History Main / IrishPriest

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Father Brennan in ''Film/TheOmen1976''.
* Father Barry in ''Film/OnTheWaterfront''.
* In ''Film/TradingPlaces'', Coleman dresses as one.
* In ''Film/TheDeltaForce'', a heartwarming moment as Father O'Malley says that he should be grouped with the Jewish hostages, because he considers himself both a Jew and a Christian.
* Father Everett in ''Film/Daredevil2003''.
* Father Geoghagan in ''Film/TheWildGeese''.

* Father Alex in ''Film/MammaMia''.
* Father Janovich in ''Film/GranTorino''. Despite the name, he's given an Irish lilt.

* In ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'', the character played by Creator/ClintEastwood keeps pestering an Irish priest with intentionally silly questions about Catholic doctrine, even causing him to [[PrecisionFStrike drop an F-bomb]].

* The 1947 film ''Film/CaptainBoycott'' depicts the OriginStory for [[BrandNameTakeover the familiar term]]. Creator/AlastairSim plays Father [=McKeogh=] who supports the tenant farmers in the non-violent ostracism of Boycott, their evil English land agent. At the end he tells the victorious farmers that "in the future, if any man offends against the community you can ostracize him -- you can isolate him -- you can '''[[TitleDrop boycott him]]'''."

* Mike Bennett's grandfather (he become a priest after he was widowed) Seamus in the Creator/JamesPatterson novel ''Step on a Crack''.
* Father Wolfe in ''Literature/ATaleEtchedInBloodAndHardBlackPencil''.

* Father Ralph of ''Literature/TheThornBirds''

* Father Duddleswell in the original stories which inspired ''Series/BlessMeFather''

* Harry O'Rourke, Vatican investigator in the ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episodes "Miracles" and "Salvation".
* Nick impersonates one in an episode of ''Series/ForeverKnight''. He gets to hear Schanke's confession.
* Father Liam Riley from the Paris episodes of ''Highlander: The Raven''.
* Father Mulcahy of ''Series/{{Mash}}'' is of Irish heritage.
* [[PunnyName Patrick Fitzpatrick]] of ''Series/VeronicaMars''. Also most likely a [[CorruptChurch Corrupt Priest]] and a member of Irish Mafia.
* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' featured a prominent Belfast priest who was one of the top leaders of the Real IRA.

* One appeared in the PedophilePriest episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU''
* One episode of ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'' has an Irish priest in Spain, who turns out to be something of a badass.
* ''Series/FatherTed'' is about three Priests (a drunkard, an idiot, and the title character) on an Irish island. This trope is invoked not so much OnceAnEpisode as Once A ''Minute''.
** In one episode, a nun gushes to a black priest about what wonderful work he must be doing among those poor Africans, and ask how the missions there are doing. The priest replies in a thick Irish accent: "Sure, I wouldn't know, I'm from Donegal."
* Though he's not a priest, Nate Ford from ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' is Boston Irish and attended a seminary in his teenage years intending to become a priest. Him portraying clergy is a common occurance to the team's cons. We also meet one of his friends who is an Irish Priest.
* On ''Series/ICarly'', Sam Puckett is obsessed with meeting Father [=McGurthy=], the world's fattest priest, combining both this trope and the show's perchance for PunnyNames.

* In ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', the Seattle radio station's religious presenter is Father Mike, who in accent and demanour is affably Irish-American. Except for his surname being a Spanish one (Mendosa). This infers that ''all'' priests ''become'' Irish, regardless of ethnic origin.
* One appears on ''Series/GoodEats'', along with [[IrishmanAndAJew a rabbi]] and a nutritional anthropologist. Alton asks the priest about corned beef in Ireland, and the priest replies that he doesn't eat it. The rabbi doesn't provide much insight into the origin of the dish, either. The nutritional anthropologist explains that a traditional dish in Ireland is ''[[EverythingsBetterWithBacon bacon]]'' and cabbage.[[note]]What the original Irish immigrants thought of as "bacon" was ''[[UsefulNotes/SeparatedByACommonLanguage very different]]'' from what North Americans call "bacon". North American "bacon" is cut from the pork belly. In the UK and Ireland, "bacon" was and still is a cut made mainly of pork loin, often with a small piece of belly meat attached.[[/note]] When Irish immigrants came to the US, what they called "bacon" was out of the financial reach of many of them.[[note]]A more complete explanation of ''why'' it was out of their reach can be found in the "Particular dishes" folder of ''[[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff/{{Food}} Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Food]]''.[[/note]] Meanwhile, American bacon, while relatively cheap, would just disintegrate if boiled with cabbage, so it was useless for the traditional dish. But the Irish ''did'' have lots of new Jewish neighbors, who couldn't eat bacon of any kind[[note]]Beef bacon and turkey bacon being ''much'' later inventions[[/note]] because of Kosher laws forbidding pork and pork products. They had lots of brisket, though, and showed their new Irish neighbors a way of preserving it that results in a meat product ''kind of, sort of'' like bacon--corned beef.[[note]]Note that some form of corned beef was known in Ireland for centuries, the island being excellent cattle country (hence its world-renowned dairy industry today). Salt beef is known in Irish texts dating back to at least the 12th century, and some kind of salted beef product has been made in Ireland pretty much continuously ever since. But by the 19th century, Irish corned beef was mostly produced for export--whether as "bully beef" in tins for the shops in England and the ration packs of the British Army, or more traditional salt beef for the Royal Navy. The Irish generally couldn't afford it and so didn't eat it.[[/note]] As a result, it became the replacement for bacon in the traditional dish in the US. (In fact, it's so popular that if St. Patrick's Day happens to fall on a Friday during Lent, when meat is forbidden to Catholics, the Catholic Church actually ''grants an exception to that rule'' for corned beef and cabbage!)
* The Priest in S2 of ''Series/{{Fleabag}}'' is a Catholic priest played by Irish actor Andrew Scott, using his own accent.

* Father O'Leary, Dot's parish priest in ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries''. Not only is his name Irish, he speaks with a pronounced Irish accent, so it's likely he came from Ireland to Melbourne to be a priest. He also punches out an astronomer for promoting an atheistic theory of cosmology bearing some resemblance to the Big Bang.
* ''Series/CityOnAHill'': Father Doyle is originally from Northern Ireland though he moved to Boston for an escape from UsefulNotes/TheTroubles (it's [[TheNineties set in 1992]]), with a strong Irish accent.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Father Behan in "[[ ASacred Trust]]". Being Catholic, however, does not spare him from [[BodyOfTheWeek the same fate]] as so many of his [[TheVicar Anglican counterparts]].

* VideoGame/GabrielKnight poses as one to get information out of an older woman in his first game.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Trial", where the Joker dresses up as a priest and assumes a thick Irish accent to take Batman's "confession" before the villains (attempt to) kill him.

* On ''Series/MagnumPI'', one of Higgins' half-brothers is an actual Irish one (played by Creator/johnHillerman in a dual role in two episodes).

* On Series/MagnumPI, o ne of Higgins' half-brothers is an actual Irish one (played by Creator/johnHillerman in a dual role in two episodes).

* One appears on ''Series/GoodEats'', along with [[IrishmanAndAJew a rabbi]]. Alton asks the priest about corned beef in Ireland, and the priest replies that he doesn't eat it. The rabbi doesn't provide much insight into the origin of the dish, either. The nutritional anthropologist explains that a traditional dish in Ireland is ''[[EverythingsBetterWithBacon bacon]]'' and cabbage.[[note]]What the original Irish immigrants thought of as "bacon" was ''[[UsefulNotes/SeparatedByACommonLanguage very different]]'' from what North Americans call "bacon". North American "bacon" is cut from the pork belly. In the UK and Ireland, "bacon" was and still is a cut made mainly of pork loin, often with a small piece of belly meat attached.[[/note]] When Irish immigrants came to the US, what they called "bacon" was out of the financial reach of many of them.[[note]]A more complete explanation of ''why'' it was out of their reach can be found in the "Particular dishes" folder of ''[[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff/{{Food}} Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Food]]''.[[/note]] Meanwhile, American bacon, while relatively cheap, would just disintegrate if boiled with cabbage, so it was useless for the traditional dish. But the Irish ''did'' have lots of new Jewish neighbors, who couldn't eat bacon of any kind[[note]]Beef bacon and turkey bacon being ''much'' later inventions[[/note]] because of Kosher laws forbidding pork and pork products. They had lots of brisket, though, and showed their new Irish neighbors a way of preserving it that results in a meat product ''kind of, sort of'' like bacon--corned beef.[[note]]Note that some form of corned beef was known in Ireland for centuries, the island being excellent cattle country (hence its world-renowned dairy industry today). Salt beef is known in Irish texts dating back to at least the 12th century, and some kind of salted beef product has been made in Ireland pretty much continuously ever since. But by the 19th century, Irish corned beef was mostly produced for export--whether as "bully beef" in tins for the shops in England and the ration packs of the British Army, or more traditional salt beef for the Royal Navy. The Irish generally couldn't afford it and so didn't eat it.[[/note]] As a result, it became the replacement for bacon in the traditional dish in the US. (In fact, it's so popular that if St. Patrick's Day happens to fall on a Friday during Lent, when meat is forbidden to Catholics, the Catholic Church actually ''grants an exception to that rule'' for corned beef and cabbage!)

[[caption-width-right:350:Creator/MartinSheen[[note]]Born Ramón Estévez, Irish Catholic on his mother's side, Spanish Catholic on his father's[[/note]] as Fr. Daniel Barry in ''Stella Days'']]