Yup, you read that right – my older brother and I, who have the same mom and dad, were both born in 1984. Jon was born on January 7, 1984, and I came eleven months later on December 19, 1984. This means we are the same age in that timeframe between my birthday and his. I didn’t really understand the significance of our birthdays until I was about 8 or 9, which was when my brother and I thought it was so cool that we were “twins” for those few weeks.
It was believable to most people because we have so much ethnicity mixed in our blood that our complexion wasn’t specific to one race. We got a lot of “What are you?” from strangers growing up. The answer to this rude question is that we are Cherokee, Spanish, Filipino, and Irish. Ironically enough, though we don’t look it at all, we get the Irish from both of our parents. In fact, my name comes from County Kerry in Ireland, and means "dark-haired, dark-eyed; dark and mysterious. Just because we have Irish in our blood is not why we are called Irish Twins, though.
The term “Irish Twins” first surfaced as a derogatory term. During the 19th Century, poor, Irish immigrants began arriving in America with their large families. All of their children were born extremely close together. The Irish were predominantly known to be Catholic, and it was a sin to use any kind of birth control. I think we can all put two and two together, and figure out the rest. My family and I had no issues joking that I was an “oops baby”, but to this day, some individuals still consider the term “Irish Twins” to be offensive.
Without birth control, couples were left to rely on self-control when it came to reproducing. Irish Catholics were well known to not just have large families, but children born one right after the other. It was not uncommon for the immigrants to be targeted, as they were easy to spot, and out of this came the term we know today. During this era, however, it was more than a term-it was rude and meant to be degrading.
Today, whether “Irish Twins” is offensive or not depends on the person you ask. Prior to this article, were you aware of what Irish Twins were? Was this the first time you heard this term? Did you know its origin? While I’d been hearing the term Irish Twins my whole life, it wasn’t until I sat down to write this article that I found out it was once a derogatory expression. Being an Irish Twin, as well as Irish and Catholic, I don’t find this term offensive. That doesn’t mean others don’t as well, which we can see from the tweets below:
Are you an Irish Twin, come from a large family that has Irish Twins, or have your own Irish Twins? How do you feel about this term? Being an Irish Twin, I feel pretty unique. I’m sure my parents didn’t feel this way at first, and even more so when I came along so soon after my calm, quiet brother. Apparently I was on the go, and made my presence known the second I was born. Still, my parents had no problem telling people about their Irish Twins, and this is likely why my brother and I are proud of being so unique.
