Are we citizens adrift or citizens assured?

Abstract

What does citizenship mean to you? What role does your nationality play in your identity? I am a person of dual nationality; I am born in America and my father was Irish. I grew up never feeling truly American, as my mother was Italian and my dad;, having lived most of his adult life in California, remained pure Irish, from the friends he played golf with to an accent none of my American friends could understand. I remained ‘on the fence’ regarding my American citizenship. Although we lived in southern California, all our family friends came from Ireland and my house was always filled with people visiting from Europe. After America went to war, I moved my family to Ireland in search of a different way of life far from the hectic insanity of Los Angeles and I found myself in Cork in 2003, in a completely different world. In ...