There’s a level of Irishness that’s only attainable to 1/16-Irish Americans, and forever off limits to anybody actually in Ireland. Indeed, if you have it, going there and straying too far from tourist attractions and pubs with folk-music sessions into the modern Ireland of logistics parks and data centres and corporate tax shelters and rap/techno/pop music without a single fiddle in it and hipsters with bicycles and laptops and tattoos not featuring shamrocks will risk forever losing your connection to the mystical emerald isle in your heart.

Isn't the term "plastic paddies"?

Number of Irish Americans: 31.5 million

Number of "Irish people": 5 million

Who's the real Ireland?

Sure an' begorah! We irish here in the states be layin it on thick!

No bullshit though, there are still places where the irish immigrants have carried along a similar subculture. Enough that they go to Ireland and don't feel like they're in a foreign country. I suspect that it would be similar for an actual Irish citizen to visit with those enclaves here.

But plenty of the irish here in the states came over not because they wanted what was here, but because they didn't have much of a choice. It was either immigrate or famine for many. They held on to their identity longer and more deeply than those that came over out of a desire for something else. You get enough Irish descended folks together, swapping stories, and you'll see that divide. It can get a little noisy when you've got a family where multiple family lines have intermarried. Hell, if you throw in the Scots-Irish into that, it can get outright loud.

Already a thing? E.g. Bloomsday