholic faith.

From the perspective of my ancestors it would appear that Catholicism was internally recognized more so as a unique relationship between fellow Irishman than it was as a relationship with the Vatican. For example my grandfather was a Chieftain during the early 1600s and he sold all of his large fortune so that dozens of Irish Catholic families in Cork could resettle in Galicia in Spain in order to escape the mass ethnic cleansing by Charles Cromwell and allied Irish chieftains. Internally I feel as though I am part of the same story that my ancestors who over came so many obstacles to maintain and advance their identity understood and it is for this reason that my Irish identity remains stable whilst still being a Roman Catholic. It is due to an understanding of this history that I define it as my core identity.

Being someone of a multifaceted background comprising of various ethnic groups my identity is largely complicated and salience in these identities I hold is largely determined by events and experiences around me in relation to these identities. My identities of American, Roman Catholic and Irish hold the most salience of all of the identities I hold. My Irish identity is my core identity because without this identity I do not think it would be possible to understand my relation to my other three identities nor how I understand myself as a person.