‘Me-espresso-gate’: Irish stars deserve better than condescending tropes

It’s the sort of tweet that would make you either reach for Google Translate, or assume there’s been a glitch in the matrix. But no, Vulture — a culture site from the people behind the esteemed New York Magazine — actually did tweet the following as a caption to an image of Barry Keoghan this week: “Hello little lassie, couldja point me in da direction of me missus? She’s got a grand ‘me espresso’ at home that i better be drinkin’.”

If you’re like me, you might have said it out loud once or twice to see if it made any more sense. Which it didn’t.

The image was of the Dublin actor as he posed on the red carpet of this week’s Met Gala in a ‘statement’ velvet Burberry suit and top hat.

As is the way on Met Gala night, the internet got heavily involved in the banter and gentle ribbing of all celebrities.

Indeed, Keoghan was likened to the Artful Dodger and Willy Wonka more than once by social media users. And then, like a child who takes a joke too far, Vulture leaned on a lazy, outdated stereotype that can only be described as ‘pure leprechaun’. Whatever about a ‘grand me espresso’ not computing, who in Ireland ever uses the salutation ‘little lassie’?

Naturally, Irish Twitter reflexively leapt in indignation at the tweet: “I’m trying to think, if the person in the picture was from any other place or culture, would you lay as thick into the stereotypes? Or would you think ‘actually no, that would be incredibly poor taste...’,” posted one commenter. “If you’re going to mockingly stereotype us, at least be accurate,” wrote another.

Vulture’s moment of ignominy comes a week after Merriam-Webster posted in this now-deleted tweet: “What word has the biggest disconnect between spelling and pronunciation?

Asking for our friend, Siobhan.”

The dictionary account was swiftly reminded that ‘Siobhan’ is pronounced just as it is spelled, when it’s in Irish. Not quite in the same vein as me-espresso-gate, but it does prove a stubborn lack of engagement in genuine Irish culture.

What’s striking is that, much like the New Yorker before it, which ran a ‘satire’ piece detailing Cillian Murphy’s bedtime routine, Vulture is often considered a sharp, astute online publication.

Its readership is culturally literate and might has actually met an Irish person or two that doesn’t chime with the Darby O’Gill stereotype.

So why do these publications refer so readily to condescending tropes like Lucky Charms and wailing banshees, or evoke a way of speaking that I’ve genuinely not heard since Ron Howard’s 1992 ‘masterpiece’ Far & Away? Do they genuinely believe that Irish people are this alien a species?

One can only imagine the opprobrium that would have followed had Vulture tried a similar tweet with the likes of Dev Patel, or Isabelle Huppert, or Shakira.

The point is, they never would have. I think Irish people haven’t, in the main, minded the leprechaun schtick that Americans tend to conjure up when referring to us in jest. It’s always been assumed that the Irish won’t kick up too much of a stink if you invoke a lazy, patronising or even inaccurate stereotypes.

Certainly, we never regarded a mention of Guinness, potato picking or the fightin’ Irish as overt racism.

But there’s a slight change in the air. Could it be that Irish people are getting a little sick and tired of such nonsensical laziness on the part of outsiders?

At a time when Irish contemporary culture is more vibrant than ever, with an astounding reach and influence, how we are still at the ‘begorrah-be-the-hokey?’ stage?

Hozier, Paul Mescal, Paul Lynch, Marian Keyes, Simone Rocha, Sharon Horgan, Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy — our cultural leading lights are smart, urbane, global citizens. They deserve better than this, even if they do occasionally wear brown velvet suits and Austin Powers-style cravats out in public.