The Brill Building Confronts Stereotypes for St. Patrick’s Day

The Paddy Irishman Project, a creative arts partnership between photographer Ross O’Callaghan and award-winning Irish creative agency, The Brill Building launched in 2023 to address enduring misconceptions about Ireland and the Irish. To mark St. Patrick’s Day 2024, The Paddy Irishman Project has secured the worldwide rights to the phrase ‘Paddy Irishman’ with the copyright confirmed in Ireland’s primary diaspora territories, the UK, Australia, Europe and the United States of America. Securing worldwide copyright of the phrase ‘Paddy Irishman’.

Since the 1800's the word ‘Paddy’ has been a slur on Irish males, a shorthand for a drunk, or a punchline of a ‘Paddy Irishman’ joke. This image, which is exclusively straight and white, doesn’t reflect the multiculturalism of today’s Ireland. So, in order to retire the stereotype, The Brill Building and photographer Ross O’Callaghan secured the worldwide trademark for ‘Paddy Irishman’. The securing of the Worldwide copyright of ‘Paddy Irishman’ is part of an ongoing creative collaboration - ’The Paddy Irishman Project’ - featuring a series of portraits taken by Ross which reflect the diversity of cultures, ethnicities, sexualities and careers of contemporary Irishmen. 

In the latest step for photographer Ross O’Callaghan’s exploration of a new narrative of Ireland with Irish creative agency The Brill Building, seven new ‘Paddy Portraits’ have been revealed, and worldwide rights to the phrase ‘Paddy Irishman’ have been secured, in a major step on the road to retiring the tired trope of the phrase ‘Paddy’, an offensive terms for a person of Irish descent.

The class of 2024 Paddies photographed by Ross are revealed for St. Patrick’s Day and include actor Patrick Bergin, Spotify music star Pat Lagoon (aka ‘Paddy Lagoon), ‘Paddy Guilbaud’, the Frenchman who made Ireland a nation of foodies, and emerging fine art painter ‘Paddy Critchley’. 

The 2024 Paddies join the gallery of accomplished contemporary male role models of Ireland and the Irish Diaspora which includes TV personality Patrick Kielty, world champion golfer Padraig Harrington, double bronze Olympic boxer Paddy Barnes, gay and differently abled activist Paddy Smyth and Hollywood film director and maker of I Went Down, Man About Dog and Rosie, Paddy Breathnach. 

Speaking about this new and creative approach to the work, Ross said, “Paddy Irishman is an enduring and damaging stereotype about the Irish, started in colonial times but still alive today. Increasingly, it projects that Irish identity is exclusively white and straight and that doesn’t reflect contemporary Ireland. It needed to change, so we trademarked it. There are thousands of real Irish men from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, sexualities many with inspiring stories of resilience and achievement - called Paddy. All proud to be Irish. In a new Ireland, a young nation with an ancient history where we are as proud of our heritage and history as we are in the ordinary stories of regular people, these are the real Paddy Irishmen.”

The project confirms the action is intended to be a symbolic gesture that prompts reappraisal of Ireland on the world stage in the way the portraits themselves are intended to do. Launched on national media in Ireland in 2021, the project is well known in Ireland and continues to build a global profile for its work.

“There are no plans to use the trademark commercially, but if it helps spark the conversation about what we are no longer willing to tolerate I think that’s a good thing,” said Ross. “There is a new confidence in our generation of Irish people across music, film and the arts and we’re increasingly ready to speak up and show who we are and what we are about to the world; an incredibly talented and diverse people. If my work can play a small part in that story, I and the Paddies who have given so much support to the project, will be happy to contribute.”

The Brill Building CEO and ECD Roisin Keown articulated why this work has been so important for the agency’s mission, “We want The Brill Building to be the place to do the best, most creative and most rewarding work of your career, known for the talent we work with our suppliers, and also our brilliant clients. When Ross, who was instrumental in helping set up our in-house production capabilities for our young agency in 2019, shared his vision with us back then, we knew we had to everything possible to help his great idea meet the world. Now by securing the copyright, we are taking the idea a step further beyond the story of our Paddies, and towards an exploration of what stories we as Irish people want to tell about ourselves,”

The origins of ‘Paddy Irishman’:

The Paddy Irishman project initially launched in 2021, with the first iteration of portraits showcased across New York City in 2023, and continues to evolve., The NYC exhibition led to critical acclaim of the campaign in worldwide media including BBC News, CBS, The Irish Times and The New York Times, with The Guardian headline announcing that “Paddies are changing the world” exhibition seeks to debunk Irish stereotypes.” The Paddy Irishman Photography Project portrays Irish men called Paddy, Pat, Padraig, Patrick or any variation of the name, to reframe the often derogatory pejorative of, ‘Paddy Irishman’.  

Ross’ series of portraits tells the story of a remarkable intergenerational cross-section of the island, and promotes a new narrative of contemporary Ireland. It challenges the idea that there’s any such thing as a ‘typical’ Paddy and asks us to question our own assumptions around what it means to be Irish and male in today’s society.

The unique Paddy Irishman photography project achieved the most high profile visual arts launch in the U.S. by an Irish artist in many years, when it launched with Irish creative agency The Brill Building in New York in 2023. Opening not one but two stunning exhibitions of Paddy portraits in the centre of Manhattan ahead of St. Patrick’s Day last year, the outdoor installation alone is estimated to have been viewed by up to 40,000 people per day as 5 million people arrived into its Pershing Square location from Grand Central Station over the week-long St. Patrick’s festivities.

The invitation to exhibit the portraits at Pershing Square was extended to Ross and community partner for the project, the New York Irish Center, by the New York City Department Of Transport (NYC DOT) Arterventions program and the Grand Central Partnership. Ross is the first Irish artist to be honoured in this way. 

The story was profiled on multiple major U.S. TV networks and featured in the world’s media, with the Paddies who had travelled to New York being invited to march in the famous St. Patrick’s Day parade on 5th Avenue under their own banner; the first real Irish Paddies to honour the name of Patrick in the parade. Plans to continue the project include extending the series to a suite of emigrant Paddies from the diaspora, including North America, where 34.5 million claim Irish-American heritage. Ross is also seeking expressions of interest from sponsors and cultural institutions to partner with him to grow, tour and exhibit the series of portraits globally.

It was the success of the first stages of the project that enabled Ross to secure the worldwide rights to the phrase ‘Paddy Irishman’; his stated intention being to protect it from use to promote lazy or offensive stereotypes in the future. The photographer’s mission, since he and his creative Brill Building collaborators Roisin Keown and Peter Snodden launched the project to national acclaim in 2021, has been to reframe the phrase ’Paddy Irishman’ with positive imagery. The agency’s Maria Rolston led the PR campaigns that have secured its high profile nationally and internationally to date.

About the 2024 Paddies 

A man who seduced Julia Roberts on screen, the Frenchman who made Ireland a nation of foodies. An up-and-coming fine art painter, whose uncle is Laois hurling hero Pat “Zoom” Critchley, and a hip-hop Paddy who cites Tyler The Creator as a musical influence. These are just some of the Paddies who have joined the ‘Paddy Irishman’ suite of portraits by photographer Ross O’Callaghan, to reflect Ireland in 2024.

About the selections this year, photographer Ross O’Callaghan said, “I don’t set out with a plan of who to capture or how to portray them, I follow my instinct about their stories that tell us a little of who we are, how we got here and where we’re going as a country and a nation.”

Spotify music star Pat Lagoon is photographed with the creativity of one of the South-Eastern city of Waterford’s most loved walls in the background. Speaking about his name and connection to his Irish identity, Pat said, “​​I’m called Patrick because my Grandfather decided I should be. There’s no other Patricks in the family, among uncles or cousins so I’m not sure why he chose it. In African families, the tradition is the children get maybe three names and he got first pick. I like my name and I do sometimes think that it’s funny that it was chosen for me before my parents ever knew we’d make our lives in Ireland when I was just one year old.”

Photographer Ross is continuing to add to the suite of Paddy portraits and believes it is important to reflect the reality of lived experience in Ireland through his work. He said, “The work of the project is never political, but it is authentic and I’m always open to meeting and photographing new Paddies, to find more of the stories we need to tell, to reflect the Ireland of yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

This year’s Paddies join the honourable roll call of those whose stories speak to Ross and captivate the public imagination around differing aspects of contemporary identity and the evolving idea of nationhood on the island. The suite already includes notable Paddies including comedian and TV personality, Patrick Kielty; gay and differently abled activist Paddy Smyth; professional, world championship Irish golfer, Padraig Harrington; double bronze Olympic boxer Paddy Barnes; Hollywood film director and maker of I Went Down, Man About Dog and Rosie, Paddy Breathnach; award winning architect, Channel 4’s Grand Designs and RTE’s Home of the Year TV personality Paddy Bradley who inspired the project; Nigerian born actor, Patrick Martins; Ireland’s strongest man Paddy (Pa) O’Dwyer and Dublin based make-up artist Patrick Blue. It also features miscarriage-of-justice survivors Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six, and Patrick Maguire of the Maguire Seven. 

The full suite of portraits including the seven new Paddies can be viewed online here. 

Participation, sponsorship and further enquiries to the artist are invited to ross@paddyirishmanproject.com.