History Main / FakeIrish

As you might expect FakeIrish characters often slip into {{Oireland}} territory.

** Also Sean Connery in ''Tarzan'sGreatestAdventure'', Sean Connery in ''TheLongestDay'', Sean Connery in ''TheUntouchables''.

* In a bizarre bit of casting Alice Eve, perhaps the most throughly English young actress working today played an Irish nanny (named 'Erin', which is a little like having a British nanny named 'Albion') in the second ''SexAndTheCity'' movie. [[http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2010/0528/1224271261315.html At least one critic]] thought her character verged into [[ModernMinstrelsy outright racism.]]

* Boondock Saints. The Saints are played by Norman Reedus of Hollywood, Florida and Sean Patrick Flanery of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

** Doyle, played Dublin native GlennQuinn being entirely authentic. And David's accent improves particularly after his arrival on ''{{Angel}}''.

* QuintonFlynn is from Ohio yet voices the Irish accented Henry in ''NoMoreHeroes'' (Who is [[spoiler:the twin brother]] of the American accented Travis Touchdown voiced by the ''British'' Robin Atkin Downes, [[{{Suda 51}} don't think about it too hard]].)

Irish characters are some of the most frequently depicted foreigners in [[{{Oireland}} 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, [[OohMeAccentsSlipping '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, something that escapes most Americans.

* Of all the Irish characters in ''Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks'' only the adult version of Piggley is voiced by an Irish actor (Peadar Lamb). The others are all voiced by Americans, except Molly and Dannan O'Mallard who are voiced by Canadian TaraStrong.

* [[BradPitt Brad Pitt]] has played Irish characters in two films, as well as some Irish-American characters. He is a Northern Irish terrorist in ''The Devil's Own'', and an Irish gypsy in ''Snatch''. He does quite well on the accent test: most people think his accent in ''Snatch'' is pretty good, and while opinion is more divided about his Belfast accent in ''The Devil's Own'', a lot of people think he definitely avoids going to {{Oireland}}.

* Boondock Saints. The Saints are played by Norman Reedus of Hollywood Florida and Sean Patrick Flanery of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

* ''{{Film/Ronin}}'' - Natasha [=McElhone=] is British in real life. However, her mother is Irish and Natasha regularly visited Donegal as a child.

* Emily Watson (English) and Robert Carlyle (Scottish) play Frank [=McCourt's=] parents in ''Angela's Ashes''.

* Scottish actresses Kelly Macdonald and Shirley Henderson played Irish sisters in ''Intermission''.

* RichardGere played a (former) IRA man in the ''TheJackal''.

* Daniel Day-Lewis frequently plays Irish characters but is actually from London and is half Anglo-Jewish. On the other hand he became an Irish citizen in 1993 and is partially resident in Ireland so depending on your point of view this trope may or may not apply to him.

* American actress Erin Chambers plays Galway native Siobhan [=McKenna=]...with an ''extremely'' thick accent that sounds as fake as it is.

* In a weird semi-example ''[[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'' saw Rhys Ifans (who is Welsh) play Xenophilius Lovegood with an noticable Irish accent to fit in better with his on-screen daughter Luna Lovegood (who is played by Irish actress Evanna Lynch).

* MurderSheWrote: The Celtic Riddle. [[SoBadItsGood Good gravy]]. We even get a sub-plot where there's a secret message coded in Ogham. And the "Irish" characters ''can's even pronounce "Ogham" properly!'' (it's "oh-am" in case you're wondering)

* Scottish Actress Kelly Mcdonald plays Irish Immigrant Margaret Schroder in "Boardwalk Empire" with quite a convincing accent for a character from early 20th Century Kerry

* None of the characters who appeared in the brief 'Peter in Ireland arc' in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' were portrayed by Irish actors (though one ''was'' an Irish-American, and another was Dominic Keating, who is half Irish, although he was raised in England). Two seasons later we had American Robert Knepper playing Samuel.

* QuintonFlynn is from Ohio yet voices the Irish accented Henry in ''NoMoreHeroes'' (Who is [[spoiler:the twin brother]] of the American accented Travis Touchdown voiced by the ''British'' Robert Atkin Downes, [[{{Suda 51}} don't think about it too hard]].)

* Richard Gere played a (former) IRA man in the ''The Jackal''.
* Tommy Lee Jones played a (former) IRA man in ''Blown Away'' (notice a pattern here?). In the same film Jeff Bridges played a Boston cop who was -- you guessed -- formerly in the IRA.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]

* None of the characters who appeared in the brief 'Peter in Ireland arc' in ''{{Heroes}}'' were portrayed by Irish actors (though one ''was'' an Irish-American, and another was Dominic Keating, who is half Irish, although he was raised in England). Two seasons later we had American Robert Knepper playing Samuel.

* During one review in ZeroPunctuation, Yahtzee did half the review in a stereotypical Irish accent, including changing the cartoon version of himself to wearing a greeen hat and sporting a large, red beard.

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 up-coming ''PerriersBounty'' 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 [[http://www.showbizireland.com/news/november01/07-smurfit04.shtml this article]] for theories on why there are so few name Irish actresses.