Filmmakers these days can’t seem to do Ireland justice. Despite being on the cutting edge of modern technology and communication, Irish people in recent years have experienced depictions of themselves reminiscent of tropes stretching back to the 19th century and beyond.
What are these stereotypes, and why are they still in films today?
‘THE RINGS OF POWER’ CONTROVERSY
Irish stereotypes made headlines recently for the debut of Amazon’s new TV series “The Rings of Power.” This highly anticipated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy left some Irish viewers cold with its depiction of Harfoots, ancestors of Tolkien’s well-known Hobbits, speaking in a blend of incongruously Irish-sounding accents and boasting such disheveled appearances that they might well have been dubbed “slobbits” instead. Perpetually muddy and with twigs stuck in their hair, these nomadic folk drag carts, poach snails and are depicted as “unwashed and simpletons,” according to one Irish reviewer.
Even Ben Allen of British GQ magazine, who said he is not easily offended, noted that the grubby characters bothered him.
