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The Irish are often stereotyped as being devoutly religious and conservative. Christianity has been the largest religion in Ireland since the 5th century. As of 2011 [update] , 78% of Ireland's population adhered to the Catholic Church , [ 12 ] and both Irish people and people with red hair are stereotyped as being Catholic. [ 7 ]
The leannán sídhe (lit. ' fairy lover '; [1] Scottish Gaelic: leannan sìth, Manx: lhiannan shee; [lʲan̴̪-an ˈʃiː]) is a figure from Irish folklore. [2] She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the Aos Sí ("people of the fairy mounds") who takes a human lover.
The Irish king Brian Boru who ended the domination of the so-called High Kingship of Ireland by the Uí Néill, is part of the historical cycle. The Irish princess Iseult is the adulterous lover of Tristan in the Arthurian romance and tragedy Tristan and Iseult.
The Irish stereotype was developed during the vaudeville era, where it was called "stage Irish". It was an "exaggerated caricature of supposedly Irish characteristics in speech and behavior, which depicted Irish people as "garrulous, boastful, unreliable, hard-drinking, belligerent (though cowardly) and chronically impecunious". [61]
For example, there are accounts of the Geraldines hearing a banshee – as they had reputedly become "more Irish than the Irish themselves" – and that the Bunworth Banshee, associated with the Rev. Charles Bunworth (a name of Anglo-Saxon origin), heralded the death of an Irish person who had been a patron to musicians. [citation needed]
Examples can be taken from Johannes Scotus Eriugena and other figures from Hiberno-Latin culture and the Schottenkloster founded by Irish Gaels in Germanic lands. The Gaels of northern Britain referred to themselves as Albannaich in their own tongue and their realm as the Kingdom of Alba (founded as a successor kingdom to Dál Riata and Pictland).
Irish Travellers have a higher fertility rate than the general Irish population; the Central Statistics Office of Ireland recorded in 2016 that 44.5% of Traveller women aged 40–49 had five or more children, compared to 4.2% of women overall in this age group. [53]
For example, in England the punchline is usually based around the Irishman being stupid, the Scotsman being mean (i.e. miserly), and the Englishman being posh (or a snob but ultimately not the butt of the joke), whereas in Scotland and Ireland, the Englishman will typically be the butt of the joke.