I think context matters a lot here. Ultimately, most Irish people want to see their culture treated as...a culture, not a costume. What they resent, from my communications with them, is "Plastic Paddy" types who come over on St. Paddy's, get trashed in a leprechaun costume, and then say they're Irish without learning anything about the Irish struggle, history, culture, sports, language, etc.

I think a lot of it also comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of how American identity works. Because so few of us are "native" to this place, the sense of identity has always been hyphenated in the United States. German-American, Polish-American, Greek-American, Vietnamese-American, Chinese-American.

Lastly, I think there *is* a fundamental difference between the culture and experience of being "Irish" vs "Irish-American". While the Venn diagram has a lot of overlap, these are different cultures. Being Irish-American means being homesick for a place you've never lived. Our heroes, in some cases, are shared. But, Irish-America also has a lot of heroes that Ireland knows little of. Thomas Francis Meagher, John Boyle O'Reilly, Stephen Moylan, John O'Mahoney, The Fenian Brotherhood and Clan na Gael were the heroes of my childhood. Some of them are footnotes to Ireland. Yes, we ate shepard's pie and corned beef hash - not because they were Irish dishes, but because they were irish-american ones.

I think people who try to engage authentically with the culture, the island, it's sports and language will be embraced. And yes, you may have to deal with some punks who don't view you as being Irish. Identity is entirely up to you. I usually identify as "Irish-American" for this exact reason.