abstract
| - The cousin to Fake Brit and Fake American and a subtrope of Fake Nationality. Irish characters are some of the most frequently depicted foreigners in British and American media but due to the rather small number of Irish actors actually working they tend to be played by non-Irish actors with, ahem, 'variable' success when it comes to accents, or use the "wrong" Irish accent. For instance Northern Irish accents are quite distinct from southern Irish accents. Another reason why non-Irish actors are used is the desire for name recognition. Even if an appropriate-age largely unknown Irish actor or actress is available the film makers will often be tempted to go for someone with more international appeal. For some reason this seems to be particularly the case with actresses; even a film with mostly Irish actors, like Intermission or About Adam or the recent Perriers Bounty will still fill its female roles with British or American actresses. This may be why there are quite a few famous Irish actors in Hollywood but vanishingly few famous Irish actresses: their chances of a breakthrough role are that much smaller. See also this article for theories on why there are so few name Irish actresses. For some reason Scottish actors and actresses seem to be disproportionately likely to play Irish characters, which is unlikely to help those who already can't tell the two countries apart. Also, a strong Ulster or Southern Irish accent done by a Scottish person would confuse things even further (such as the Glaswegian actor of Irish descent, David O'Hara in The Departed or Dundonian Brian Cox in Twenty Fifth Hour). As you might expect Fake Irish characters often slip into Oireland territory. Note that American, British, Canadian, or Australian actors of Irish descent generally avoid the Fake Irish label since they are well...Irish. But if they screw up the accent, expect to hear about it. Examples of Fake Irish include:
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