Everyone loves the Irish, right? Well, surprisingly not.
While we’re all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, there have been several famous people who made rather rude comments about the Irish. Shocking, but let’s uncover those stories!
We’re looking at ten of these famous people and what they had to say about Ireland. However, consider this your warning: When we say shockingly rude, that’s what we’re about to discover.
10. Edmund Spenser – calling the Irish “degraded”
Edmund Spenser was a poet, best known for “The Faerie Queene”, a work that celebrates the Tudors and Queen Elizabeth I (one of the people who absolutely hated the Irish). When it comes to the Irish, he wasn’t feeling quite so celebratory.
In fact, he didn’t hold back in “A View of the Present State of Irelande”, calling the laws, customs, and religion the three “evils”. He goes further by describing the Irish as disruptive and degraded people.
9. H. P. Lovecraft – considered Ireland “inferior”
Nowadays, Lovecraft is a very famous horror writer who gave us Cthulhu and other tales, but he was also a complicated person – and a racist one. Only one of his stories was set in Ireland, but he shared his views on the Emerald Isle in a letter.
In it, he called the Irish inferior, saying that England basically has the right to rule over Ireland. Ouch.
8. Theodore Roosevelt – corrupt and unintelligent?
Theodore Roosevelt held very strong opinions about the Irish. Just not the good kind. In his diary, he called the average Irish Catholic “a low, venal, corrupt and unintelligent brute”. While his opinions changed later on, the early remarks were still very rude.
Ironically, he is one of the many US presidents with Irish roots. While he was born in New York, his family on his mother’s side was from Co. Antrim.
7. Orson Welles – didn’t like Irish-Americans
Best known for his film Citizen Kane, Orson Welles spent time in Ireland in his early days. He played at the Gate Theatre and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In fact, he even said he loves Ireland and Irish literature.
Why is he in this article then? Well, what he didn’t like was Irish-Americans – and he didn’t hold back. He even called them “a new and terrible race”.
6. Winston Churchill – “odd”
Before Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister, he was the Secretary of State for War in 1920. In this role, he did something that goes way beyond “rude” – he ordered the deployment of the Black and Tans to Ireland.
Although the following quote hasn’t been fully verified, it is often attributed to Churchill: “We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.”
5. Azealia Banks – “inbred leprechauns”?
A more recent example of rude comments about Ireland came in 2019. Rapper Azealia Banks posted on Instagram after a sold-out gig in Dublin. You’d think it should be something positive, right? Sold out and all that.
Oh no. She called the Irish “inbred leprechauns”. Moreover, she replied to another comment with “Don’t you have a famine to go die in?” While the posts have since been deleted, the internet doesn’t forget.
4. Voltaire – “formed for subjection”
First things first: Famous writer Voltaire never even spent time in Ireland. Then how did he end up feeling so negatively about Ireland? Well, his time in England might have influenced his views a bit.
He didn’t really show much sympathy (or any, really) towards the Catholics in Ireland who suffered under the British penal laws. He also considered Ireland to be “formed for subjection”.
3. Charles Kingsley – “chimpanzees in a horrible country”
Novelist, poet, clergyman, and not so fond of the Irish – that’s Charles Kingsley in a nutshell. He visited Co. Sligo in Ireland, and what he told his wife in a letter about the trip wasn’t your usual “I’m on holiday” type of text.
He wrote things like “I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country”. He’s making his dislike pretty clear.
2. Oliver Cromwell – “barbarous wretches”
Probably one of the most famous examples of disliking the Irish, Oliver Cromwell was more than just rude – he was outright brutal towards the Irish. Some historians even call his actions on the Emerald Isle ethnic cleansing.
After the Siege of Drogheda, he wrote that this massacre was “a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches”. Cromwell certainly didn’t hold back – neither with his words nor his actions towards the Irish.
1. Margaret Thatcher – liars!
Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister in the UK, refused to make concessions during the hunger strike of 1981. Not even when Bobby Sands died. His mural is one of the most famous ones in Belfast.
Her position during the strike is already difficult, to put it mildly. However, it doesn’t get any better when you hear certain comments she made to other people about the Irish. She reportedly called them liars and said you can’t trust them.
Let’s just say it – those comments were shocking. The rudeness, the hate, you can still feel it just reading about it.
Luckily, the majority of people, famous or not, love Ireland and all it has to offer. So let’s focus on the positive and explore this beautiful country.
