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"The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland; while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind (and verce visa)."
1066 and All That, "Important Note"

Scotland, Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland condensed into the same place. The Loch Ness Monster, Leprechauns, bagpipes, shamrocks, threatening people with shillelaghsnote , potatoes, haggis, plaid (actual plaid, or tartan), kilts, clans, castles, caber tossing, and a lot of angry drunk redheaded people.

This is the only other part of the British Isles that's not London. In fact, the Republic of Ireland isn't politically part of Britain, but if Hollywood can't get geography right then politics don't stand a chance. Wales sometimes gets lumped in as well, the few times it's featured outside of UK media. This trope is probably helped by the fact that Ireland and Scotland are, to much of the world, the two main "Celtic" nations.

Not to be confused with the American ethnic term 'Scots-Irish', many of whom have more English than Scottish ancestry.

It's worth noting the Irish and Scots have a long history of cultural connections. The Scots are partly descended from the Scoti, a tribe of Irish Gaels who settled in Scotland in the early Middle Ages, and to this day Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) and Manx (Gaelg) are considered mutually intelligible languages. Also, a good chunk of the 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.

Also known as "The Celtic Confusion", 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.

This trope is scarce in Canadian media, however, as the Irish and the Scots are seen as completely distinct nationalities. It's said that the longer an Irishman lives in Canada the more Canadian he gets, but the longer a Scotsman lives in Canada the more Scots he gets. Some Scotsmen have lived in Canada for so long that their accent has become completely indecipherable.note  The same applies to Europe, where the differences between the two are also more widely understood. And, of course, it's a Dead Horse Trope within the UK and Republic of Ireland because kids learn in school pretty early on that they're distinct neighbours.

Compare Britain Is Only England, Norse by Norsewest, Spexico, Ancient Grome, and Mayincatec. See also Violent Glaswegian, Fighting Irish, Oireland, Bonnie Scotland. Oddly, Scottish actors and actresses have a disproportionate tendency 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.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 

    Advertising 
  • One press junket promoting Brave (a movie set in Scotland) featured background music from Dropkick Murphys — an Irish-American band.

     Art 
The Riders of the Sidhe, the most famous depiction of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was painted by the Scottish painter John Duncan.

    Comic Books 
  • Wolfsbane from X-Men is supposed to be Scottish, but her accent and culture switch back and forth between Irish and Scottish. Moira McTaggart has this same problem, to the point that her accent is often indistinguishable from that of her Irish boyfriend Banshee.
  • Silver Banshee from 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 New 52 version of Silver Banshee drops the Scottish connection entirely and retcons Siobhan as coming from Dublin.
  • Played for Laughs in The Boys, where one of the X-Men knockoffs asks Wee Hughie how they celebrate St Patrick's Day back home, under the impression he's Irish. Hughie starts trying to explain before noticing the guy is drunk off his ass (and wouldn't have noticed either way).

    Comic Strips 
  • In Knights of the Dinner Table, B.A. Felton sometimes uses a character named "Red Gurdy Pickens" in his campaigns. The character is sometimes described as being Irish, but the accent B.A. uses has been noted as sounding far closer to Scottish...

    Fan Works 
  • Miner Smurf of Empath: The Luckiest Smurf is literally a Scotirish Smurf, being born the brother of Duncan McSmurf but adopting "Smurfin' Begorrà" (the Smurfing version of "faith and begorrà") as his common catchphrase.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In a meta sense, The Untouchables (1987) does this; Sean Connery plays an Irish cop using his real accent, and it's never addressed. This is, however, rather common for Connery.
  • In Finding Forrester, at the end Forrester (Sean Connery) tells his young friend Jamal that he's going back to his homeland.
    Jamal: You mean Ireland?
    Forrester: Scotland, for God's sake...
    Jamal: (laughs) I'm just messing with you, man.
  • In the GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra 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.
  • In The Crying Game Northern Irish terrorist Fergus initially tells Londoner Dil that he is Scottish, and Dil appears to believe him. Possibly justified in that London has a wide variety of accents and Dil, being young and perhaps inexperienced, might not have known the difference. It should also be mentioned that the Northern Irish accent is very similar to the Scottish Highland accent due to the two sharing similar dialects of Gaelic.
  • 25th Hour and The Departed are particularly bad as both feature Irish-American storylines yet include rousing renditions of "Scotland the Brave". The Departed features Scottish, English, and American actors playing Irish-American cops and gangsters with Mark Wahlberg being the only one with Irish ancestry.
  • Talented Scottish actor Ewan McGregor plays talented Irish writer James Joyce in Nora. Many critics noted he had problems with the accent and sometimes just seems to have given up on it entirely.
  • A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints has a Scottish teen moving to the area, and it's a Running Gag that the others frequently mistake him for Irish. It's possibly a nod to the actual guy he's based on being Irish in real life.note 
  • Ondine: Selkie is the Scottish name for mythical creatures the Irish usually call merrows. Even so, the Irish characters all use "selkie" for Ondine, and "merrow" is only mentioned. Alex, who is Scottish, lampshades this.
  • Braveheart uses Uileann bagpipes rather than Scottish bagpipes for Malcolm Wallace's funeral scene because Mel Gibson thought they sounded better.
  • The film Wild Mountain Thyme is set in Ireland (or more accurately, Oireland) but takes its title from a song about Scotland.

    Literature 
  • Lampshaded in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games when one of the ULA bad guys comments to himself how the staff at the American airport he landed in couldn't tell the difference between a Scottish burr and an Irish brogue.
  • Loosely autobiographical McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthynote  (an Englishman who inexplicably feels that he ought to be Irish) has a scene with stereotypical truck-sized American tourist couple in a faux-Irish pub. After a hearty meal, the husband is puffing on a large cigar and ordering another shot of "this great Irish Scotch".
  • In one of the James Herriot books, the titular (Scottish) vet is mistaken for an Irishman by one of his clients. When he visits the Soviet Union, one of the Russian people he meets also believes Dublin is the Scottish capital. This is merely one in a string of misconceptions they have about the UK, so Jim doesn't try to correct her on it.
  • 1983: Doomsday has Ireland merge with Scotland after the collapse of the United Kingdom, creating the Celtic Alliance.
  • Lancre in Discworld is Scotnorthernengland. It's mostly based on Lancashire, but the first book to feature it heavily is a 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 Carpe Jugulum, it's also home to a sizable colony of Nac Mac Feegle.
  • In The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, when Sophie first meets Scáthach the Shadow she initially can't tell if her accent is Irish or Scottish. She eventually decides on Irish, which is correct. The series is written by Michael Scott, who is also Irish.note 
  • The PanCelts in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland are a mix of the Welsh, Scots, Irish and probably Manx and Gaulish, with place names like Dun Blaioinaidbth (pronounced Dublin), Glas Uedhaoth (pronounced Glasgow) and Caer Dibdh (pronounciation not given, but presumably Cardiff).

    Live-Action TV 
  • Half Moon Investigations was written by Irishman Eoin Colfer and set in that country. The TV adaptation was made in Scotland.
  • Highlander frequently features 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.
  • Spoofed in a series of early-'90s Saturday Night Live sketches, in which Mike Myers is the foul-tempered proprietor of a shop called All Things Scottish ("If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"). Hapless customers would frequently make the mistake of asking for shillelaghs and whatnot, leading to Myers exploding, pointing to a map ("There's Scotland! There's Ireland! And there's the bloody Irish Sea!") and ordering them to Get Out!. This skit and character were later incorporated into Myers' movie So I Married an Axe Murderer as the protagonist's father.
  • A 1983 SCTV sketch featured Dave Thomas as an angry Scottish cooking-show host, using the same catchphrase as the Myers SNL sketch ("If it's not Scottish, it's crap!").
  • In Smallville, a gang prepares to rob Lex Luthor as their final heist because their ability to phase through solid objects is fading. One of the crooks makes a crack about how they'd be able to build a money silo like "that Irish duck" and is corrected (since Scrooge is in fact Scottish) by one of the other crooks with a surprisingly good rendition of both accents.
  • In an episode of Black Books some American tourists refer to Bernard, (who is Irish) as a "Scotchman".
  • Craig Ferguson, the Scottish-born host of CBS' The Late Late Show, once remarked on a St. Patrick's Day episode that "I'm not Irish, but everybody thinks I am."
  • In an episode of 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?"
  • Lampshaded in Heroes, when Elle goes into a pub in Ireland:
    Elle: I've never been in Irish pub before! Do you have haggis?
    Ricky: That's Scotland, love.
  • In one episode of Lost, Sawyer refers to Desmond as 'the magic leprechaun', even though Desmond is actually Scottish.
  • In Supernatural Crowley was a Scottish human named Gavin MacLeod before he was an English demon (it gets worse), and the other demons call him Lucky the Leprechaun behind his back.
    Bobby: MacLeod's Scottish, Einstein.
  • Star Trek:
    • Even in Star Trek: The Original Series, Scotty's accent tends to wander not just through every region of Scotland, but across the Irish Sea too. Lampshaded by several Scottish stand-up comedians over the years who always joke about wondering which part of Ireland Scotty was from. This was apparently due to Executive Meddling; James Doohan actually could do several regional Scottish accents, but it was feared that they would be incomprehensible to American audiences.
    • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation 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 
  • Sons of Anarchy: Chibs is referred to as a Scot and played by Scottish actor Tommy Flanagan, but apparently was raised in Belfast, with longtime IRA ties. This would be less jarring if Flanagan had even a hint of a Northern Irish accent, but he plays Chibs with his thick-as-mud Glaswegian tones on full blast.
  • Dead Like Me takes it up a notch by mixing in all but Wales; when they're reaping the soul of an Irishman living in America, he sees heaven as a vision of his home: an image of the Cliffs of Moher, which he refers to as the (English) "Cliffs of Dover", with the sound of Scottish bagpipes playing "Scotland the Brave".
  • The Spoils of Babylon and its sequel The Spoils Before Dying reference a Bland-Name Product of alcoholic beverage called "Bagpipes O'Toole."
  • Once Upon a Time Season 5's crossover with Brave featured rather a lot of Irish actors playing the characters from DunBroch, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Scotland. They did, however, affect Scottish accents.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch has an episode where Mr Pool - who has Scottish heritage - wears a kilt for Scottish Pride Day. Harvey asks if he can do a jig, and gets an annoyed "that's a cheesy Irish dance" in response. Then Mr Pool performs the Highland Fling for the class.
  • For one game on Impractical Jokers, Murr wears a kilt and introduces himself as "Seamus O'Murray" from "McDublin, O'Ireland", with an accent that can't decide which of the British Isles it's from.
  • Time Team: A discussed trope in the episode "Heroes Hill" on a dig at Knock Dhu in Northern Ireland. They point out that Scotland is actually visible on the horizon, the two headlands are only separated by about fifteen miles of sea, and that many Iron and Bronze Age Kingdoms had territory in both and probably didn't see any difference, or primacy, of each lands.

    Music 
  • Scottish bagpipes play a Mixolydian mode scale, while the Irish equivalent, uilleann pipes, play a full two octaves. This means that it's easier to write melodic-sounding "Scottish bagpipe" music using an Irish instrument. Braveheart, for example, used Irish bagpipes on the soundtrack.
  • NPR's long-running show The Thistle and Shamrock showcases music from Ireland and Scotland, taking its name from the two nations' symbols. To the untrained ear (i.e.: most people) there is little discernible difference between the two styles. The show's host, Fiona Richie, is Scottish.
  • Countless "Irish" punk bands use Scottish tunes or pipes in their music or intersperse a traditional Scottish song with Irish words. The Dropkick Murphys does this in the video for their song "Spicy McHaggis."
  • The Celtic harp, an icon of Irish culture (in both Ireland and The Irish Diaspora, particularly America), is thought to have originated in Scotland.
  • Many Irish folk songs 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.
  • Jim Kerr of Scottish band Simple Minds took an Irish lilt to his vocals in the late '80s and occasionally covered Irish subjects, most notably in The Troubles -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 U2, his parents were indeed immigrants from Ireland and he grew up with a sense of dual nationality as a result.

     Mythology and Religion 

    Pro Wrestling 
  • A bit of commentary in WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 has something to this effect - Coach refers to the oh-so-very Irish Finlay as English. When called on it by way of Michael Cole listing all of the extremely Irish things about him, Coach indicates that he knows the difference between English and Scottish.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Forlorn in the Ravenloft setting is a mountainous, rainy realm that has a language based on Gaelic, was once part of a country that also included the Western Highlands, and even has a Stock Ness Monster. On the other hand, some of the proper names, such as the darklord Tristem ApBlanc and the mountains Arawn and Mathonwy, sound more like the UK's other mountainous, rainy realm, making Forlorn one of the few examples of Scotwales.
  • Calebernia, one of the fictional nations from Crimestrikers, invokes this trope down to its Portmanteau name (a combination of Caledonia and Hibernia).

    Theme Parks 
  • The introduction of the Merida face character at the Disney Theme Parks sparked a minor controversy when many of the actresses couldn't get the accent right and sounded more Irish than Scottish.

    Theatre 
  • Inverted in Legally Blonde: 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 Celtic Woman Susan McFadden.

    Video Games 
  • Valkyria Chronicles features a recruitable sniper with the very Irish name Catherine O'Hara. While it's never stated that she's from the game's alternate universe versions of Ireland or Scotland, her accent veers dramatically between the two whenever she speaks.
  • The succubus Morrigan Aensland of Darkstalkers fame was discovered as an infant by her adoptive father Belial in Scotland and her D.O.B. (1678 A.D.) coincides with the first appearance of a succubus in Scotland, but her name and some of her character quirks are taken from a deity in Irish mythology. With the exception of the '90s cartoon, the dub of the Night Warriors OVA, and more recent entries in the Vs. series like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, her English voice actresses also tend to give Morrigan an American accent, not a Scottish one. By a technicality, this would make her "younger sister" Lilith also qualify for this trope.
  • Parodied in Toonstruck: The bartender in Cutopia is a head of green cheese, shaped like a shamrock, wearing a tam o'shanter and a kilt, whose accent alternates between Irish and Scottish every other line. Yes, that's right; he's half Irish, half Scottish. It's that kind of game.
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, the Daedric Prince Sheogorath typically speaks with an Irish accent when calm and a Scottish accent when excited. Further, he's voiced by an American doing an impression of Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. Weirdly fitting, as he is the Mad God, after all...
  • The Celtic civilization in Age of Empires II 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 wood gathering are inspired by Medieval Scotland. Finally, the playable Celtic campaign deals with William Wallace's rebellion.
  • Team Fortress 2'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 and "DeGroot" is originally a Dutch surname. And have we mentioned he's black? There's a number of perfectly reasonable explanations for all of this, but his family history is one long Noodle Incident.
  • The Celts in the 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 (and Brittany), being led by a Welsh-speaking Boudicca with Edinburgh as their capital and Dublin as their second city.
    • Averted in Civilization VI, where the "Celts" are gone, but both the Scots and the Gauls appear as playable nations (lead, respectively, by Robert the Bruce and Ambiorix). Cardiff and Armagh both appear as NPC city-states.
  • PAYDAY 2 has an interesting relationship with this trope. The original voice actress for Clover was Scottish; that being Rhona Cameron. This was changed after her reveal so that her voice was provided by actual Irishwoman instead; Aoife Duffin. Another character, Bonnie, was then created for Rhona to voice, who is Scottish, and turned them into an Expy of Big Boo from Orange Is the New Black for good measure.
  • Fallout 4 has Cait, a supposedly Irish woman voiced by a Scottish voice actress.
  • Moira O'Deorain from Overwatch has a Scottish given name, but comes from Ireland and speaks in something that sounds vaguely like a Dublin accent (maybe the developers were worried players wouldn't know how to pronounce Máire?). For good measure, her surname can't decide whether it's being Anglicised or not (presuming it's her maiden name, it would be Ní Dheorain in Irish or something like O'Durran in English).
  • Similarly, in Bioshock 1, the very Irish Voice with an Internet Connection Atlas mentions his wife Moira and son Patrick. If the goal was to imply that she too was Irish, the writers failed. 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.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield: The main plot of the Scotland-themed Crown Tundra expansion revolves around reuniting the region's ancient king with his mystical steed, which he can only control through the aid of a bridle woven with strands of the steed's hair. This is pulled directly from a myth about Brian Boru, a legendary High King of Ireland.
  • Super Paper Mario: O'Chunks speaks with a Scottish accent, but his name begins with "O'", an Irish prefix.
  • The Gaelic Nations from Thera is a cultural chop suey of every single Celtic trope you can imagine. Scottish Highlanders with giant swords, Welsh archers, chanting Druids, Irish javelinmen, screaming fanatics who fight butt-naked with only magical sigils in blue woad to protect them, you can go on.
  • Disco Elysium: Ubi Sunt? (question mark required) is a really weird mashup of "things near England that aren't England": it's near Vesper-Messina (the UK equivalent), moves about often (like the old Irish myth of Hybrasil), is frowned on as dirt-poor (the Irish), warlike (the Scots), obsessed with farming (the Welsh), and a perchance for rebellious Communism (the Irish again). The one Ubi Suntian? you meet has a Welsh-ish accent and happily talks about orphanages (an indelible part of Irish history).

    Web Animation 
  • In Bowser's Kingdom episode 7, Hal and a Chomp Bro. fight in an event called "Shell Wrestling". Hal states that if he can beat a gorilla wearing a tie (Donkey Kong), then he can take down a German Turtle. The Chomp Bro. then reveals he's Austrian and punches Hal off the stage. This example could be called Germaustria in this case.
  • In the Weebl's Stuff video Scotch Egg, when a map of Scotland is displayed, underneath the text saying "SCOTLAND", there is a caption in small text reading "This is where the Irish come from. Tell your friends."

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • Kim Possible has Duff Killigan, who is Scottish in every way - save for his very Irish surname.
  • Phineas and Ferb went ahead and made a character who was half-Scottish, half-Irish, presumably in an attempt to avert this trope, or perhaps a parody. His accent shifts depending on which stereotype he's embracing at the moment.
  • One for the England vs. Wales aspect: The early-'90s Hanna-Barbera 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 
  • Miner Smurf of The Smurfs is mentioned as having either an Irish or a Scottish accent, which isn't helped by the fact that his voice actor would also do Scrooge McDuck.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars presents us with the Lurmen, a race of ScotIrish sentient lemurs whose Actual Pacifist sentiments are rather a Shout-Out to the Irish peace process.
  • The Adventures of Portland Bill neatly dodged this one by never quite getting around to specifying which side of the Irish Sea it was set on. And as noted in Real Life below, there's been enough intermarrying and cross-colonisation over the centuries that the differences in accent are quite subtle.
  • Numbuh 86 from Codename: Kids Next Door is meant to be Irish, but her accent sounds more Scottish.
  • Home Movies: Coach John McGuirk is Irish, but he's a Scottish highland dancer instead of an Irish dancer because he's "not gay".
  • As shown in "Jaw$!", proud Scotsman Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales (2017) absolutely hates 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?"note 
    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!

    Real Life 
  • This definitely can count as a Justified Trope in most cases, as there is a large amount of 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. 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. In the pre-modern sense, there was a continuous cultural and political connection between the Islands and Highlands of Scotland and the Irish Kingdoms, particularly Ulster, that lasted for well over a millennium, only being fully severed with the destruction of the Clan System and the scouring of the Highlands in the 18th Century.
  • One of the official language of Scotland is "Scottish Gaelic"note  (usually shortened to "Gaelic"), while the tongue of Ireland is "Irish"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". Which is odd given that Scottish Gaelic is the one that actually needs disambiguation, on account of the Scots language (also known as "Lowland Scots") also existing.note  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.
  • This Overheard in the Office quote:
    Receptionist: How was Ireland?
    Office manager: Actually, I was in Scotland.
    Receptionist: That's not the same place?
  • In a 2010 interview for Irish television, Katy Perry seemed under the impression the Loch Ness Monster lives in Ireland. Perhaps she and (maybe) the interviewers confused a each uisge with a peist.
  • In July 2011 controversial activist James O'Keefe released a heavily edited video of himself pretending to be an IRA member applying for Medicaid for his Irish friends, while wearing a Scottish tartan and sporran.
  • St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, notable for using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, hence it's famous association with him, is now widely believed to have been born in Old Kilpatrick, in what is now Scotland.
  • Separatist nationalists in both (Northern) Ireland and Scotland share an antipathy to England and the UK government.
  • 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. While Robert was warring to secure Scottish independence, his brother Edward invaded Ireland. Landing in Ulster, Edward found initial support amongst Irish lords and, after winning a series of wars against Anglo-Norman lords, gained recognition by the lords as the High King of Ireland (the first one in a century). The Bruce brothers envisioned "a grand Celtic alliance against the English," even planning an eventual invasion of Wales to add to the alliance. After months of initial success with the joint Scottish-Irish venture, the war in Ireland grounded to a halt due to many Irish lords and kings outside of Ulster refusing to acknowledge a foreign king (wanting both the English and Scottish off their island). This was made even worse when a famine occurred in Ireland, causing the Scottish soldiers to begin pillaging Irish farms, exasperating the famine and leading even more Irish lords to abandon Edward Bruce. The Scottish-Irish alliance’s final nail came in 1318 when Edward was killed at the Battle of Faughart.
    • An interesting subversion of this trope comes from the Annals of Connacht, which likens the Scottish and English together, against the Irish. From the perspective of its scholars, both countries were invaders that came across the sea, fought one another, then proceeded to rob and murder Irish civilians when food-stocks ran low, before leaving back across the sea. It's worth noting that Connacht was actually allied with the Scots and on board with the "Celtic Alliance" so it's likely that this attitude was formed by the atrocious conduct of the Scottish troops mentioned above, rather than any prior enmity like with the English.
    • The historical kingdom of Dál Riata was a literal Scotireland, occurring 500 years earlier.
  • Both exemplified and averted in the case of rugby union. Since 2001, Scotland and Ireland have shared a top-level professional league, now known as Pro12note , with fellow Celtic nation Wales. Averted in 2010 when two teams from Italy joined the league. Averted even more in 2017 when two South African teams joined what became the Pro14.
  • This interview on CNBC where the CEO of the IDA Martin Shanahan was interviewed. The reporter first asks him why Ireland doesn't use the Pound and confuses Ireland with Scotland, thinking that they're the same island. How Shanahan kept a straight face is anybody's guess.
  • The Tilted Kilt "breastaurant" chain's website states it "has its roots deep in the rousing tradition of Scottish, Irish and English Pubs," and while its employees wear kilts and sporrans and its mock coat of arms features Scotland's national animal of the unicorn, several dishes on the menu are Irish-themed ("Irish nachos," Irish stew, and a "Paddy melt") and Irish beers like Smithwick's and Guinness are served rather than Scottish ones like Belhaven or Innis & Gunn.
  • Ireland and Scotland top the charts for the two most red-haired countries in the world, at 10% and 6%, respectively. Red hair is also high in both Wales, England, and the numerous smaller surrounding islands, but not as high as Scotireland.

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