Oireland: Difference between revisions

* More sheep than the [[Land Down Under]], even though most Irish farms were arable until the late 19th century, when a lot switched to cattle. Sheep farming only really happens on the bad land in the West (in the British Isles themselves this is much more of a [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Welsh stereotype]]).

* Overwhelmingly Catholic: you'd be hard pressed to find a reference to Ireland's sizable Protestant population in Oireland unless the story is explicitly ''about'' religion or [[The Troubles]], still less the admittedly small Irish Jewish population, non-religious groups, or [[The New Irish|newer groups like the Irish Muslims]]. (This one is [[Truth in Television]], somewhat.)

* Wrinkly auld farmers greet travellers with a hearty, "Top o' the moornin' to ye." While some stereotypes have some merit, this has absolutely none. No Irish person ever says "top o' the mornin'". EVER.

* Nobody says yes. Instead, expect to hear, "Ah, to be shoor, to be shoor and begorrah".

* Lots of Irish step dancing, which is inexplicably referred to as "Riverdance" even though that is the title of ONE Irish dancing stage show that started in 1994, and which bears roughly the same resemblance to reality as Caesar's Palace does to [[Ancient Rome]]. It's like referring to all anime as ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''.

* The only music heard anywhere (especially if it's played live, in a pub or) will be traditional Irish music like that heard at a ceilí, and is almost always a jig or reel. Ignoring the fact that there are, indeed, Irish ''rock'' bands (like, oh yeah, ''[[U2]]'', [[My Bloody Valentine (band)|My Bloody Valentine]], [[Flogging Molly]], ''[[Horslips]]'', Therapy?, Aslan, Damien Rice, BellX1, Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, Imelda May, The Cranberries, etc.), traditional music is not much played outside local festivals and events. Just lots of The Pogues.

* Oirish people are all poor, or at the very least come from a working-class background. This ceased to be [[Truth in Television]] from 1995 until roughly 2007, when Ireland's economy became the booming [[The Celtic Tiger|Celtic Tiger]] with one of the highest standards of living in the world; since then, though, it's crashed hard.

* Post-[[The Troubles|Troubles]], you may also get some form of reference to "the Hated British."

* A few chapters of ''[[Hellsing]]'' are set in Northern Ireland in what appears to be an abandoned factory in the fictional town of Badrick. This is where the first fight between Alucard and Anderson takes place. It's a reference to the religious disputes as the British, Protestant Hellsing forces, are there cleaning up a vampire attack, so the Vatican sends Anderson because Ireland is regarded as their territory, even though Northern Ireland is technically located in the United Kingdom.

** The funny thing about this is that Hellsing starts in the fall of 1998. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on April 10th, 1998, in Belfast, months before the altercation occurred. Granted, it really didn't take effect until December 2nd, 1999, but someone didn't send the Hellsing Organization and Section XIII the memo.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Darby O'Gill and the Little People|Darby O Gill and The Little People]]''

** Though this might be forgiven for the sheer hysterical sight (and sound) of [[Sean Connery]] ''singing''.

* ''[[The Quiet Man]]'', one of the most loving depictions of Oireland that you'll ever see.

* ''[[The Matchmaker]]'', featuring an American ([[Janeane Garofalo]]) trying to do some genealogy for her boss in a town on the coast of Oireland. They play up the stereotypes, but there is also subversion, especially in scenes like the crotchety old bastard on Inis Mór who {{spoiler|swears at the protagonists in Gaelic before letting them into a quite nice house, mentions that he already gave this information over the phone the previous night, and offers them a cappucino.}}

* ''[[P.S. I Love You]]'', the film of the book by Cecilia Ahern- contains sheep, stone walls, rolling green hills, a rendition of Fairytale of New York after a funeral, and a cringe inducing Oirish accent by Gerard Butler, a man from Glasgow.

** The cattle blocking the road is Truth in Television. I've had cows block the roads a few times when I drove through Cork.

** Apparently the female's lead ''cell phone'' brings down the power grid for an entire rural Irish village. [[Atomic F-Bomb|FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU-]]

** [[The Blizzard of Odd|Drive-by swording!]]

* ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'', in which the Easter Rising apparently lasted a few hours, as opposed to the six days it lasted in reality.

* Two episodes of ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''

* The beginning of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' Season 2. {{spoiler|When Peter ends up in Ireland, with no idea of how he got there, he is found by an Irish 'brotherhood.' Each member of this brotherhood has a Celtic tattoo, and Peter is welcomed in eventually. The main Irishman (Ricky) runs an Irish pub, and steals goods from the docks, with the rest of the brotherhood.}} Throw in bad accents and tight shirts for that authentic Oirish feel.

* The entire point of ''Killinaskully'' is to play up this trope [[Refuge in Audacity|for all it's worth]].

* There's an episode of ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' in which Gussie and Spode are hired to play a pair of stage Irishmen named Pat and Mike for the village talent show. They put on woolly green beards and wave around umbrellas. Gussy really can't do the accent - in the short story the episode is based on, he actually points out how ridiculous it is, saying he's never met an Irishman who speaks or acts like this - and Spode doesn't even bother. Much like the episode with the blackface minstrels, it managed to avoid being offensive just by being utterly ludicrous.

* Played for laughs in a sketch on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' when [[Liam Neeson]] guest-starred in 2004, in a sketch called "Ya Call This A House, Do Ya?", a parody of speedy home improvement shows like ''[[Extreme Makeover: Home Edition]].'' "Buildin' Finn McQuinn" and his team sent Neeson's character down the pub while they basically moved furniture around and drank beers. It was [[Actually Pretty Funny]], mostly thanks to Neeson being a great sport.

* The 'Irish R.M.' had a series adaptation (actually very good, and this comes from a half-Irishman), which skits, parodies, plays seriously and generally messes around with pre-independence (late Victorian until 1910) Ireland - in the little Irish town of Skebawn everyone is either drunk, or about to sell you a dud horse. The only tune played is 'Haste to the Wedding', and Irishmen are either lovable scamps or ruffians. However, it is actually kind hearted - the Irish villains are non-existent, the most unlikable characters are English (e.g. Lady Knox, when set against an Irish 'villain' like Tom Sheehy or Slipper. One of the main characters is Irish (in the twinkly-eyed scamp tradition) against the English straight-man, shebeens, pig's trotters, poteen and the like is trooped out mercilessly, but it is not at all malicious - quote [Slipper the groom] 'The English and the Irish understand each other like the fox and the hound,’[Lady Yeates] ‘But which is which?’ [Slipper] ‘Ah well, if we knew that, we’d know everything!’. There is a Catholic Nationalist canon, and Roman Catholicism is skitted (the redoubtable Mrs Cadogan (pronounced kay-de-GAWN) is an example), but rather like Jeeves and Wooster, it avoids being offensive.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** The animation of this series was actually produced by Fred Wolf Films [[Shout-Out|Dublin]] at the time

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Peter finds out that his real father is an Irishman, and heads to "McSwiggen Village, where the hills are green, the streams are clear, and the sweaters are so thick, even the boniest-fingered nun could poke you in the chest and it wouldn't bother you none!" The pub is called Wifey McBeaty's and Peter's father is the town drunk, which is an honored position in Irish society.

** The same Oirishman appeared in Whacking Day, when it was explained that the holiday had started as "an excuse to beat up the Irish".

*** "Oi took many a lump! But 'twas all in good fun."

'''Oirish Characters'''

* Siryn, Banshee, and Black Tom in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' often lapse into this, depending on the writer.

{{quote|"[[Twisted Toyfare Theatre|And if'n ye cannae tell, I'm Irish.]]" }}

== [[Fanfic]] ==

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

** They went a long way to making up for that travesty with the character of Miles O'Brien (played by Irish actor Colm Meaney) who then went on to be a main character on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|DS9]]''.

** They also had the episode "Sub Rosa", in which Dr. Crusher's grandmother dies on a planet settled by more [[Space Jews|Space Oirish]] (Who were supposed to be Space ''Scottish'', but, [[Scotireland|y'know]]) and there's a {{spoiler|[[Virtual Ghost]]}}.

* Mr. O'Reilly, the lazy, incompetent Irish construction worker on ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''. Played by David Kelly, an actual Irishman, which makes it a bit better.

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Theatre]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Aran Ryan in ''[[Punch-Out!!]]'' He isn't all that stereotypical though. He was a fairly generic fighter in ''Super Punch-Out!!'' but ''Punch-Out: Wii'' decided to make him ''[[Ax Crazy|completely fucking insane]].''

* Roy McManus from ''[[Shadow Hearts|Shadow Hearts From The New World]]''. An ill-tempered, violent and power hungry Irish gang boss, McManus tried to seize up Chicago while Capone was locked in [[The Alcatraz|Alcatraz]]. He also had a most unrequited crush on Capone's sister Edna that led him to kidnap her. Sadly for both of them, Edna did not return his feelings and an enraged McManus pulled a gun and shot her dead.

* [[The Suffering]]: Ties That Bind boasts an Irish Foundation soldier who promptly shouts 'Jaysus!' every 2-3 seconds. And boasts a deliciously Oirish accent the rest of the time.

== [[Web Comics]] ==