We received this great article from Fools Fan Jonathan Foley the other day regarding Only Fools and Horses Irish Context
Although OFAH is certainly a British comedy, we must not forget that it’s creator possessed an Irish family on his father’s side. And with the island of Ireland being known for its sense of humour, it is little wonder that John Sullivan was able to incorporate this into his finest works by making his characters give reference to the country of his heritage.
In ‘Chain Gang’, Del mistakenly gives Arnie an Irish 10p coin – long before the days of the Euro of course – and when Arnie declines the offer to have it exchanged into Pounds Sterling, he says he’ll keep it as a reminder of his holidays in County Donegal.
‘Ashes to Ashes’ saw Del cheekily contemplate throwing Arthur’s (Trigger’s grandfather) ashes into a cement mixer. During the 1980s, Irish migration to London was dominated by people going to work on construction sites. Hence why when Del gets caugh by a suspicious ‘Brickie’, he covers his tracks by saying that the cement mixer is a fine machine and refers to it as ‘the old Irish tumble-dryer.’
In the same episode, Trigger informs Rodney, Del and Grandad about how he’s off on holiday to a place of beautiful beaches and night-clubs. After gaging their interest and curiosity, they are baffled when Trig tells them that this mistoque sounding place is Ireland.
Added to that, ‘Whose a Pretty Boy Then’ saw Del get involved in a bar conversation with Brendan O’Shaugnessy – an Irish painter and decorator now living in London who plans to earn money to ‘take back to the old country.’ Del also refers to Brendan’s hometown as ‘Dublin’s fair city’ which comes from an old Irish song called Molly Malone. Del also makes reference to the Potato Famine of the 1840s by telling Brendan not to eat the carrots. Sullivan was spot on here to add in this South London humour but also to show Brendan as a character who did not laugh at the comment – this is generally because the Famine is still perceived as a time of great sadness in Ireland and not deserving of Brendan’s laughter.
‘Strangers on the Shore’ also saw Del and Rodney meet up with a Northern Irishman in a French cafe to discuss Uncle Albert. The Ulsterman had fought with Albert in World War II and the fact that he was from Northern Ireland is important owing to the fact that it was the staunchly Protestant community there who chose to fight alongside Britain in the war so as to show their loyality to the Crown amid a time of an Irish Republican bid to govern the whole of the island.
In ‘If They Could See Us Now’ Del jokes to Jonathan Ross about how he hopes that the pound coin he is presented is not an Irish one. ‘Its Only Rock and Roll’ made references to how Rodney’s band – A Bunch of Wallies – should play the Shamrock Club on St Patrick’s Day as its sure to be a big earner.
Although it could be deemed stereotypical that the Irish were always perceived as mere brickies, painters, priests (‘It Never Rains’), bar-owners and drunks, there was a spiritual pysche that Sullivan touched on that was very Irish. The way that Delboy continously celebrated the memory of his mother as an almost angelic figure (note the size of her monemunt at the cemetry) is perceived by many as a very typical Catholic-Irish thing.
Although I am not suggesting that OFAH is an Irish comedy in some bizarre bid to take it away from its tag as being a fine British production; yet when you look at John Sullivan’s background, you can see how he adapted so much quick-witted Irish humour into the show as well as portraying the socio-economic aspect of Irish migrational patterns to Britain in a very clever manner.
Great observations from Jonathan Foley, did anyone else notice these details?
“Sullivan was spot on here to add in this South London humour but also to show Brendan as a character who did not laugh at the comment – this is generally because the Famine is still perceived as a time of great sadness in Ireland and not deserving of Brendan’s laughter”
Surely this set-up isn’t meant to be some sort of profound comment – but instead just meant to be a cheap gag where the stereotypical ‘thick Mick’ O’Shaughnessy doesn’t realise that carrots don’t get potato blight and genuinely believing there was a problem with Irish carrots?
I must argue the point about WW1 and 2 regarding the Ulster Protestants, both Catholic and Protestants fought in the wars and the only N.Ireland native to receive the victoria cross in WW2 was a Catholic from Belfast. Many just joined the army due to the lack of work, in my own family history there were families who had 1 brother in the British Army and the other brother in the IRA.
You are right about the Irish-Catholic thing regarding the mother, it mentions this in the Story of Only Fools book however the Irish Catholic church is actually a part of the UK too, 1/2 of Northern Irelands population are Irish Catholics and the capital of the Irish Cathplic church is in Armagh City up here.
The Irish trying to claim glory in a British sitcom?
Calm down, Paddies!
The writer was a half paddy sir, the Irish have a long history of being great writers and poets, the Yorkshire Bronte sisters father was a paddy and they stated that they got alot of influence from Gaelic mythology.
Plus in “A losing streak” there’s the “McAlpines Navvy on a diet” whom Del lost 20 quid on.
There’s also a reference in ” The Russian’s are coming” Del points to the chemical toilet inside their air raid shelter and says “that will have to go back to the building site first thing Monday morning or those Paddies will go mad,”
OFAH has always been popular in Ireland, the humour is very Irish.
That’s right James. I will confess that I must have overlooked that reference. But yeah, I am glad to see that folk like yourself agree with what I am suggesting by this article.
The BBC have produced many great comedies throughout since the 1970s and I remember reading about how Stephen Fry believed that ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ was typically British humour. Whilst I can concur with him there, I do believe that OFAH is, although British, a very Irish-humour based show and for that reason, I think its easy to see why the Irish took so well to this BBC show much more than any others.
No offence to them, but I dont think that Irish people during the economic downturn of the 1980s could relate themselves to shows like ‘To The Manor Born’ and the like. OFAH on the other hand allowed us as Irish people to connect with quick-witted characters who could happily sit in pubs, slag one another off and not apologise for who and what they were; charmingly devilish characters.
Thanks for taking the time to read James.