Cultural Introduction Blog: Irish Culture

           Red hair, freckles, green eyes, and enjoys her beer. These are all potential stereotypes of Irish culture, however sometimes these stereotypes just simply don’t affect people. In fact, Miranda Ienn is confident in these features. Her hair is completely natural, she is covered in beauty marks, her eyes are a gorgeous deep green, and she is proud of how fast she drinks Guinness. This is not to be offensive to anyone with Irish blood, Miranda just happens to like that her looks and actions are able to make her culture “pop”, like her bright green clover tattoo that her grandmother, aunts, and mother all have.

            In Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama’s textbook “Intercultural Communication in Contexts”, the describe culture to be learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people (2013, p.88). However, culture is a complex idea that has many angles and components, such as symbols, norms, values, and language. It is a learned concept that shapes our perception of the world (Fisher, 2013). Miranda’s grandparents are from Ireland and have raised her mother with values and traditions that have then been passed to her. This makes Irish culture a part of her ethnic identity. Positive aspects of this identity are self-identification, knowledge about her ancestry, and a sense of belonging to this group (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p.192).

The biggest Halloween festival is in Derry Ireland, with
nearly 30,000 people in attendance each year.

            The Irish culture is filled with different forms of art, food, folklore and festivals that started in the Ireland and have made its way all around the world. Including our beloved Halloween, which is just around the corner. The origin of the holiday comes from the Samhain festival that began in Ireland’s Celtic past (Santry, 2013). Not to be misinterpreted for the NBA team, the Celts were a tribal society in the medieval times. The Celts are apart of Irelands history comparably to how Native Americans are apart of the United States history.

            As you can see there is so much more to learn about Miranda’s culture and the Irish community as a whole, even here in Nebraska. I’m excited to explore deeper for my Cultural Reporter Project.

References

Floyd, K. (2011). Interpersonal Communication (2^nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.)
      New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Santry, C.  (2013).  The Origin of Halloween Lies in Celtic Ireland. Irish Genealogy Toolkit.
      Retrieved from: 
      http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/origin-of-Halloween.html