“Let’s talk about your sort-of-but-not-entirely benign passion for the supposed ‘Celtic’ past: Let’s talk about your tattoos, very likely an ahistorical mishmash of definitely-not-Celtic stuff and pseudo-medieval Christian lettering and incoherent 20th-century nationalism. Let’s talk about the fairies, the ancient monuments, the spiritual meditations, the mispronounced names of traditional holidays, the cobbled-together bits of mythology and folklore. That stuff sucks. I mean, I get it, up to a point: Some of it is about the understandable and maybe even honorable yearning to connect with meaningful cultural traditions from the past, at a historical moment when many people in America and other Western nations (i.e., white folks) feel disconnected and rootless. But some of it is just white supremacist garbage. It’s not always easy to tell where one ends and the other begins. Nearly all the Celtomania of the last few decades, unfortunately, amounts to just making stuff up, or to a fantasy-novel mishmash of stuff that doesn’t fit together.” “The real and endlessly complicated story of Ireland’s past is a lot more interesting than the search for some made-up ‘Celtic’ essence that never existed.” “I’m not telling you to scrub off that triple-spiral tattoo in shame. It’s not Celtic, and anyone who tells you what it ‘symbolizes’ is having you on — but it’s definitely something.”—”Hey, Irish Americans: Your ‘Celtic’ tattoo isn’t Celtic — because that whole idea was made up. The real and complicated story of Ireland’s past is a lot more interesting than Irish Americans make it out to be”