6 days ago
Ed Sheeran: I identify as culturally Irish despite being born in England
Ed Sheeran has said he identifies culturally as Irish despite being born and raised in England.
The Galway Girl singer, 34, brought up in Suffolk, has a large Irish family and said he would spend holidays in the country as a child.
'I class my culture as Irish. I think that's what I grew up with,' he told The Louis Theroux Podcast.
Sheeran's father's parents are Irish. His grandmother Anne Mary, also known as Nancy Mulligan, from Gorey in County Wexford, married Bill Sheeran, from County Derry, in London in 1951.
One of Sheeran's hits was named after his grandmother and paid tribute to their relationship.
He told Theroux: 'My mum's family is very, very small, it's her and her parents, and my dad's family is... he's got seven brothers and sisters.
'We'd spend all of our holidays in Ireland. My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house. So I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.'
'I don't think there's any rules to it'
Sheeran said 'just because I was born in Britain doesn't necessarily mean that I have to just be [British]'.
He added: 'I do feel like my culture is something that I'm really proud of and grew up with and want to express. There's loads of people I know that are half this or quarter this. I don't think there's any rules to it. It should be how you feel and how you were raised and what you lean into.'
Asked whether he gets 'a lot of love' in Ireland, he said: 'I'd say it's basically my second home musically. I'd say Ireland is the place that I am most successful musically.'
Sheeran previously told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that he has Irish family and spent most of his childhood summers, birthdays and Christmases in the country.
'A strange trade-off'
Sheeran married Cherry Seaborn in 2019, and the couple have two children. Reflecting on the drawbacks of fame, he said he was 'really sensitive' to people taking pictures of his children.
'My first daughter, six weeks after she was born, we hadn't sent any photos of her whatsoever, but there was paparazzi outside our house that got a photo of her. It was in the paper and I just found it weird that some strange old man that I'd never met was the only person with an image of my kid on their device.
'It's a strange trade-off, because obviously to be successful in the music industry you end up being rich, famous and successful, and those things are things that people go, 'well, that's the trade-off.'
'But my kids have not signed up to that, and I find it weird that it's normal to take pictures of other people's children if they're famous.'
The four-time Grammy-winning singer also revealed that he does not own a private jet and likes to travel by train, saying: 'I like the environment, I like trees. I'd find it hard to justify. No one's perfect. When we're doing intense promo trips, there will be the odd time,' he told Theroux.
