How much irish blood do you have to have to be considered irish?

Question:I am at least of 15/16th blood irish.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I am at least of 15/16th blood irish.

I think at least a quarter. I have a quarter off Irish in me from my grandmom, she is full isrish. =]

That's kind of an odd fraction to give us

If you really did mean to put 15/16ths, then that is Irish.

I personally have a 1/4th rule...if you have less than 1/4th of something, it's misleading to say you're (X). For example, I'm like 1/32nd Irish or Swiss (can't remember which), so I would never say I'm Irish/Swiss.

How much irish blood do you have to have to be considered irish?

As little as possible. (My grandma Duffy told me so...)

(And she was right. It doesn't go away.)

Well, there is no such thing as a pure race of people. I have heard it said that the Irish are about 80% proof.

Enuf to dance a jig, tell a good story, enjoy the odd pint and believe in leprechauns!

Well, who is doing the considering? And what is the criteria to be "Irish"? These are not flippant questions, but are the jist of any answer.

To say you are 15/16th blood irish, that means that you would have to know ALL 32 of your 3rd great grandparents! If you do, that puts you in an EXCEPTIONALLY small minority of those in the genealogical world. But why 32 3rd great grandparents and not just the 16 2nd great grandparents?

Because for ANY of those 16 great grandparents to be pure Irish (necessary to say 15/16ths) you would have to know that BOTH of their parents were Irish. If, lets say 2nd great grandpa Eric had a mother who came from England, then 2nd great grandpa Eric would not be "pure" Irish. So he wouldn't contribute fully to one those 15/16ths.

But why stop there (or can you stop there?). What about your 64 4th great grandparents. If just one was say a couple from Scotland who moved to Ireland, then they certainly aren't Irish, so their son, your 3rd great granparent isn't pure irish and his son your 2nd great grandparent - nor his son - nor his son - nor your parent - nor you is irish by that line.

What makes a person Irish (or anything for that matter)? Frankly, it's whatever the "claimant" wants it to be. Is being born and living in Ireland for 2 generations enough? 3 generations? 15 generations?

Would you imagine that the Queen of England was English? Probably so - but many Queen's of England were actually germanic, not english - but who would say the Queen of England was not english.

To be of Irish nationality you must be born in Ireland or be granted citizenship by the Irish government. If your ancestors were predominantly Irish then you may consider yourself ethnically Irish.

Well normally I would consider you Irish if you lived here for most of your life. It really shouldn't be considered genetic. Immigrants' children that grow up here to me are Irish.