Plastic Paddy
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Plastic Paddy is an often pejorative term to describe non-Irish people who harbour a nostalgic claim of Irishness due to having some degree of Irish heritage. The term is also applied to Irish-themed pubs in countries outside of Ireland — especially if those pubs feature the most stereotypical characteristics of Irish culture, and do not accurately resemble actual pubs in Ireland.
The term usually concerns perceived cultural appropriation of Irish customs and identity by members of the Irish diaspora or even those with no ancestral connection to Ireland. A 'Plastic Paddy' allegedly knows little of actual Irish culture, but asserts their identity, claiming it to be Irish.[1][2] Another example is the celebration of Saint Patrick's Day, or 'Paddy's Day', which is sometimes viewed as being a vehicle for promoting stereotypes of Irish culture.[3] As author Alex Massie wrote in The National Review:
When I was a student in Dublin we scoffed at the American celebration of St. Patrick, finding something preposterous in the green beer, the search for any connection, no matter how tenuous, to Ireland, the misty sentiment of it all that seemed so at odds with the Ireland we knew and actually lived in. Who were these people dressed as Leprechauns and why were they dressed that way? This Hibernian Brigadoon was a sham, a mockery, a Shamrockery of real Ireland and a remarkable exhibition of plastic paddyness. But at least it was confined to the Irish abroad and those foreigners desperate to find some trace of green in their blood.[4]
The term 'Plastic Paddy' has been used to criticise non-Irish born players who play for the Republic of Ireland national football team. Jack Charlton, and subsequent managers, have been criticised by some for recruiting some of the Ireland players on the basis of having an Irish antecedent (including two generations or further back), though this is within the FIFA rules.[5][6][7] While usually used to refer to perceived cultural appropriation, in other instances some individuals of Irish heritage have charged that the use of the term 'Plastic Paddy', and the criticism of non-Irish born football players, is itself a form of bigotry. In these cases they are asserting that all people of any Irish ancestry are in effect 'Irish' and therefore can claim 'Irish' identity even if they are not Irish (or Northern Irish) citizens.[8][9] People who were not born in Ireland, and who did not grow up in Ireland, but nonetheless possess Irish citizenship and an Irish passport are often dismissed as 'Plastic Paddies'.[10] Scottish-Australian songwriter Eric Bogle wrote and recorded a song titled 'Plastic Paddy', which has also been recorded by Irish musician Christy Moore.[11] The words to the chorus are:
He's just a Plastic Paddy, singin' Plastic Paddy songs,
In a Plastic Paddy pub that they call The Blarney Stone,
There's plastic shamrocks everywhere, there's Guinness and green beer.
And a sign in Gaelic above the bar which says "God Bless All Here."
According to one Spiked writer, three famous Plastic Paddies are Dermot O'Leary, Daniel Day Lewis and Shane MacGowan.[12]
It has been suggested that the use of this pejorative betrays some lack of understanding of the Irish experience outside Ireland: Often struggling for survival amid circumstances of desperate poverty in a new land generally hostile to Irish culture, the new emigrants had little hope of imparting a comprehensive education in Irish culture and history to their children, yet they managed to instill in them their nostalgic fondness for and reverence toward their native country. It was this fondness and reverence toward Ireland, albeit necessarily without educational attainment in things Irish, that was handed on to successive generations in the diaspora, and which, when encountered by the native Irish, has sometimes been disdained as "plastic Paddy"-ism.
[edit] See also
- Irish American
- More Irish than the Irish themselves
- Mockney
- Plastic shaman
- Saint Patrick's Day outside Ireland
- Wannabe
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nagle, John (2004) "Is 'Everybody Irish on St. Paddy's'? Ambivalence and Conflict on St. Patrick's - A Research Report into People’s Attitudes into St. Patrick’s Day 2004". Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast
- ^ Arrowsmith, Aidan (April 1, 2000). "Plastic Paddy: Negotiating Identity in Second-generation 'Irish-English' Writing". Irish Studies Review 8 (1): 35–43. Routledge. doi:.
- ^ BBC News Northern Ireland. Stout call for St Pat's holiday in US
- ^ Massie, Alex. "Erin Go ARGH! - The case against St. Patrick's Day. (And, no, I'm not British.)", The National Review Online, 2006-03-17. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ Scottish talent with an Irish allegiance in the Irish Post (2003) at Irish Abroad Online.
- ^ Teenager under fire (November 26, 2006) Times (UK)
- ^ McCullough, Ian. "Back of the Net", The Irish Post. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
- ^ Buckley, Will (Sunday October 5, 2003) "Empty minds of the brain-dead writers' society" in The Guardian Online.
- ^ "A proud celebration of our new Irish identity" in The Irish Post (Wednesday, May 10, 2006).
- ^ Fallon, Steve (2002). Home with Alice: A Journey in Gaelic Ireland. Melbourne: Lonely Planet, 30-32.
- ^ Lyrics to 'Plastic Paddy' by Eric Bogle
- ^ We're all Irish now from Spiked online magazine
[edit] References
- Arrowsmith, Aidan (2004). "Plastic Paddies vs. Master Racers: “Soccer” and Irish Identity". The International Journal of Cultural Studies 7: 460–79. Staffordshire Univ, England. doi:. ISSN 1367-8779.
- Arrowsmith, Aidan (April, 2000). "Plastic Paddy: Negotiating Identity in Second Generation Irish-English Writing". Irish Studies Review 8 (1): 35–44. Routledge. doi:.
- "“To Fly By Those Nets”: Violence and Identity in Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark" (2004). Irish University Review 34 (2 Autumn/Winter 2004): 315–31. ISSN 0021-1427.
- "Fantasy Ireland: The Figure of the Returnee in Irish Culture" (2003). Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writing (Special Edition: Postcolonial Ireland) 3 (1): 101–14. ISSN 1474-4600.
- Bery, A.; P. Murray (2000). 'Inside/Out: Literature, Cultural Identity and Irish Migration to England' in Comparing Postcolonial Literatures: Dislocations. London: Macmillan, 59-69. ISBN 0-333-72339-2.
- Brewster, S; V. Crossman, F. Becket & D. Alderson (eds) (1999). 'M/Otherlands: Literature, Gender, Diasporic Identity' in Ireland in Proximity: History, Gender, Space. London: Routledge, 129-44. ISBN 0-415-18958-6.
- Chambers, Lilian; Jordan, Eamonn (2006). 'Genuinely Inauthentic: Martin McDonagh’s Second Generation Irishness’, in The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 236-45. ISBN 1-904505-19-8.
- Graham, Colin; Malley, Willy (August, 1999). "Debating Diasporic Identity: Nostalgia, (Post) Nationalism, “Critical Traditionalism”". Irish Studies Review (Special Edition: ‘Irish Studies and Postcolonial Theory’) 7 (2): 173–82.
