SHOW / EPISODE

EP. 16 Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and the Case of The Plastic Paddy

8m | Sep 14, 2026

In 2025 on the Louis Thereaux podcast, pop singer Ed Sheeran said that he is Irish. Specifically he said that he identifies as Irish, culturally. When there was blowback he took to social media and said hey, my dad is from Belfast, I have an Irish passport, Irish folk music moves my soul, therefore, I’m Irish.

Does that make Ed Irish, or a plastic paddy trying to wash himself with the oversimplified and romantic version of what it means to be Irish. Is it the folk music? The traditional instruments? The beer?

Or is it the struggle of the people, which Ed, apparently, has chosen to selectively forget? Yeah. It’s probably that. Ireland, after all, has an intimate and painful history with colonization. Again, Ed doesn’t live in the shadow of this history. 

And that matters today. Recently Ed kicked music artist Macklemore off of the final leg of his tour in the US for the crime of…saying Free Palestine during his set. 



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