History Main / FakeIrish

* In ''Leapin' Leprechauns'' and ''Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns'', a Polish actor plays Michael Dennehy, an English actor plays the king of the leprechauns, and an English actress plays the queen of the fairies.

** Creator/EricStoltz as Eddie Carson in "Under Pressure", "Entrapment" and "All About Eve".
** Edward Herrmann as Father Joseph [=McCabe=] in "Time Heals, Part 1", "Time Heals, Part 2" and "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby".
** Fredd Wayne as Pat [=McGroyn=] in "Up and Down".

* Music/MickJagger's laughable attempt to imitate an Irish accent in ''{{Film/Ned Kelly}}''.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' has both a regular and an in-universe example. Brit Gabrielle Anwar plays former-IRA Fiona Glennane; however, you'd be forgiven for not noticing, as she adopts another, American-ish accent in the second episode (and her original Irish accent was bad enough that it comes as a relief). American Jeffrey Donovan plays American Michael Westen, who uses a cover as Irish terrorist Michael [=McBride=]. Also, Michael's Irish accent is so good, Fiona's brother Sean tells him his ''American'' accent is [[YourCostumeNeedsWork "a bit dodgy"]]. Made even funnier by the fact that Fiona's brother is played by Creator/GideonEmery, an Englishman and fellow FakeIrish.

* In ''Leapin's Leprechauns'' and ''Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns'', a Polish actor plays Michael Dennehy, an English actor plays the king of the leprechauns, and an English actress plays the queen of the fairies.

* Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/LeaThompson in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'' play Seamus and Mary [-McFly-], part of the IdenticalGrandson / AndYouWereThere of the series.

* ''Film/{{Ronin}}'' - Creator/NataschaMcElhone is English in real life. However, her mother is Irish and Natasha regularly visited Donegal as a child.

Irish characters are some of the most frequently depicted foreigners in [[{{Oireland}} British and American]] media but they often 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.

As you might expect FakeIrish characters often slip into {{Oireland}} territory. Note that American, British, Canadian, or Australian actors of Irish descent technically avoid the FakeIrish label since they are well...Irish. But if they screw up the accent, expect to hear about it.

* In Leapin's Leprechauns and Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns, a Polish actor plays Michael Dennehy, an English actor plays the king of the leprechauns, and an English actress plays the queen of the fairies.

* ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' has New Jersey native Thomas Mitchell as Irish immigrant Gerard O'Hara. He himself was the son of Irish immigrants.

* ''Film/TheQuietMan'' mostly averts this, as it was filmed in Ireland and featured a majority of Irish actors (including Creator/MaureenOHara). But Ward Bond (American) and Victor [=McLaggen=] (English) as Father Peter and Red Will respectively. John Wayne also plays an Irish-born American - though of course his character's accent has faded from years in America.

* The 1995 film ''Film/CircleOfFriends'' was particularly full of fake Irish: Creator/MinnieDriver, Saffron Burrows, Creator/ColinFirth (English), and Alan Cumming (Scottish). Chris O'Donnell is of Irish descent but has a pretty bad attempt at an accent.

* British-born and Canadian-raised Kim Cattrall played Brendan Gleeson's Irish wife in ''The Tiger's Tail''.

* Scot Creator/GerardButler portrayed Creator/HilarySwank's late Irish husband in ''Film/PSILoveYou''. His FakeIrish accent was generally savaged by Irish newspaper reviews. She then goes on a holiday to Ireland and meets Creator/JefferyDeanMorgan. Amusingly Butler was quite open about his failure to "channel" his Irish ancestry and during an interview actually issued a lighthearted (but no less honest) apology to the people of Ireland.

* ''Ordinary Decent Criminal'', a movie [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very loosely based]] on real-life Dublin gangster Martin Cahill, starred Creator/KevinSpacey as the Cahill-type character, fellow American Linda Fiorentino as his wife and Brit actress Helen Baxendale as Fiorentino's sister.

* Disney's ''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' had Creator/SeanConnery (Scottish), Janet Munro (English) and Estelle Winwood (English) playing Irish characters.
* Sean Connery in ''Film/Tarzan'sGreatestAdventure'', ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople'', ''Film/TheMollyMaguires'' and ''Film/TheUntouchables''. For the last one, he was once elected "worst accent ever" given [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent Sean never attempts anything but Scottish.]]

* 2010 gangster flick ''Film/PerriersBounty'' has Creator/JimBroadbent as Creator/CillianMurphy's father. In the same film Jodie Whittaker is an odd semi-example: she keeps her native accent so (presumably) her character is English, but since her nationality is never addressed and since nothing about the character is specifically English it seems likely the role was originally written as Irish but Whittaker [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent couldn't manage an Irish accent.]]
* Creator/BradPitt 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 [[UsefulNotes/IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] in ''Film/{{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 {{Oireland}} level even if he fell short.
* The Belfast-based movie ''{{Film/Cherrybomb}}'' falls prey to this. Although pretty much all the supporting cast members were genuinely Irish, the male lead (Rupert Grint) was English and his love interest (Kimberly Nixon) was Welsh, and yet they were required to put on strong Irish accents for their roles.

* Australian actress Creator/CateBlanchett played the eponymous lead in ''Veronica Guerin'', a biopic about an investigative journalist who was assassinated for investigating TheIrishMob and its involvement in the drug trade in Ireland.

* Disney's ''Film/TheLuckOfTheIrish'' is full of these. HenryGibson, MaritaGeraghty, and TimothyOmundson, just to name three. All Americans (although Omundson is part-Irish).

* American Aidan Quinn and Danish Connie Nielsen in ''A Shine of Rainbows''
* ''Film/InTheNameOfTheFather'' had English actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Mark Sheppard and Creator/PetePostlethwaite play Irish characters. However Day-Lewis has some Irish ancestry, possesses Irish citizenship and lives there, while Sheppard also has some Irish heritage - though it should be noted they play ''Northern'' Irish characters. All of them put on good accents too. It's averted with most Irish characters played by wholly Irish actors anyway.
* John Ford's ''Film/TheInformer'' has a real Irishman -- Victor [=McLaglen=] -- in the lead, but the rebel leader is played by Preston Foster, from New Jersey. To his credit, Ford doesn't even have him try to fake an Irish accent...which makes it easier for the audience to suspend disbelief and just enjoy some great performances.

* ''{{Film/Brooklyn}}'' has Julie Walters playing the Irish landlady Mrs Keogh. Walters has Irish ancestry but speaks in a Liverpool accent naturally. Jim Broadbent also plays an Irish priest, though his accent seems to be a bit all over the place to imply it has simply faded from his many years in New York. Elsewhere averted with the majority of Irish characters played by Irish actors. It also marks the first major role where Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson play Irish characters. Although Saoirse speaks with a Dublin accent naturally and adopts a more rural accent as her character Eilish is an Enniscorthy native.

* ''About Adam'' is a 2000 RomanticComedy about four Irish sisters. Two of them are played by Frances O'Connor (English) and Kate Hudson (American). The accents aren't half bad either.
* ''Agnes Browne'' is a 1999 film that features a majority Irish cast. The exceptions are Anjelica Huston - who does a very impressive job - and Ray Winstone - who [[OohMeAccentsSlipping does not]].

** Galway-born Angel is portrayed by Buffalo-born, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}-raised American David Boreanaz.[[note]]Borenaz is of ''very'' partial Irish descent.[[/note]] This tends to come up only in flashback scenes. While Spike is still [[FakeBrit proudly English]], Angel has buried his brogue due to the bad memories.

* British actor Paul Whitehouse played Irish estate worker Ted (of the Ted & Ralph sketches) in the ''Series/TheFastShow''.

The cousin to FakeBrit and FakeAmerican and a subtrope of FakeNationality.

* Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/LeaThompson in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', part of the IdenticalGrandson / AndYouWereThere of the series.

* Sean Connery in ''Film/Tarzan'sGreatestAdventure'', ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople'', ''Film/TheMollyMaguires'' and ''Film/TheUntouchables''.

* Mick Jagger's laughable attempt to imitate an Irish accent in ''{{Film/Ned Kelly}}''.

* ''{{Knots Landing}}'' has an in-universe example. Although it was hinted in several episodes soon after his introduction in Season Nine that Johnny Rourke wasn't really Irish, this was not confirmed until the Season Ten episode "Deserted". When Johnny, Michael, Paige and several Mexicans are trapped in a deserted truck in rapidly increasing temperatures, Michael notices that Johnny has dropped his (painfully fake) Irish accent. Johnny replies that he is too tired to make the effort. He explains that he was about to commit a robbery in Belfast when he happened across an IRA cell. He adopted an Irish accent, told them that he was a nationalist and immediately started working for them, an explanation which is almost as unconvincing as his accent. He met Paige in Dublin some time after that.

* ''{{Film/Brooklyn}}'' has Julie Walters playing the Irish landlady Mrs Keogh. Walters has Irish ancestry but speaks in a Liverpool accent naturally. Jim Broadbent also plays an Irish priest, though his accent seems to be a bit all over the place to imply it has simply faded from his many years in New York. Elsewhere averted with the majority of Irish characters played by Irish actors. It also marks the first major role where Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson use their natural accents.

* The 1995 film ''Film/CircleOfFriends'' was particularly full of fake Irish: Creator/MinnieDriver, Saffron Burrows, Creator/ColinFirth (English), and Alan Cumming (Scottish). American Chris O'Donnell, who also played a lead, is Irish-American but was NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' has both a regular and an in-universe example. Brit Gabrielle Anwar plays former-IRA Fiona Glennane; however, you'd be forgiven for not noticing, as she adopts another, American-ish accent in the second episode (and her original Irish accent was bad enough that it comes as a relief). American Jeffrey Donovan plays American Michael Westen, who uses a cover as Irish terrorist Michael [=McBride=]. Also, Michael's Irish accent is so good, Fiona's brother Sean tells him his ''American'' accent is [[YourCostumeNeedsWork "a bit dodgy"]].
** Made even funnier by the fact that Fiona's brother is played by Creator/GideonEmery, an Englishman and fellow FakeIrish.

** Also, in ''Hercules'' proper, the Irish demi-goddess Morrigan is played by the Canadian Tamara Gorski (and no, she doesn't have an ounce of Irish blood in her, she's of Ukrainian descent). Then again, no character in that show is played by an actor/actress of the same nationality (e.g. the lead is a Greek with a Roman name played by an American).

* Creator/MichaelJFox and Lea Thompson in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', part of the IdenticalGrandson / AndYouWereThere of the series.

** He ''says'' that it's an Irish accent, but it doesn't even vaguely resemble one. It sounds more like someone punched him in the jaw than anything else.
*** Which may be how he achieved that effect.

* In a bizarre bit of casting Creator/AliceEve, perhaps the most thoroughly 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.]]

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