History Main / ScotIreland

It's worth noting the Irish and Scots have a long history of cultural exchange, to the point that Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Manx]] (Gaelg) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Scottish_Gaelic_and_Irish are considered mutually intelligible languages]], and a good chunk of the [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland Northern Irish]] population is descended from Scottish "planters" (who were, however, mainly non-Gaelic speaking lowland Scots). And plenty of Irish people moved to Scotland, particularly Glasgow, in the nineteenth century. So, the trope is somewhat rooted in fact, albeit much more loosely than their frequent conflation in American media would seem to imply.

* In a meta sense, ''Film/TheUntouchables'' does this; Creator/SeanConnery plays an Irish cop using his real accent, and it's never addressed. This is, however, [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent rather common for Connery]].

* This definitely can count as a JustifiedTrope in some cases, as there is some overlap between the two regions. At the beginning of the 20th century, Irish Republicans adopted the kilt as a sign of Celtic solidarity and identity in their struggle for independence from the UK. [[NotSoDifferent And Northern Irish Unionists occasionally display the St. Andrew's Cross]] to celebrate their Scottish heritage, as lowland Scots were included in the settlers sent over to Ireland during the Plantation Of Ulster.

* One of the official language of Scotland is "Scottish Gaelic"[[note]]''Gàidhlig'', pronounced "Gah-lig"[[/note]] (usually shortened to "Gaelic"), while the tongue of Ireland is "Irish"[[note]]''Gaeilge'', pronounced "Gale-geh"[[/note]]. For whatever reason this is very often reversed in US media, referring to the language of Ireland as "Irish Gaelic" and the language of Scotland as "Scottish". Note that both languages are spoken only by a fairly small minority in their respective countries; English is by far the most common language of both Scotland and Ireland.

Compare BritainIsOnlyLondon, NorseByNorswest, {{Spexico}}, AncientGrome, and {{Mayincatec}}. See also ViolentGlaswegian, FightingIrish, {{Oireland}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Bonnie Scotland]]. Oddly, Scottish actors and actresses have a disproportionate tendency [[FakeIrish to be cast as Irish characters]]. Whether this is a side effect of this trope or whether it actually helps enforce it is anyone's guess.

Compare BritainIsOnlyLondon, {{Spexico}}, AncientGrome, and {{Mayincatec}}. See also ViolentGlaswegian, FightingIrish, {{Oireland}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Bonnie Scotland]]. Oddly, Scottish actors and actresses have a disproportionate tendency [[FakeIrish to be cast as Irish characters]]. Whether this is a side effect of this trope or whether it actually helps enforce it is anyone's guess.

The prevalence of this trope in US media is probably because some Americans find Irish and Scottish accents difficult to distinguish from one another. It's also not helped by the fact that while most Americans can identify shamrocks, leprechauns and the color green as being stereotypically "Irish" while bagpipes, tartans, and the Loch Ness Monster are stereotypically "Scottish," St. Patrick's day parades and other Irish festivals sometimes feature people wearing kilts and playing Highland bagpipes rather than the Irish uilleann pipes.

* In the ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' movie, the Scottish villain has programmed his missile to respond to commands in "Celtic". There are several languages belonging to the Celtic family of languages, including Irish, Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Manx and others, but no single "Celtic" tongue.

* ''Film/TwentyFifthHour'' and ''Film/TheDeparted'' are particularly bad as both feature Irish-American storylines yet include rousing renditions of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_the_Brave "Scotland the Brave"]]. ''The Departed'' features Scottish, English and American actors playing Irish-American cops and gangsters with Creator/MarkWahlberg being the only one with Irish ancestry.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Sub Rosa", Dr. Crusher attends the funeral of her grandmother on a planet that's supposed to be settled by Space Scots, but their accents are hardly Scottish. Amusingly, one of the lead guest stars was actually Irish.[[note]]Perhaps somewhat justiifed by the show's setting...by the 2460's, and 300 years after United Earth was founded, there would have been 400 more years of cultural exchange between various nations than there is now.[[/note]]

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Season 5's crossover with ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' featured rather a lot of Irish actors playing the characters from [=DunBroch=], a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Scotland. They did however [[FakeScot affect Scottish accents]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Highland_Bagpipe Scottish bagpipes]] play a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixolydian_mode Mixolydian mode]] scale, while the Irish equivalent, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uilleann_pipes uilleann pipes]], play a full two octaves. This means that it's easier to write melodic sounding "Scottish bagpipe" music using an Irish instrument. Film/{{Braveheart}}, for example, used Irish bagpipes on the soundtrack.

* Jim Kerr of Scottish band Music/SimpleMinds took an Irish lilt to his vocals in the late 80s and occasionally covered Irish subjects, most notably in UsefulNotes/TheTroubles -themed "Belfast Child" (which uses the Irish traditional tune "She Moved Through The Fair"). Whilst critics assumed he did this to capitalise on the popularity of {{Music/U2}} , his parents were indeed immigrants from Ireland and he grew up with a sense of dual nationality as a result.

* The Celtic civilization in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' is a case of this. Units speak Irish and the Celtic wonder is Ireland's Rock of Cashel, but their unique unit is the Woad Raider (a unit based on the Picts of Ancient Scotland) and their civilization bonuses in siege, fast infantry and [[MightyLumberjack wood]] [[BoringButPractical gathering]] are inspired by ''Medieval'' Scotland. Finally, the playable Celtic campaign deals with William Wallace's rebellion.

* One for the England vs. Wales aspect: The early-90s Creator/HannaBarbera cartoon ''Young Robin Hood'' featured an episode where Prince John had hatched yet another plan to steal the throne of England from his brother Richard. Said plot heavily involved the Duke of Wales. There has never been, in all of history, a Duke of Wales... because ''Wales is not and never has been a duchy''. [[note]]In fact, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, Wales was still ruled by its own native princes; it wouldn't be properly absorbed into the English crown's holdings until the reign of Edward I. Presumably the whole "Duke of Wales" thing was invented for the show so they wouldn't need to explain all of that, but the presentation just seems more like CriticalResearchFailure.[[/note]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' Crowley was a Scottish human before he was an English demon (it gets worse), and the other demons call him Lucky the Leprechaun behind his back.

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* The [[HornyDevils succubus]] Morrigan Aensland of ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' fame was discovered as an infant by her adoptive father Belial in Scotland and her D.O.B. ([[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 1678 A.D.]]) coincides with the first appearance of a succubus in Scotland, but [[MeaningfulName her name]] and some of [[OrgasmicCombat her]] [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence character]] [[SexIsViolence quirks]] are taken from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morrigan a deity in Irish mythology.]] With the exception of [[WesternAnimation/{{Darkstalkers}} the 90s cartoon]], the dub of the ''Anime/{{Night Warriors|DarkstalkersRevenge}}'' OVA, and more recent entries in the ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVs Vs.]]'' series like ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', her English voice actresses also tend to give Morrigan an UsefulNotes/{{American accent|s}}, [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent not a Scottish one]]. [[SplitAtBirth By a technicality]], this would make her [[CloningBlues "younger sister"]] Lilith also qualify for this trope.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has Cait, a supposedly Irish woman voiced by a Scottish voice actress.

* ''The Adventures Of Portland Bill'' neatly dodged this one by [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield never quite getting around to specifying which side of the Irish Sea it was set on.]] And as noted in RealLife below, there's been enough intermarrying and cross-colonisation over the centuries that the differences in accent are quite subtle.

* One press junket promoting ''{{WesternAnimation/Brave}}'' (a movie set in Scotland) featured background music from Dropkick Murphys - an Irish-American band.
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UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}, UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland and [[UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} The Republic of Ireland]] condensed into the same place. The [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness Monster]], {{Leprechaun}}s, [[EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes bagpipes]], shamrocks, threatening people with shillelaghs[[note]]pronounced "shuh-lay-lee" and meaning "blunt instrument"; see UsefulNotes/IrishNames for more help with the peculiarities of Irish pronunciation, and note that it will be no help for names in Scots Gaelic, which is a separate (though related) language.[[/note]], [[UsefulNotes/IrishPotatoFamine potatoes]], [[HaggisIsHorrible haggis]], plaid (actual plaid, or tartan), [[ManInAKilt kilts]], clans, castles, [[TelephonePolearm caber tossing]], and a ''lot'' of [[ViolentGlaswegian angry dr]][[FightingIrish unk people]].

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Sub Rosa", Dr. Crusher attends the funeral of her grandmother on a planet that's supposed to be settled by Space Scots, but their accents are hardly Scottish. Amusingly, one of the lead guest stars was actually Irish.

* Parodied in ''{{Film/Ondine}}'' which features a selkie in rural Ireland. Selkies are traditionally Scottish creatures, which is lampshaded by a Scottish character. The Irish equivalent of a selkie is the less popular merrow.

* Jim Kerr of Scottish band ''Music/SimpleMinds'' took an Irish lilt to his vocals in the late 80s and occasionally covered Irish subjects, most notably in TheTroubles-themed "Belfast Child" (which uses the Irish traditional tune "She Moved Through The Fair"). Whilst critics naturally assume he did this to capitalise on the popularity of ''{{Music/U2}}'', his parents were indeed immigrants from Ireland and he grew up with a sense of dual nationality as a result.

* Jim Kerr of Scottish band ''Music/{{SimpleMinds}}'' took an Irish lilt to his vocals in the late 80s and occasionally covered Irish subjects, most notably in TheTroubles-themed "Belfast Child" (which uses the Irish traditional tune "She Moved Through The Fair"). Whilst critics naturally assume he did this to capitalise on the popularity of Music/U2, his parents were indeed immigrants from Ireland and he grew up with a sense of dual nationality as a result.

* One of the official language of Scotland is "Scottish Gaelic"[[note]]''Gàidhlig'', pronounced "Gah-lig"[[/note]] (usually shortened to "Gaelic"), while the tongue of Ireland is "Irish"[[note]]''Gaeilge'', pronounced "Gale-geh"[[/note]]. For whatever reason this is very often reversed in US media, referring to the language of Ireland as "Irish Gaelic" and the language of Scotland as "Scottish".

* ''Film/AGuideToRecognizingYourSaints'' has a Scottish teen moving to the area, and it's a RunningGag that the others frequently mistake him for Irish. It's possibly a nod to the [[BasedOnATrueStory actual guy he's based on]] being Irish in real life.

* ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' frequently featured Scottish characters (played, in the main, by Canadians) with horrendous Oirish accents.
** Grayson (or perhaps just his actor) tops it all by ''managing to fail so hard at a Scottish accent he does a perfect Irish one instead'' when mocking Duncan.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Season 5's crossover with ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' featured rather a lot of Irish actors playing the characters from [=DunBroch=], a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Scotland.

* Inverted in ''Theatre/LegallyBlonde: The Musical'', in the song "Ireland." Paulette dreams of meeting an Irish man and living in Ireland and confuses Scottish and Irish culture, which Elle (and the audience) find funny.
** Particularly funny with the London West End version. At one time Elle was portrayed by an Irish actress, future Music/CelticWoman Susan [=McFadden=].

* Scotland actually derives its English name from what the Romans originally called it, Scotia Minor, with Ireland then being known as Scotia Major. This Trope was relatively true right up into the Middle Ages, where the scholars spoke a common language and there was a rather blurred border between the two, with Robert the Bruce even trying to unite them into a common kingdom. However, as the reformation and contact with the English took hold differently in both nations, the two cultures have long since diverged.
** In particular, while Robert was warring to secure Scottish independence, his brother Edward was proclaimed High King of Ireland (the first one in a century) and tried to expel the English from the island. At one point, they even planned a coordinated conquest of Wales with local support. This ended when Edward was killed at the Battle of Faughart in 1318.

* ''Film/TwentyFifthHour'' and ''Film/TheDeparted'' are particularly bad as both feature Irish-American storylines yet include rousing renditions of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_the_Brave "Scotland the Brave"]]. ''The Departed'' features Scottish, English and American actors playing Irish-American gangsters with Creator/MarkWahlberg being the only one with Irish ancestry.

* Silver Banshee from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' is ''literally'' from Scotireland; when the writers realised they'd based a Scottish character on Irish mythology, they claimed Siobhan [=McDougal=] was actually from a fictional island in the Straits of Moyle. Surprisingly the ComicBook/{{New 52}} version of Silver Banshee drops the Scottish connection entirely and retcons Siobhan as coming from UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}}.

* In a meta sense, ''Film/TheUntouchables'', where Creator/SeanConnery plays an Irish cop using his real accent, and it's never addressed. This is, however, [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent rather common for Connery]].

* Lancre in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' is Scotnorthernengland. It's mostly based on [[OopNorth Lancashire]], but [[Literature/WyrdSisters the first book to feature it heavily]] is a ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' parody, reference is made in a couple of books to the Lancastrian bagpipes, and Lancre Blue cheese in the Tiffany Aching books is the Discworld counterpart of Lanark Blue. As of ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', it's also home to a sizeable colony of [[ViolentGlaswegian Nac Mac Feegle]].

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Jerry and George end up sharing a limousine with a couple of Neo-Nazis. Jerry pretends to be Irish, reminiscing about things such as ''"the peat, ah, the peat"''. However, his accent comes across as Scottish to one of the Nazis, to which Jerry replies: ''"We were living around the border"''. Jerry's attempt ends with him saying, "Scotland, Ireland? What's the difference, lassie?"

* Many Irish folksongs and tunes are popular standards with Scottish groups and vice versa. There are also crossover songs such as ''Mo Ghile Mear'', an Irish lament for Bonnie Prince Charlie, or ''The Green and the Blue'', a Scottish song about Irish emigration to Scotland. This doesn't even take into account Canadian-Maritime and Australian folk music, both of which take strong cues from Scottish and Irish immigrants. For example, ''Wild Colonial Boy'', about an Australian outlaw, is better known in Ireland and may have been written there (based on an Australian song about the Irish-born Jack Donahoe), while the Canadian fiddle tune ''St. Anne's Reel'' and an associated song are well-known in Ireland.

* The Celts in the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games are (as the name implies) an amalgamation of various Celtic cultures, but in the fifth game they embrace this trope further by shedding the Gauls from the equation and focusing on the British Isles ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Brittany]]), being led by a Welsh-speaking Boudica with Edinburgh as their capital and Dublin as their second city.

* ''Videogame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has Cait, a supposedly Irish woman voiced by a Scottish Voice Actress.

-->'''Scrooge:''' ''[at the end of what's implied to be a minutes-long rant]'' -with a rich Celtic tradition connected to, but entirely distinct from the rest of the United Kingdom!

* One press junket promoting ''{{WesternAnimation/Brave}}'' - a movie set in Scotland - featured background music from Dropkick Murphys - an Irish-American band.
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* Similarly, in ''VideoGame/BioshockOne'', the very Irish VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Atlas mentions his wife Moira and son Patrick. If the goal was to imply that she too was Irish, the writers failed. [[spoiler:Or more accurately, the very much ''not'' Irish conman Frank Fontaine did. Not to mention that he stole the names from the title of an in-universe play and somehow no one noticed.]]

* Similarly, the very Irish VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Atlas mentions his wife Moira and son Patrick. If the goal was to imply that she too was Irish, the writers failed. [[spoiler:Or more accurately, the very much ''not'' Irish conman Frank Fontaine did. Not to mention that he stole the names from the title of an in-universe play and somehow no one noticed.]]

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''[='s=] first issue of "Ring of Fired!" reveals the Scottish Demoman's full name is Tavish Finnegan [=DeGroot=]. While Tavish is definitely Scottish, Finnegan is decidedly Irish. Then again, his family name is ''Dutch''.

* As shown in "Jaw$!", proud Scotsman Scrooge [=McDuck=] from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' [[BerserkButton absolutely]] ''[[BerserkButton hates]]'' [[BerserkButton this trope]], as shown when he goes into a rage both times he's asked (by people very deliberately trying to push his buttons) "What part of ''Ireland'' are you from?"

* Lancre in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' is Scotnorthernengland. It's mostly based on [[OopNorth Lancashire]], but [[Discworld/WyrdSisters the first book to feature it heavily]] is a ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' parody, reference is made in a couple of books to the Lancastrian bagpipes, and Lancre Blue cheese in the Tiffany Aching books is the Discworld counterpart of Lanark Blue. As of ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'', it's also home to a sizeable colony of [[ViolentGlaswegian Nac Mac Feegle]].