We’ve all suffered the stereotypes, ‘the mean Scottish Jock’, the ‘mining Taff’ and well, the less said about Irish tropes… let’s hear it for the Epic Irish.
The award-winning EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin are fighting the good fight in redressing those prejudices.
And they’re starting with the myth of the ‘fighting Irish’.
Like this guy who jumped out at me from the side of a bus.
No, This Is Not Us, the slogan for their redress of the Irish stereotype.
Paddywhackery
You’ll have noticed too that this caricature professes his love for potatoes and looks a little worse for wear for the drink.
Now in truth I have met the CGI Paddy McFlaherty but more in the past.
Today’s Irishman, and woman, is as likely to be black, Asian or Eastern European than the farmer or Ginger Comely Maiden of De Valera’s day.
Just as your country is populated now and over the centuries by those who have the Celtic gene.
And although you’d expect me to say it you’re better for it.
But don’t just take my word for it (well, do).
But EPIC have given us a pantheon of great emigrees who have enriched foreign shores..
Pantheon of Irish
Patrick Greene, CEO and Museum Director of EPIC said of the campaign, ‘This is not us’ is a challenge for the world to assess their assumptions about the Irish.
‘And to evolve their perceptions beyond stereotypes.’
Voted Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction for the past three years, EPIC offers a fully interactive experience.
It brings Irish history to life and allows visitors to discover what it really means to be Irish.
‘This is not us’ is not the first time that EPIC has campaigned against stereotypical and clichéd depictions of the Irish.
In 2019, the museum offered free tickets to visitors who handed in their plastic St Patrick’s Day merchandise at the door.
Aileesh Carew, Director of Sales and Marketing, said: ‘We would like to invite people to come to EPIC for themselves and help us to set the record straight.
‘Come and learn more about Ireland’s history, the Irish people who left this island and the true impact that they had, and continue to have, on the world.’
The architects of Ireland
Long before ‘King’ Henry Shefflin the hurler, James Hoban was, or should have been, King of Kilkenny.
As the architect for the White House in Washington DC.
Ireland is well-known as the land of saints and scholars and poets and pip stars, artists and architects.
Like Peter Rice, of Dublin and Dundalk, who helped design and build Sydney Opera House and the Pompidou in Paris.
And who was known in the trade as ‘The James Joyce of structural engineering.’
Or Dame Katherine Lonsdale, of Newbridge, Co. Kildare who elucidated the structure of the diamond and after whom the lonsdaleite is named.
All deserve their place in the roll of honour of the Irish and global hall of fame.
When still some associate Ireland with Paddy McFlaherty.
The best way is to visit the Irish Emigration Museum and learn more about the EPIC Irish.