Why does conan o'brien call himself Irish American?

Question:

Why does conan o'brien call himself Irish American?

He was born in Massachusetts.

So does that mean I'm Irish American then, since my grandmother was born there? I don't understand why Americans do this. Explain?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Only in America when people ask your nationality, people say the countries their ancestors came from rather than just saying, " I am an American!"

I am proud to be an American whose ancestors came from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Wales, and the Netherlands. You hit it on the head. He's of Irish ancestry, but it an American by birth. We do this to share our diverse ethnic heritage with each other, while still remembering and being proud of our American heritage, too.

And yes, you can proudly claim to be an Irish-American, should you so choose. The exact same reason some black folks choose to call themselves African-Americans. He is just announcing his heritage. Most of us don't bother, we are proud enough to simply be an American, and could care less where our ancestors came from originally. He is. I'm an American. I have Irish, German, and Swedish ancestry. I could be called European American, but I think that's pretentious. I think "African American" instead of "Black" is a P.C. fiasco. Could you hear blacks calling you anything but white? What do you call a black person from another country? They like being called black. No, really, they do. Some people are just proud of their heritage. His nationality is American but he wants to make sure you understand that family heritage is Irish as he is proud of it. What's wrong with that?

Now, a lot of us are mutts. So we don't identify ourselves specifically as any one thing. Irish here, and when I meet American the first thing they say is I'm Irish American. Like you I can't understand why they do it. It get on my nerves. My grannie came from such a place and grandfather from blah blah. Who cares! You're only Irish-American if you identify with your irish ancestry. There are Irish families around the world which still speak gaelic, name their children using gaelic names and partake of Irish customs. They celebrate St Patricks Day by going to church and not the pub, they are irish through and through.
Just as there are people born in Ireland who are not Irish but have an Irish passport. Until recently, a tourist could give birth while in Ireland and the baby would be able to get Irish citizenship. They might go home and never set foot in Ireland again but they could have an Irish passport and they were born there; they're not irish though.