Ed Sheeran via Associated Press
Between his hit song Galway Girl, his clear affinity for traditional Irish music and his ability to “split the G” in a pint of Guinness, Ed Sheeran has made no secret of his appreciation for Irish culture over the years.
The Shape Of You singer opened up about his Irish roots while speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast earlier in the summer, explaining how he sees himself as “culturally” Irish, despite being born in the UK.
“I class my culture as Irish. I think that’s what I grew up with,” he shared. “We’d spend all of our holidays in Ireland. My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house.
“So, I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.”
However, it seems not everyone took too kindly to those remarks, with an ensuing backlash including accusations of being “plastic paddy”, a derogatory term often attributed to people several generations down the line in the Irish diaspora.
The Nancy Mulligan singer was raised in Suffolk, but his dad is from Belfast, and he spent lots of time in Ireland during his childhood.
Opening up about some of the criticism he received while speaking on The Tracy Clifford Show on RTÉ, the four-time Grammy winner reiterated that his upbringing was steeped in Irish culture.
“I feel like people are a bit like ‘gatekeepey’ sometimes,” he explained. “I think it comes from Americans that are 1/16th Irish… I do understand it.
He added: “But also – no one can tell me what my childhood was, or what the culture that I grew up with, or the music I grew up with, or the humour I grew up with, or the movies I grew up [were]… I grew up with it, therefore, it’s part of me.
“Therefore, I feel like it’s part of my culture and how can someone else tell me what is or isn’t how I feel?”
Ed’s comments come after he posted an initial reaction to his Instagram Story in June aimed at “anyone with an opinion after what I said about my heritage”.
“My dad is Irish. My family is Irish. I have an Irish passport,” he wrote. “The culture I was brought up around is Irish.”
He continued: “The first music I learnt was Irish. [Just because] I was born somewhere else doesn’t change my culture, I can be allowed to feel a connection to a place half my family is from.”
Elaborating about his Irish background while speaking with Louis, Ed said his culture is “something that I’m really proud of and grew up with and want to express”, before adding: “I feel like just because I was born in Britain doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to just be [British], there’s loads of people I know that are half this or quarter this.”
Just this week, Ed surprised fans with a performance in an Irish pub during a music and arts festival in Wexford.
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