The Simpsons take Grampa on a trip to Ireland as a way to apologize for missing out on visiting him once again.
The episode holds the distinction of airing in Ireland and the United Kingdom a week before the United States.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Geography: Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie visit the Giant's Causeway, Guinness Brewery and the Blarney Stone in one day. This is improbable, but not impossible, because the Giant's Causeway is in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, the Brewery in County Dublin (about 250 km away) and Blarney Stone in County Cork (about another 250 km away).
- Call-Back: Abe's list from "The Monkey Suit" is seen again.
- Camp Gay: The two leprechauns Homer sees.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: The whole episode is full of specifically American culture references, since as the Giant’s Causeway being host to a Q*bert joke and the Blarney Stone having the Blarney Rubble next to it. Most notable is the narrative referring to the Gardai as “police”.
- Cultural Translation: Bart watches a German dub of Krusty's show on the multichannel TV set of the Irish pub owner. (Also note that despite being dubbed Krusty and Sideshow Mel's lip movements still match with what they are saying in German.) This could also count as Gratuitous German, by the way, as it happens in an episode taking place in Ireland.
- The Fair Folk: Leprechauns appear.
- Fiery Redhead: Some Irish red haired people are seen.
- Fighting Irish: In Grampa's romanticized flashback about life in Ireland, two Irishmen are fighting in a bar.
- G-Rated Drug: In the opening act the Simpsons get a hot tub and are so blissed out from the relaxation that they (and Ned, after joining them) are essentially stoned, causing them to miss an event at the Retirement Castle that they promised to attend and kicking off the main plot when they attempt to make it up to Abe.Marge: I feel like we're forgetting something.Lisa: Hmm. There was a note on the fridge marked "urgent." Funny word, "urgent." Urrrr-gent. Urgent.
- Hard-Work Montage: Subverted. Getting the pub up to speed as a "smoke-easy" consists entirely of tearing the "No" off of a "No Smoking" sign.
- Hurricane of Puns:
- The Simpsons travel to Ireland by plane and are told to watch Western Ireland on the left and Kathy Ireland on their right.
- When Marge and the children visit Blarney Stone, a monument that can be kissed, she says: "America doesn't have any stones worth kissing. Except for Stone Phillips." A bit earlier, some stoney rubble is shown with the text: "Blarney Rubble".
- Several shops have names like "Mac's Fifth Avenue" (Saks Fifth Avenue), "Sham-Rock Cafe" (Hard-Rock Cafe), "Hewlett Fitzpackard" (Hewlett-Packard"), "Mick-rosoft" ("Microsoft") and "Cisc O' Systems" (Cisco Systems).
- I Have Many Names: Ireland is described as being nicknamed the "Emerald Isle, Potatoville, East Boston, Freckled Bog, the Land of Poetry, and the Land of Bad Poetry."
- My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting:"Don't worry, Dad. We'll get out. America is the New York Yankees of countries. Powerful and respected until the year 2000."Irish judge: "It (Ireland) got a lot nicer since we sent all our incompetent half-wits to America. Where you, for some reason, made them police officers. Top of the morning to you." (Cue Wiggum entering)
- National Stereotypes: The Irish are shown as people with surnames ending in "O'...". Several men have red sideburns and wear green. Many references to specific Irish phenomena are made, including potatoes, Irish pubs, darts, alcoholism, boiled food, line dancing, the fiddle, "The Irish Washerwoman" song, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, leprechauns, U2, calves, sheep, The Troubles, the word "me" instead of "my/mine", whiskey, "Guinness", The Giant's Causeway, The Irish Diaspora, Blarney Stone, Bloomsday, the word "da" instead of "dad", shamrocks, the phrases "So its...., then?" and "Top o'the morning to ya" and the fact that Ireland was the first country to ban smoking in bars.
- An interesting subversion is that Homer and Grampa expect every Irishman to be a drunk, yet most of them don't particularly feel the need to visit a bar.
- Not So Above It All: After Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have each made their case for the hot tub.Marge: If I'm more relaxed, I'll be a better mom! Can we? Can we? Wait a minute, who am I pleading with?
- Officer O'Hara: The Simpsons arrive in Ireland to find the iconic drunk and disorderly Irishman of Abe's fondest memories all but extinct, with most of the population hardworking and sober to the point where the owner of Abe's favorite bar can barely keep it open and happily palms it off on Homer and Abe as soon as they're deep enough in the sauce. At the end, this oddity and the In-Universe prevalence of Police Are Useless are explained when a judge tells Abe that Ireland has improved since it sent all its "incompetent half-wits" to America, "where you, for some reason, made them police officers." This, naturally, serves as an Inadvertent Entrance Cue for Chief Clancy Wiggum.
- Oh, Crap!: Bart after realizing the Irish!Nelson is, unknowingly, going to carve his initials into Bart's butt.
- Oireland: A cliché version of Ireland is shown and mocked.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to In the Name of the Father.
- Grampa mentions about feeling "as lonely as Estes Kefauver at a meeting of Murder, Incorporated." When the Simpsons look at him blankly, he retorts, "That actually makes sense! Look it up!" Senator Estes Kefauver headed highly-publicized hearings into organized crime in the 1950s. The hearings were a serious blow to the Mob in America, though they are more remembered these days for a side hearing on juvenile delinquency that became a referendum on comic books and the direct cause for the creation of the Comics Code Authority.
- Bart makes a derogatory remark about Belgium to which Marge replies: "Bart, if you hate Belgium so much: maybe I should take your Tintins away", to which a scared Bart replies he'll be good, clutching a copy of The Crab with the Golden Claws.
- The creators luckily managed to avoid directly addressing The Troubles, except for one throwaway line. As Grampa enters the Irish bar he had to miss for so many decades, he nostalgically says: "Get ready to step back to a simpler age filled with tweet calves, cheerful sheep and unending Troubles."
- Tom O'Flanagan describes himself as an "old man yelling at his tapes." This is a reference to the modern Irish play, Krapp's Last Tape.
- Outside Blarney Castle, where the Blarney Stone is kept, is a pile of rocks labeled "Blarney Rubble".
- Marge is shown chasing Bart and Lisa on the Giant's Causeway like the monsters chasing Q-Bert.
- The romantic couple Bart sees near the road are a reference to the film Once, with voice actors Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová reprising their roles from said film.
- At the trial, Homer mentions Knute Rockne,note Larry Birdnote and Mr. Potato Head as Irishmen admired by Americans (the judge looking just like Mr. Potato Head) and finishes his defense with "So I hope you'll forgive two well-meaning Americans for trying to take Ireland back to the good old days of Angela's Ashes".
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The Simpsons see various locations in Ireland, including actress Kathy Ireland. A writers' caption explains it's "not her real voice. We asked her to do the show, but she said no. We wish her well."
- Special Guest: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Colm Meaney.
- Vacation Episode: The Simpsons travel to Ireland.
