History Main / FakeIrish

* Anglo-French actress Emma Mackey pulls off an Irish accent rather effectively for the film ''The Winter Lake''.

* The Belfast-based movie ''Film/Cherrybomb2010'' falls prey to this. Although pretty much all the supporting cast members were genuinely Irish, the male lead (Creator/RupertGrint) was English and his love interest (Creator/KimberlyNixon) was Welsh, and yet they were required to put on strong Irish accents for their roles.

* The Belfast-based movie ''{{Film/Cherrybomb}}'' falls prey to this. Although pretty much all the supporting cast members were genuinely Irish, the male lead (Creator/RupertGrint) was English and his love interest (Kimberly Nixon) was Welsh, and yet they were required to put on strong Irish accents for their roles.

* Creator/JohnFord'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.

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.

* ''Film/TheGreatWhiteHype'' has an InUniverse case. Despite having an extremely Irish name, Terry Conklin is not Irish at all. The boxing promoter who lured Conklin back into the ring in hopes of generating a big payday from racist white audiences tuning in to see a white fighter take on the black undefeated heavyweight champion, however, claims that Conlin is Irish so he has an easy way to hype the fight. It also lets said promoter be practically open about the racial motivations for the fight even while denying that race is a factor.

* The Classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]" took place on a space station featuring a multinational crew, nearly all of whom were played by British actors adopting fake accents. One such crewmember was the Irish Sean Flannigan, played by English actor James Mellor.

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. Ireland is quite unique as a country in that there can be startling differences in accents within counties; a north Dublin accent for instance is like night and day to a southern one from only an hour's drive away.

* Sean Connery in ''Film/TarzansGreatestAdventure'', ''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.]]

* Inverted in the series ''{{Literature/Outlander}}''. Main character and Englishwoman Claire Randall is portrayed by Irish actor Caitriona Balfe.

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.

** The Classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]" took place on a space station featuring a multinational crew, nearly all of whom were played by British actors adopting fake accents. One such crewmember was the Irish Sean Flannigan, played by English actor James Mellor.

Another reason why non-Irish actors are used is the desire for name recognition. Even if an appropriate-age largely unknown Irish actor 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 female actors; even a film with mostly Irish actors, like ''Intermission'' or ''About Adam'' or the recent ''Film/PerriersBounty'' will still fill its female roles with British or American actors. This may be why there are quite a few famous Irish male actors in Hollywood but vanishingly few famous Irish female actors: 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 female Irish actors. This can also overlap with BritainIsOnlyLondon - as a lot of casting tends to be based there, especially if it's a UK-backed production - and there's an inherent bias to favoring London actors, while almost shutting out Irish actors completely (as noted on the FakeBrit page, most Irish actors who get fame will likely play more Brits or [[FakeAmerican Americans]] in the long run). In recent years, this has started drawing comparisons to whitewashing.

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 recent ''Film/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. This can also overlap with BritainIsOnlyLondon - as a lot of casting tends to be based there, especially if it's a UK-backed production - and there's an inherent bias to favoring London actors, while almost shutting out Irish actors completely (as noted on the FakeBrit page, most Irish actors who get fame will likely play more Brits or [[FakeAmerican Americans]] in the long run). In recent years, this has started drawing comparisons to whitewashing.

For some reason ''Scottish'' actors and actresses seem to be disproportionately likely to play Irish characters, which is unlikely to help those who [[{{Scotireland}} already can't tell the two countries apart.]] Also, a strong Ulster or Southern Irish accent done by a Scottish person would confuse things even further (such as the Glaswegian actor of Irish descent, David O'Hara in ''The Departed'' or Dundonian Brian Cox in ''Film/TwentyFifthHour'').

* Scottish actresses Creator/KellyMacdonald and Creator/ShirleyHenderson played Irish sisters in ''Film/{{Intermission}}''.

* ''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 Creator/LindaFiorentino as his wife and Brit actress Helen Baxendale as Fiorentino's sister.
* Irish princess Isolde was played by English actress Creator/SophiaMyles in the 2006 version of ''Film/TristanAndIsolde''.

* 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 ''Film/{{Sex and the City|2}}'' movie. [[http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2010/0528/1224271261315.html At least one critic]] thought her character verged into [[ModernMinstrelsy outright racism.]]
* Australian actress Creator/CateBlanchett played the eponymous lead in ''Film/VeronicaGuerin'', a biopic about an investigative journalist who was assassinated for investigating TheIrishMob and its involvement in the drug trade in Ireland.
* Another Veronica Guerin biopic, ''Film/WhenTheSkyFalls'' had American actress Joan Allen play the same role.

* In a weird semi-example ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' saw Creator/RhysIfans (who is proudly Welsh) play Xenophilius Lovegood with a noticeable Irish accent to fit in better with his on-screen daughter Luna Lovegood (who is played by Irish actress Creator/EvannaLynch).

* British actress Heather Sears pulled out a very creditable Irish accent for her few lines in ''The Story of Esther Costello''.

* The film adaptation of ''Theatre/DancingAtLughnasa'' features a family of five Irish sisters, and only one of them played by an Irish actress. Creator/MerylStreep does quite a good job of adopting the Donegal accent, as do the rest of the English actresses. Only Kathy Burke's accent slips from scene to scene.

* ''Film/SingStreet'' features a mostly Irish cast; the exception is American-born British actress Lucy Boynton as Raphina.
* Nominally Irish assassin Nina Williams from the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' game series is played by South African actress Candice Hillebrand in the film adaptation. Her sister Anna is played by Spanish actress Marian Zapico. The characters are heard speaking with American accents (which admittedly they do in the games too), so presumably they lost their accents at some point.

* In ''Leapin' Leprechauns'' and ''Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns'', John Bluthal, a Polish-born actor raised in Australia and later a British citzen plays Michael Dennehy, an English actor plays the king of the leprechauns, and Tina Martin, an English actress plays the queen of the fairies.

* 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).

** Scottish actress Creator/KellyMacdonald plays Irish immigrant Margaret Schroder with quite a convincing accent for a character from early 20th century Kerry.

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

* Inverted in the series ''{{Literature/Outlander}}''. Main character and Englishwoman Claire Randall is portrayed by Irish actress Caitriona Balfe.

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 recent ''Film/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.

* The 2020 film ''Wild Mountain Thyme'' features Creator/EmilyBlunt and Creator/ChristopherWalken faking rural Irish accents. Creator/JamieDornan is himself Irish, but from Northern Ireland, and thus has to fake an accent too. Due to the film's criticism of {{Oireland}} stereotyping, all the accents (except perhaps Christopher Walken's) were slammed pretty badly when the trailer dropped.

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* The Creator/AmyAdams film ''Film/LeapYear'' has her Irish love interest played by Devon-born Matthew Goode.

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* ''{{WebVideo/Aaron}}'' features Bobby Calloway playing the Irish Chris. He has Irish parents but was born in England and has an English accent. He uses his real voice, with the HandWave that Chris's accent faded from years of living in England.
* Another Charlie Cox example? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb1Yr3CzNqY Watch him role-play as an Irish-accented pirate]] on his former ''Daredevil'' co-star Creator/DeborahAnnWoll's TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons game ''Relics and Rareties''.

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* Disney's ''Film/DarbyOGillAndTheLittlePeople'' had Creator/SeanConnery (Scottish), Janet Munro (English) and Estelle Winwood (English) playing Irish characters.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' gives us Creator/CharlieCox as Irish-American Matt Murdock. Creator/EldenHenson as Irish-American Foggy Nelson is also this (with it helped that his brother Theo in season 3 is played by native Irish actor Peter Halpin).

** McLaglen played quite a few of these, and being a close friend of famously Irish-American director Creator/JohnFord, was often mistakenly thought to be actually Irish in RealLife.

* ''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. Mildred Natwick (American) was also quite convincing as the Widow Tillane. Creator/JohnWayne also plays an Irish-born American - though of course his character's accent has faded from years in America.

* ''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. Creator/JohnWayne also plays an Irish-born American - though of course his character's accent has faded from years in America.

* Both parents in ''Film/InAmerica'' are played by English actors, though the daughters are played by real-life Irish sisters.
* ''Film/FarAndAway'' gave us an 'Irish' accented Creator/TomCruise and Creator/NicoleKidman. (Granted, the movie ''was'' filmed in Ireland.)

* Creator/SeanBean played another FakeIrish in the adaptation of Irish playwright John B. Keane's drama ''The Field'', again alongside Richard Harris.

* The Scottish Ian Bannen played Jackie O'Shea in ''Film/WakingNedDevine''.

* ''Film/StonehearstAsylum'': The English actor David Thewlis plays an Irishman, Mickey Finn.

* ''Film/TheTown'' features British actor Pete Postlethwaite as a Boston Irish gangster Ferdie.

* American Aidan Quinn and Danish Creator/ConnieNielsen in ''A Shine of Rainbows''