Plastic Paddy
nounEtymology From the sense of plastic as fake, ersatz, inauthentic, etc. and Paddy (“Patrick”) as a generic name for any Irish man.
1
Humorous, Pejorative, Sometimes A person of another ethnicity considered to be passing or posing as Irish.
- He’s just a Plastic Paddy singing Plastic Paddy songs. In a Plastic Paddy pub that they call The Blarney Stone. There’s plastic shamrocks everywhere. There’s Guinness and green beer. And a sign in Gaelic above the bar which says “God Bless All Here”.1993, “Plastic Paddy”, in Mirrors, performed by Eric Bogle:
2
Derogatory, Ethnic, Slur An Irish person considered to be inauthentically Irish, especially (UK) recent Irish arrivals to London.
- Synonyms
- plastic
- Related terms
- Hollywood Irish