My Name Says "i'm Irish"

Now, I am not 100% Irish, but interestingly enough, that is the only part of my heritage that I really claim.  My last name carries the Irish in me and affirms it whenever I meet anyone.  We have our own holiday and parade, for heaven's sake, so what else could a guy want?

My dad's grandfather was born in County Clare, Ireland.  Somehow he ended up in Northern New York state.  I don't have as much history on my dad's father's family which gave me my name, but in a search of family records, the furthest I could go back was they came from South Dakota in the 1860s.  That was a real surprise.  I figured it would be Boston or New York, but no record of any of that.  I am wondering if anyone knows about immigration through Canada or how my family would have come to be here via a northern route.

My dad's family never paid much attention to the Irish side of things.  I think something occured back in the day to split our family between Catholic and Protestant.  Part of my family is buried in the Catholic cemetery and the others, on the other side of the fence.  I am from the other side of the fence branch.  Dad and my uncle said their parents and grandparents didn't talk about things, so I will never know for sure what happened.

I do know that I feel a bit alienated by it, for some reason.  Its almost inherent, if that makes sense, a looming sense of loss somewhere along the line.  But, nonetheless, I greatly appreciate the heritage I have and I am proud to be a red-haired, freckled, rudy complexion of a man - son of a black haired curly headed man.  My grandmother rejoiced when I was born, and my cousin was born, as we were the first light haired kids since her grandparents time.  My kids are also red-heads.