History Main / FakeIrish

* Creator/AnjelicaHuston previously played an Irish woman in ''Film/TheDead1987'' - very impressively again alongside an all-Irish cast and sounding appropriately like an early 20th century Galway woman.

* In ''Leapin' Leprechauns'' and ''Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns'', John Bluthal, a Polish-born actor raised in Australia and later a British citzen plays Michael Dennehy, an English actor plays the king of the leprechauns, and Tina Martin, an English actor plays the queen of the fairies.

As you might expect, FakeIrish characters often slip into {{Oireland}} territory. American, British, Canadian, or Australian actors of Irish descent may be able to avoid the label if they properly learn the accent from any Irish relatives they may have. But if they screw up the accent, expect to hear about it.

* Creator/SeanBean played another FakeIrish in the adaptation of Irish playwright John B. Keane's drama ''Film/TheField'', again alongside Richard Harris, as did Creator/JohnHurt.

* In a mix between FakeIrish, FakeNationality and FakeAmerican, British actor Alan Rickman played real life half-Cuban, New York-born, Irish revolutionary Eamon de Valera in ''Film/MichaelCollins''.

* Scot Creator/GerardButler portrayed Creator/HilarySwank's late Irish husband in ''Film/PSILoveYou''. His FakeIrish accent was generally savaged by Irish newspaper reviews. She then goes on a holiday to Ireland and meets Creator/JeffreyDeanMorgan. Amusingly Butler was quite open about his failure to "channel" his Irish ancestry and during an interview actually issued a lighthearted (but no less honest) apology to the people of Ireland.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' has both a regular and an in-universe example. Brit Creator/GabrielleAnwar plays former-IRA Fiona Glennane; however, you'd be forgiven for not noticing, as she adopts another, American-ish accent in the second episode (and her original Irish accent was bad enough that it comes as a relief). American Creator/JeffreyDonovan plays American Michael Westen, who uses a cover as Irish terrorist Michael [=McBride=]. Also, Michael's Irish accent is so good, Fiona's brother Sean tells him his ''American'' accent is [[YourCostumeNeedsWork "a bit dodgy"]]. Made even funnier by the fact that Fiona's brother is played by Creator/GideonEmery, an Englishman and fellow FakeIrish.

* ''Series/FatherTed'' - of all shows - used this at least once with native Glaswegian Clare Grogan playing Niamh Connolly, an Irish radical feminist pop singer.

* ''Film/{{Ronin}}'' - Creator/NataschaMcElhone is English in real life. However, her mother is Irish and Natasha regularly visited Donegal as a child. Her accent leaves something to be desired, though.

* Australian actor Creator/CateBlanchett played the eponymous lead in ''Film/VeronicaGuerin'', a biopic about an investigative journalist who was assassinated for investigating TheIrishMob and its involvement in the drug trade in Ireland.

* In a weird semi-example ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' saw Creator/RhysIfans (who is proudly Welsh) play Xenophilius Lovegood with a noticeable Irish accent to fit in better with his on-screen daughter Luna Lovegood (who is played by Irish actor Creator/EvannaLynch).

* Anjelica Huston previously played an Irish woman in ''Film/TheDead1987'' - very impressively again alongside an all-Irish cast and sounding appropriately like an early 20th century Galway woman.

** English actors Jim Sturgess and William Houston as IRA members, both very convincing. Englishwoman Natalie Press is also decent enough as the love interest Lara.

** Most of the flashback scenes in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' contain some dreadful examples of {{Oireland}}, including a delightful buxom wench played by American Creator/ChristinaHendricks who sounds - well - not Irish.
* None of the characters who appeared in the brief 'Peter in Ireland arc' in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' were portrayed by Irish actors ([[{{Oireland}} and it shows]]), though one ''was'' an Irish-American, and another was Dominic Keating, who is half Irish, although he was raised in England. Two seasons later we had American Robert Knepper playing Samuel.

* Jimmy O'Phelan on ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy''; his accent's pretty painful as played by American Creator/TitusWelliver. In fact, the entire Belfast sequence was painful. Seems they couldn't combine filming on location with hiring actual Irish actors, with the exception of Paula Malcomson. Though maybe choosing not to surround terrible accents with genuine ones was a wise decision.
* A pre-fame Creator/HeathLedger played a young Irish warrior prince in the short-lived ''[[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys Hercules]]''/''[[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Xena]]'' knock-off ''Series/{{Roar}}''.
* Also, in ''Hercules'' proper, the Irish demi-goddess Morrigan is played by the Canadian Tamara Gorski (and no, she doesn't have an ounce of Irish blood in her, she's of Ukrainian descent). Then again, no character in that show is played by an actor of the same nationality (e.g. the lead is a Greek with a Roman name played by an American).
* British actor Paul Whitehouse played Irish estate worker Ted (of the Ted & Ralph sketches) in ''Series/TheFastShow''.

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'':
** Scottish actor Creator/KellyMacdonald plays Irish immigrant Margaret Schroder with quite a convincing accent for a character from early 20th century Kerry.
** The IRA fighter Owen Sleater is played by the English Creator/CharlieCox.
** The Sinn Féin politician John [=McGarrigle=] is played by the American Ted Rooney.
** Margaret's brother, Eamonn is played by the Scottish Creator/TonyCurran.
** Irish-American Nucky Thompson is played by Italian-American Creator/SteveBuscemi, who is of half Irish descent.
** InUniverse case with Mickey Doyle. He's a Pole, with the real name Mieczyslaw Kuzik, posing as an Irishman.
* In ''Series/GeneralHospital'', American actor Erin Chambers plays Galway native Siobhan [=McKenna=]...with an ''extremely'' thick accent that sounds as fake as it is.
* In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' two episodes - "The Night of the Double-Edged Knife" and "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse" - feature some actionably bad Irish accents, particularly Elisha Cook in the former and Karen Sharpe [[LargeHam hamming it up]] in the latter ("Terrible! TERRIBLE!" indeed). On the other hand, "The Night of the Firebrand" has Pernell Roberts not only playing a convincing Irishman but also playing a convincing [[FakeAmerican Irishman pretending to be American]]!
* Subverted with British actor Creator/JamieBamber, who was born in London, but is of Irish ancestry and has Irish citizenship, thanks to his mother. However, his character from ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'', Matt Devlin, was given a slightly different background--born in Ireland, but emigrated to London at young age.

* Inverted in the series ''{{Literature/Outlander}}''. Main character and Englishwoman Claire Randall is portrayed by Irish actor Creator/CaitrionaBalfe.

* The three Irish characters in ''Literature/TheThornBirds'' (Ralph, Paddy, Mary) are played by Americans and Brits. Adding insult to injury, as is par for the course with this trope, only one of them even bothers to try sounding like an Irishman, and he does it badly.
* ''Series/AmericanGods2017'': Canadian Creator/PabloSchreiber plays Irish leprechaun Mad Sweeney, and Australian Creator/EmilyBrowning plays Irishwoman Essie [=McGowan=].
* ''Series/KnotsLanding'' has an in-universe example. Although it was hinted in several episodes soon after his introduction in Season Nine that Johnny Rourke wasn't really Irish, this was not confirmed until the Season Ten episode "Deserted". When Johnny, Michael, Paige and several Mexicans are trapped in a deserted truck in rapidly increasing temperatures, Michael notices that Johnny has dropped his (painfully fake) Irish accent. Johnny replies that he is too tired to make the effort. He explains that he was about to commit a robbery in Belfast when he happened across an IRA cell. He adopted an Irish accent, told them that he was a nationalist and immediately started working for them, an explanation which is almost as unconvincing as his accent. He met Paige in Dublin some time after that.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' gives us Creator/CharlieCox as Irish-American Matt Murdock and Creator/EldenHenson as Irish-American Foggy Nelson. With Foggy, they make this more convincing in season 3 by the casting of native Irish actor Peter Halpin as Foggy's brother Theo.

* The 2020 adaptation of ''Literature/NormalPeople'' featured North London native Daisy Edgar Jones as the female lead. She does have a Northern Irish mother, but the dialect she goes for is that of Sligo, which is quite different. She was praised for her authenticity, many not even realising she was English in the first place.
* The Classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]" took place on a space station featuring a multinational crew, nearly all of whom were played by British actors adopting fake accents. One such crew member was the Irish Sean Flannigan, played by English actor James Mellor.