If there’s one thing that can drive an Irish person as mad as a rabid dog in a spin dryer, it’s when the British media claim for themselves someone who is obviously 110% Irish. This is usually a result of either pure ignorance or simply because they want the national kudos associated with the person’s success for themselves.
The greedy feckers! It’s not like our friends in Britain are short of their own success stories in sport, acting, music, art, or whatever. They’ve gazillions of guys who’ve done them proud. But here in little Ireland where we’ve one-fifteenth of their population and not enough spare cash to finance an athlete’s jockstrap, we tend to hold our relatively rare heroes tightly to our bosom. Katie Taylor, U2, The Corrs, Samuel Beckett, Chris O’Dowd, Colin Farrell, Barry McGuigan, Seamus Heaney and gazillions of other Paddies have all been claimed as British. Get your greedy paws off! They’re all as Irish as Clonakilty Black Pudding.
Oh, and not forgetting Westlife. Although, on the other hand, every cloud has a silver lining…