Are there any actual Scots, Irish or Welsh on this forum?

[Milims]

One great grandfather was Scottish - from a long line of scots, he was married to a lady of French descent, one grandmother was from Devon and a grandfather was a from Gateshead. Me - I'm Northumbrian - and object strongly to being called Geordie!

[MuddyWitch]

Hummm maybe my wonderings can be explained 'cos my paternal Grandfather was a full-blood Romany, who 'moved into brick' to be with my Grandmother, (Nottingham, born & bred).

On the other side; maternal Grandparents were both born & bred in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but moved to Nottingham just before my mother was born, but she was then evacuated to Wall's End for the war!

As for accents, mine is mostly a Nottingham/Leicester mix, but I can easily slip into Geordie when visiting family 'up North' (as my Mum never lost her accent), I can do a mean Scouse curtisy of my ex-husband & his family, and will no doubt pick up the local 'twang' as soon as we move to RoI next Spring!

MW

[red]

my point was.. is anyone purely anythng? and does it matter?

I mean I am proud of my heritage.. my background, all the different parts of it. and i don't want to choose one element to be all that I am.

[Penny Lane]

Welsh born and mostly bred

There are a few other nationalities in my blood but Welsh most dominant.

[TheGoodEarth]

sounds like there are many mongrels!

[Millymollymandy]

Yippe we have someone from Wales in Wales too!

Now my point of this thread which most people seem to have missed was this - lots of people are moving to other countries where property is cheaper in order to buy their smallholding/Ish dream with big garden/whatever, and as RoI, Scotland and Wales are three of those countries I just wondered whether any of the many Ishers living in these countries, were actually FROM those countries! Quite a straightfoward question I would have thought. It wasn't supposed to be about your ancestry but carry on as you were.

[TheGoodEarth]

Property isn't necessarily cheaper in Scotland - it depends where you live. Prices are relative to remoteness. Move to the north west of Scotland and you can buy many acres for little outlay, however it is very difficult to make a living. I would be better off selling up in Perth and moving to somewhere like Lincolnshire or Cumbria for more land. However I couldn't earn the same money I do here due to being close to Edinburgh.

[red]

but if iI moved to Wales.. then i could wax on about my Welsh ancestors..and if i moved to Scotland I could point out those... so if you identify a Welsh person living in Wales.. well what definition are you going by? where they were born? or family tree?

if going by accent.. I have a Devonshire accent (more so when drinking!) but with some Welsh.

[Millymollymandy]

OK perhaps I should have worded it 'Aberdeenshire' rather than Scotland.

[Millymollymandy]

but if iI moved to Wales.. then i could wax on about my Welsh ancestors..and if i moved to Scotland I could point out those... so if you identify a Welsh person living in Wales.. well what definition are you going by? where they were born? or family tree?

if going by accent.. I have a Devonshire accent (more so when drinking!) but with some Welsh.

Well personally I go by what I feel I am, not what my ancestry is or where I was born. I am a quarter Scottish myself and was born in a British colony, my father was always of Fijian nationality and so was I until I was about 14, but as far as I'm concerned I'm English, I have an English accent so that's what I am.

Thought most people just considered themselves to be one thing or another. Well all the Scots, Irish and Welsh I've ever met (like Kiwis and Aussies) are so proud of their countries/nationalities that that's where they consider that they come from.

Perhaps it's only the English who aren't proud to be English?

[red]

but if iI moved to Wales.. then i could wax on about my Welsh ancestors..and if i moved to Scotland I could point out those... so if you identify a Welsh person living in Wales.. well what definition are you going by? where they were born? or family tree?

if going by accent.. I have a Devonshire accent (more so when drinking!) but with some Welsh.

Well personally I go by what I feel I am, not what my ancestry is or where I was born. I am a quarter Scottish myself and was born in a British colony, my father was always of Fijian nationality and so was I until I was about 14, but as far as I'm concerned I'm English, I have an English accent so that's what I am.

Thought most people just considered themselves to be one thing or another. Well all the Scots, Irish and Welsh I've ever met (like Kiwis and Aussies) are so proud of their countries/nationalities that that's where they consider that they come from.

Perhaps it's only the English who aren't proud to be English?

I'm proud to be British - all the parts of it.

I feel I belong to Devon - but so does himself and he is Irish born in East Anglia (he managed this because .. yes.. imigration works both ways).

I'm not 'not proud' of being English.. its just there are so many different parts of it - it seems to make a nonsense to lump it into one. I'm just as resentful at those in the SE of England going on about it being a nice day (on the radio or tv), when it only is in the SE or those twits in government etc. They are just as removed from me - yet somehow I'm lumped in and labeled as them. and given that I am also Irish, Welsh and Scottish.. why would I ignore those parts of me. I dont want to choose one.

My BIL (who is Welsh) likes to have a go at the English every time he sees us. Its so funny really, because of course.. his wife is from the same background as my OH (himself) and at a family occasion i was chatting with his family, and found out that actually I'm more Welsh then he is. Sometimes defining oneself so strictly, when we are mostly a bit of all sorts, is a nonsense.

RE cheaper property prices.. some parts of the South West are a lot cheaper.. but where I live is expensive.. partly due to richer English buying holiday homes or downsizing here. See..its not necessarily a border or race thing.. people move about, take advantage of the difference in pay/property prices etc, and often 'the locals' lose out. But I'm glad we move about, and I would not have met and settled down with himself otherwise.

[Annpan]

There always seems to be Americans, Australians or Canadians who say they are Scottish, when they have only been here twice... going by ancestry we can all name several countries that we belong to... which is why I specified accent.

I don't believe I am any more Scottish than my friend, who's parents are both hungarian, we both have Scottish accents.

Land is much cheaper in some places, but it has to do with many factors. Our land was relatively cheap yet we are less than an hour from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carlise.... but those who sell their flats in the South East to buy land in Scotland want to live up in Aberdeenshire (it's not that cheap up there... it is just where everyone seems to end up... and of course prices stay high because that is where everyone seems to want to buy)

When we go traveling around Scotland, most of the accents you hear (people who work in campsites, B+Bs, shops, etc) are English accents... when we visited the Aberdeenshire ishers the only Scottish accent was from my sister

I think it is lovely that so many 'foreigners' want to live in Scotland

[Millymollymandy]

... when we visited the Aberdeenshire ishers the only Scottish accent was from my sister

That was why I started this thread thinking of how many Ishers live there that aren't (as far as I was aware) Scottish!

I don't think people in general are very proud to be English as it always seems to be divided - all those who say 'I'm not English, I'm Cornish/a Yorkshireman/whatever'. Bit of a shame really as England doesn't have its own anthem like the other countries in Britain or its own national day like the other countries. I don't know why it has to be so different for poor old England.

Dunno why I am now defending it so much as I can't say I've ever felt particularly 'proud' to be English myself, it's just what I consider I am (for better or worse!). I haven't even lived in the country for that many years and it's not even 'home'.

[Gert]

This is an interesting thread MMM. Can I say i'm proud to be English

Ironically my genetic father is Italian. Consequently I look about as English as Hadrian

Which, in a spurious chain of logic leads to the thought that I was inspired to look into moving to Cumbria/Scotland after listening to Radcliffe & Marconi (Radio 2 fans will know)

Only to discover that it really isn't any cheaper than it is down here

[MKG]

It's too much to ask for anyone to identify their absolute origins. Half of lowland Scotland was once in Northumbria - and therefore English, I suppose. Cumberland and Westmorland were once Scottish. A lot of "Irish" people originate from Scotland (and the Scotti actually came from Ireland). If you're from Berwick upon Tweed, you have real problems. Then, of course, a lot of Yorkshire people are really Danes and a lot of Lancashire people (Lancashire was once part of Yorkshire, funnily enough) are Norse, as are the Manx and a lot of Hebrideans. Then, of course, a lot of us are French via the Normans (but they were originally Vikings). Then there's the Belgi, who introduced their genes from, surprise, the area of Belgium, and we had an influx of Frisians (from the Netherlands). And I haven't even begun with the Jutes, Franks and Swabians.

The history of the whole of Europe is one of movement of population. No-one really knows how they came to be where they are. So when you say "You live in Wales but are you really Welsh?" you're asking an unanswerable question. Most of them aren't, anyway (aaaaaah!!!! screams and gnashing of teeth!!!!! - wait for the revenge of the Celts ).

Mike