Sheeran, Macklemore, O'Donnell and Bloom - the new trend of identifying as Irish

Irish Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

It's always been cool to be Irish - no matter where you're born and raised.
Politicians like Bill Clinton and Joe Biden made much of their Irish roots, while Mariah Carey and Emily Ratajkowski have parents from Cork. Actress Olivia Wilde is from an Irish family and her stage surname is inspired by Oscar Wilde.
But recently, there's been a rash of stars 'identifying as Irish' or feeling 'culturally Irish'.
This month, both Ed Sheeran and Orlando Bloom claimed they feel more Irish than anything else. Rapper Macklemore grew up in Seattle but identifies with his Irish heritage. Comedian Roisin Conaty says: 'I identify as Irish, but I'm a Londoner too.'
Here are some of the famous faces who are more Irish than the Irish themselves.
Pop superstar Ed Sheeran caused controversy last week when he said: 'I class my culture as Irish.'
'I grew up with trad music in the house. So I identify culturally as Irish. I feel like my culture is something I'm really proud of and want to express. Just because I was born in Britain doesn't mean I necessarily have to be British. It should be how you feel and how you were raised and what you lean into.'
He kicked back when criticised for feeling Irish. He posted a message on Instagram saying: "My dad is Irish. My family is Irish. I have an Irish passport. The culture I was brought up around is Irish.
"The first music I learnt was Irish. I can be allowed to feel connection to a place half my family is from."
Another Brit who feels Irish is Orlando Bloom. The Lord of the Rings actor, 48, spoke last week of how he is 'an Irishman at heart'.
'I grew up next to an Irish family who are amazing and are really like my family and took me in. I'm an Irishman at heart. Actually, I'm more Irish than anything else.'
Actress Rosario Dawson also says she is 'more Irish than anything else' and has visited here numerous times since first coming over to trace her roots in the early 2010s.
The Justice League star loves coming back to Ireland, saying: "It's fun for me because my biological father is Irish and I never got to know him. But it was always one of the reasons I came here.'
Ireland is a place where rapper Macklemore feels at home. Born Benjamin Haggerty in Seattle, his heritage is "primarily Irish", he says.
When the 41-year-old played Dublin and Cork this month, he had an Irish flag on stage and wore a Guinness t-shirt. Afterwards, the Can't Hold Us singer said his first show in Dublin in 2011 'was the beginning of a deep connection, not just to a city, but to a place my ancestors once called home. Something about the Irish spirit. Raw. Unbreakable. Full of heart. Love you guys'.
His song Irish Celebration was written for St Patrick's Day and inspired by Irish immigration to the US and Ireland's history. It includes the lyrics: 'My heritage, proud to be a Haggerty."
Rosie O'Donnell was one of the first celebrities to claim Irish identity. The comedian and actress loves Ireland so much, she moved here this year.
She said she always "really identified as being Irish". "Both my parents are Irish. It was a huge part of my identity. We all have Claddagh rings; my mother had one as her wedding ring,' she said.
The 63-year-old moved across the Atlantic with her 12-year-old child Clay after vowing to do so if Donald Trump was voted in for a second term.
She said: 'I see reflections of myself in this country everywhere I look, and reflections of my family and my very Irish childhood. We're 100 per cent Irish. Coming back here does feel like coming home in a way that's hard to explain or understand.'
Chat show king Conan O'Brien says he is '100 per cent Irish' and he has the DNA to prove it. Conan was born in Massachusetts to Irish Catholic parents, who emigrated to America 150 years ago from Dublin.
A DNA test showed he's fully Irish. Conan said the doctor who did the test told him "he had never, ever had a DNA result like this before".
"I've never seen a 100 per cent anything," the doctor said. "I've been doing this a lot, I've seen 93.5 per cent, I've seen 96.1. No-one is 100 per cent Irish."
Asking his doctor what the results could possibly mean, his doctor offered the following reply: 'It means you're inbred.'
Fellow comic Katherine Ryan was born to an Irish immigrant in Sarnia, Ontario. Her father Finbar is from Montenotte in Cork and moved to Canada at the age of 30, having been a draughtsman in Cork County Council. Katherine, 41, also holidayed in Cork all through her childhood and holds both Irish and Canadian passports.
She said: 'I get called Plastic Paddy a lot on social media. I don't know how offensive a term that is. I'm sure it's a compliment when Americans say they're Irish and maybe have never been to Ireland, but it must be annoying.'
She says she's part of the 'Irish female comics in Britain' gang, along with Roisin Conaty and Aisling Bea.
'I would feel very honoured to be counted as one of that gang. When I'm talking to Roisin or Aisling, we have a lot of similarities in our upbringings. There's a storytelling and a sensibility and sense of humour that is inherently Irish.'