WHEN WAS THE moment Ireland became cool? Was it in December 2018, when Derry Girls hit Netflix, introducing a global audience to Northern Ireland's '90s pop-culture ephemera? Or was it a few months later, when Sally Rooney's Normal People arrived in the U.S., occasioning multiple glowing New York Times reviews and spurring the first wave of trend pieces about "the cult of Sally Rooney"? Either way, by the time The Banshees of Inisherin was released in 2022, a full-on Irish cultural invasion was underway. Call them the Craic Pack: Authors such as Anna Burns and Paul Lynch won major prizes. Actors Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy and singer-songwriter Hozier stepped back into the spotlight. Barry Keoghan went from artfilm weirdo to pop-star boyfriend. Even brands got swept up in it: You couldn't call yourself an Instagram baker without extolling the virtues of Kerrygold butter.
As with Taylor Lautner in the second Twilight movie, our affable friend across the pond turned out to be hiding eightpack abs. "Over the past few years, it's become quite twee and also quite sexy to be Irish," says the writer Róisín Lanigan, who published an essay in Vice on the subject. Lanigan first noticed a change around the time Normal People debuted on TV and made a star of Paul Mescal.
"Americans and English people were introduced to a new vision of Ireland: rose-tinted and beautiful," she says.
Lanigan comes from Northern Ireland, and she cautions that this new vision usually depicts "a certain type of Irish.
On the whole, it seems to be, 'They're hot and sad."" Accurate or not, Americans liked what they saw. This past summer's craze for "hot rodent boyfriends" spotlighted several Irish actors. An Instagram account that does nothing but post photos of Mescal has over 160,000 followers. On YouTube, an interview in which comedian Brittany Broski joked that her greatest career goal was "Irish cock" received 2.7 million views.
この記事は New York magazine の Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は New York magazine の Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
LIFE AS A MILLENNIAL STAGE MOM
A journey into the CUTTHROAT and ADORABLE world of professional CHILD ACTORS.
THE NEXT DRUG EPIDEMIC IS BLUE RASPBERRY FLAVORED
When the Amor brothers started selling tanks of flavored nitrous oxide at their chain of head shops, they didn't realize their brand would become synonymous with the country's burgeoning addiction to gas.
Two Texans in Williamsburg
David Nuss and Sarah Martin-Nuss tried to decorate their house on their own— until they realized they needed help: Like, how do we not just go to Pottery Barn?”
ADRIEN BRODY FOUND THE PART
The Brutalist is the best, most personal work he's done since The Pianist.
Art, Basil
Manuela is a farm-to-table gallery for hungry collectors.
'Sometimes a Single Word Is Enough to Open a Door'
How George C. Wolfein collaboration with Audra McDonald-subtly, indelibly reimagined musical theater's most domineering stage mother.
Rolling the Dice on Bird Flu
Denial, resilience, déjà vu.
The Most Dangerous Game
Fifty years on, Dungeons & Dragons has only grown more popular. But it continues to be misunderstood.
88 MINUTES WITH...Andy Kim
The new senator from New Jersey has vowed to shake up the political Establishment, a difficult task in Trump's Washington.
Apex Stomps In
The $44.6 million mega-Stegosaurus goes on view (for a while) at the American Museum of Natural History.