What is it that makes you Irish? Is it a passport? Is it an accent? Is it an understanding of the strange but comforting website Rip.ie? Declan Duffy tries to figure it out on stage.
In 2025, being Irish is ‘in’. Paul Mescal was cast as Lucius in the blockbusting ‘Gladiator II’, CMAT’s album ‘Euro-Country’ was nominated for a Mercury Prize and Kneecap have paved the way for an Irish-language revival.
But who can truly claim their Irishness? Is ginger hair enough? Do you have to wear a claddagh ring? Or do you have to have an opinion on Bono?
Sat in the second row upstairs at Hendon’s famous ‘The Claddagh Ring’ pub, I watched Declan Duffy attempt to answer the question for Irish Londoners and those back home alike.
This play makes sense of the hodgepodge ‘London Irish’ identity, away from just drinking Guinness and wearing green on St Patrick’s Day. It’s for those who don’t fit neatly into the ‘English’ or ‘Irish’ boxes.
Giving a speed-run of an all-too-forgotten Irish history and heart-warming anecdotes of his childhood in his parents’ pub, Declan Duffy explores the complex hybrid identity of being Irish without the accent to match.
Starting and ending the show with an acoustic performance of The BibleCode Sunday’s ‘Maybe It’s because I’m an Irish Londoner’, this one-man show validates the experiences of second and third-generation Irish people.
Sprinkled through the show were references to my own childhood, which was filled with the same Irish sounds, objects and memories as Duffy’s, courtesy of growing up in London with two Irish parents.
Older men in flat caps and images of Tayto and Cidona projected on the screens made it impossible to not crave the comforts of home.
Soundtracked by the familiar, as he calls it, ‘diddly-doo’ of the island, music is the driving force behind the show.
The heart of the performance lies in Duffy’s clear affinity for the music he grew up listening to, with a particularly resonating moment being when he discussed the close ties between his own identity and the music remembers.
Celebrating fellow British-Irish musicians like The Pogues and The Beatles is what made him feel connected to his heritage, and eventually able to carve himself out a separate identity from being London-born and Irish, instead being ‘London Irish’ as a whole identity in of itself.
The music Duffy highlighted has acted as the soundtrack to the upbringings of those with Irish heritage, even my own, with my dad insisting on playing ‘Hell’s Ditch’ in his van, and never missing an opportunity to tell me how he once saw Shane Macgowan drinking in the Dublin Castle.
This beautifully relatable show will be running again in London next year and you can find out more on his website.
Featured image credit to David Alexander.
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