History Main / Oireland

* Potatoes. Lots of potatoes. After their introduction from the Americas, the calorie-dense potatoes became the main diet of the Irish due to British policy reducing the size of family plots. Potatoes became permanently ingrained in Irish stereotypes when the UsefulNotes/IrishPotatoFamine caused a massive influx of Irish immigrants to America.

* Oirish people are all poor, or at the very least come from a working-class background. This view was obviously caused by the mass migration of lower class Irish workers into American in the 19th century. From 1995 until roughly 2007, Ireland's economy became the booming [[UsefulNotes/TheCelticTiger Celtic Tiger]] with one of the highest standards of living in the world, though since then it's crashed hard.

** Other episodes set in or around Saint Patrick's Day have always tended to play up the Troubles, usually with some English establishment being blown up, before drunken Oirishmen (or faux-Oirishmen, for as Kent Brockman says, St. Patrick's Day is the day when "everyone's a little bit Irish, except, of course, for [[AcceptableTargets the gays and ]] the Italians") begin rioting.

* Everybody's name starts with "Mac", "Mc", or "O'". In reality, the most common surname in Ireland is "Murphy", which appears pretty frequently in fiction. The second most common is "Kelly", which doesn't. (And "Mac" or "Mc" is more common in UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} than in Ireland.)

* From ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': Lockon Stratos, [[CatchPhrase Sniping the targets!]] [[spoiler:We're talking about a pair of twins here.]]

* [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} His name is Finlay... and he loves to fight]] (particularly grating as he was from, and was billed as such, ''Belfast'', in Northern Ireland!) He even gained a leprechaun sidekick in Hornswoggle.

* Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, the "Celtic Warrior", who has the usual pale skin and has bright red hair. He avoids the usual dodgey Oirish accent though, when he's a [[RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic bona fide Dubliner]]. In fact, Sheamus specifically wanted to avoid the typical Irish stereotypes. The fact that he's Irish is usually not mentioned beyond the Celtic Warrior RedBaron and the fact that he is the first Irish-born WWE champion, and his characterization tends to lean way more toward what "Celtic Warrior" sounds like.
** They do tend (well, JBL tends) to play up that the Irish "love to fight". And his moveset includes the "Irish Curse" backbreaker, the "Brogue Kick" and the cloverleaf, which, while an actual legit term, was probably incorporated for the name.
* Becky Lynch (formerly known as Rebecca Knox) debuted on NXT with this kind of gimmick, complete with jigging, dyed red hair and bright green attire. Fan reactions to this were incredibly negative and within a month she had traded the character for a mosh pit GenkiGirl instead. The only indicators of her being Irish are the red hair and Dublin as a hometown.

* Nobody says "yes." Instead, expect to hear, "aye" or something like, "Ah, to be shoor, to be shoor and begorrah."[[note]]Begorrah is an 18th-century substitute for "begod," i.e., by God, to avoid taking His name in vain. Nobody says this today.[[/note]] In truth, a relic of the Irish language where one expresses agreement by restating, such as: "Did you see the film?" "I did." "Is it good?" "It is."(Irish did not have the words for "yes" and "no" until "sea" and "ní hea" were coined as neologisms[[note]] Well, contractions, but let's keep it simple.[[/note]].)

* Friendly or flighty {{leprechaun}}s frequently being caught in bushes. Where other cultures state the TheFairFolk as being benevolent and mischievous at worst, Irish folklore has plenty of stories with morals about how nasty they really are. However, there are also a fair few Irish stories with the benevolent/mischevious Leprecauns and Fairies.

** On a related note, boxing in the early to mid-20th century was associated with the Irish. Even now, Irish boxers do well at the Olympic Games, with female boxers such as Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington as notable recent successes.

* Jin from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has a very strong Irish accent in the English dub. It's [[AccentAdaptation meant to reflect]] his TohokuRegionalAccent in the original Japanese.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Shore Leave" sees Captain Kirk face off against a recreation of his personal tormentor from Starfleet Academy, the very Oirish and boisterous Finnegan. His {{leitmotif}} even sounds like something out of ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople''.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "Up The Long Ladder" features the Bringloidi, a colony of Irish settlers who are a blend between this and SpaceAmish, none of whom are played by actual Irish actors. Goes without saying that Irish actor Creator/ColmMeaney, who plays Chief O'Brien, hated this episode, and he later objected to a leprechaun appearing in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E16IfWishesWereHorses If Wishes Were Horses]]" for this reason (Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}} was used instead). In commenting on this trope, he brought up his previous role in ''Film/TheCommitments'' as a more accurate representation of what Ireland was like than quaint villages.
** They also had the episode "Sub Rosa", in which Dr. Crusher's grandmother dies on a planet settled by more [[SpaceJews Space Oirish]] (Who were supposed to be Space ''Scottish'', but, [[{{Scotireland}} y'know]]) and there's a [[spoiler:VirtualGhost]].

* ''{{Series/Charmed 1998}}'' features leprechauns in a few episodes. Their land is very much like TheThemeParkVersion of what Ireland is imagined like - green fields and rainbows everywhere. Their spells are even traditional Irish sayings. The leprechauns indeed say things like "top of the morning" and "laddie".

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E18UpTheLongLadder Up the Long Ladder]]", in which the Enterprise rescues a threatened Oirish colony, the descendants of SpaceAmish, none of whom are played by actual Irish actors. What real actual Irish cast member Creator/ColmMeaney made of it all is probably best left unexplored.
** Colm Meaney objected to a leprechaun appearing in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E16IfWishesWereHorses If Wishes Were Horses]]" for this reason (Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}} was used instead). In commenting on this trope, he brought up his previous role in ''Film/TheCommitments'' as a more accurate representation of what Ireland was like than quaint villages.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' managed to have a 19th century tribe of ''[[SpaceJews Space Oirish]]'' in the episode "Up the Long Ladder".
** They went a long way to making up for that travesty with the character of Miles O'Brien (played by Irish actor Colm Meaney) who then went on to be a main character on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]''.

** [[IrishPriest Father James O'Flaherty]] form ''[[VideoGame/ShadowHearts Koudelka]]''. A survivor of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland) The Great Famine]], he studied at an English university and then entered the Vatican and embarked upon a long career as a Bishop. His haughty, quarrelsome, and arrogant personality puts him at odds with both Koudelka and Edward.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration,'' when the Enterprise rescues a threatened Oirish colony, the descendants of Space Luddites, none of whom are played by actual Irish actors. What real actual Irish cast member Creator/ColmMeaney made of it all is probably best left unexplored.
** Colm Meaney objected to a leprechaun appearing in the ''Series/DeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E16IfWishesWereHorses If Wishes Were Horses]]" for this reason (Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}} was used instead). In commenting on this trope, he brought up his previous role in ''Film/TheCommitments'' as a more accurate representation of what Ireland was like than quaint villages.

** Other episodes set in or around Saint Patrick's Day have always tended to play up the Troubles, usually with some English establishment being blown up, before drunken Oirishmen (or faux-Oirishmen, for as Kent Brockman says, St. Patrick's Day is the day when "everyone's a little bit Irish, except, of course, for [[AcceptableTargets the gays and ]] [[CriticalResearchFailure the Italians]]") begin rioting.

* The Fianna of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' could easily cross into this territory. Descendants of Finn Maccumhail? Check. Known for their soulful bards? Check. Also known for their angry warriors? Check. It really didn't help that a lot of early books in the line talked about possible ties to the [=IRA=]. And their main Caerns are picked out of [[{{CriticalResearchFailure}} tourist books]] and bang in the middle of a popular tourist location - the non-celtic world heritage site Brú na Bóinne. They're also known for their [[BoozeBasedBuff magic booze]].

** Also subverted again in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' with the Glaswegian Wee Hughie being [[{{Scotireland}} mistaken for Irish]] (by a drunk "teenager" during a St Patrick's celebration). To try and get away from it (and other weirdness), he visits what seems to be the only bar around not floating in green beer, run by a tee-total Irishman who bemoans the "[[{{Oireland}} plastic paddy]]" image, throws out revelers wearing the green, and sells him a pint of Guinness with an obscenity written in the head.

* ''WebComic/OiTalesOfBardicFury'' is set in a psychedelic, [[AnarchronismStew anachronistic]] version of Iron Age Ireland.

* ''WebComic/OiTalesOfBardicFury'' is set in Iron Age Ireland, or an (intentionally) AnarchronismStew-laden version thereof.

* ''Series/BlackBooks'', also co-written by Graham Linehan (see ''Series/FatherTed'' above), has Irish Bernard Black as its main character. Played by Dylan Moran (who also co-wrote), the character's Irishness is not a big part of his character, but this trope is referenced on occasion by other characters. For example, American customers call him 'a Scotch man' in reference to the notorious vagueness many Americans have about the difference between Celtic cultures. On another occasion, Bernard's friend Fran makes up a traditional Irish song: '...And the English are alllll... bollocks.' The only particularly 'Oirish' thing about Bernard is his borderline alcoholism (and even there he drinks wine, not stout), and his use of particularly Irish phrasings (but probably not the sort you'd find in classic Oireland, e.g. 'oh, stick it up your hole'.

* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Kieran Branson is less of a walking stereotype than most characters of the type, but is nevertheless a cheerful booze-sponge with an irreverent sense of humor, the gift o' the gab and a chip on his shoulder against the English in general and English aristocrats in particular.

* ''Series/BlessMeFather'': the TV version of the short stories about priests living in 1950's London has the English actor Arthur Lowe cranking his accent and mannerisms UpPastEleven in order to portray Father Duddleswell.

* Basil Hood's operetta "The Emerald Isle" (score begun by Sullivan, finished by Edward German) takes this UpToEleven, underlined in the songs "I'm descended from Brian Boru" and "Have you met a man in debt" (sentimental) and "If you wish to pass as an Irish type" (lampshading the stereotypes); and the chorus repeatedly reminds us that "Saint Patrick was a broth of a boy." However, English snobbery is also skewered. The Lord Lieutenant's idea of "civilizing" the Irish is bribing people to recite "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck".

** Seamus Finnegan gets turned into this, Creator/JKRowling has said that naming the character "Seamus Finnegan" was pushing it a bit, but Thanfiction takes the Irish stereotype UpToEleven. Example:

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' expanded by Creator/AAPessimal has Hergen - a name exisiting pretty much in isolation in Canon, depicting only a remote country on a far coast - which becomes the Disc's UpToEleven Oireland, exploiting all the stereotypes and then some.

* One ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch features a game show titled "Kiss Me, I'm Irish!," in which a bachelor competes for the heart of three Irish lasses. Irish stereotypes abound, but the biggest is when it's revealed that the contestant is related to two of the three women and has even [[KissingCousins fooled around]] [[IncestIsRelative with them]] in the past. Aidy Bryant's character, the lone American of the group (she's Irish by heritage, but doesn't live there), is the [[OnlySaneMan only person who realizes it's gross]], with the Irish girls, bachelor, and even host acting like it's par for the course (said host even remarks that the contestant nearly ''always'' picks one of his cousins!).

* Used in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek parody. Ireland are playing in the Qudditch World Cup and so series regular Seamus Finnigan (and his mother) are staying in a green tent draped with shamrocks. And the Ireland team have leprechauns as their mascot and wear green robes to play in. Otherwise played with in terms of Seamus himself. Although some of his dialogue has the odd 'me' instead of 'my' in there (and Stephen Fry and Jim Dale's narration on the audio books goes to town with it), he avoids most Irish stereotypes. He has a bit of a temper but is blond rather than red-haired.

** The most JustForFun/{{egregious}} example may be "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E14InTheNameOfTheGrandfather In the Name of the Grandfather]]", which has our favorite family being guilted by Grandpa into taking him to one last booze-up at an old pub he frequented during the war. In flashbacks, Grandpa describes it as a typical Oirish pub, with taps for Guinness, cabbage and corned beef (which isn't even Irish, as noted above), and sheep aplenty, also during one scene you can see two references to Celtic FC[[note]]The person in the green-and-white hooped shirt, plus there's something on a wall. For those who don't know, Celtic are a Scottish football club who are heavily associated with Ireland, tricolours can be seen in the stadium, and were founded by a priest from Sligo[[/note]] seen [[http://i42.tinypic.com/dnfypk.jpg here]]. The episode is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion of the trope]] as the town has become a [[UsefulNotes/TheCelticTiger bustling, modern metropolis]] where no one has time to go drinking. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubvertedTrope The trope was double-subverted near the end]], when Homer and Grandpa unwittingly buy the pub, allow indoor smoking (which was banned in Ireland in 2004), and business picks up. It was too good to last, [[StatusQuoIsGod for in true sitcom fashion]], the police shut them down and deport them back to America.]] Ironically, this episode was broadcast [[FunnyAneurysmMoment as Ireland was entering a recession]].

** On a related note, boxing in the early to mid-20th century was associated with the Irish.

* Music will tend to be traditional Irish music like that heard at a ceilí, and is almost always a jig or reel. If not that, it will probably be a Celtic punk band such as Music/FloggingMolly, the Music/DropkickMurphys, or the Pogues, though many of these bands aren't actually Irish (though both Flogging Molly and the Pogues have at least one Irish member). Ireland is a modern country with plenty of contemporary music in its history, such as Music/{{U2}}, Music/ThinLizzy and many more.

** ''"Ye don't look Irish!"''