Dictionary

Plastic Paddy en · NOUN

Etymology

From the sense of plastic as fake, ersatz, inauthentic, etc. and Paddy (“Patrick”) as a generic name for any Irish man.

Meanings

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.

Forms

Relateds

Hollywood Irish

Synonyms

plastic

Translations (2)

fr faux Irlandais (A person pretending to be Irish) · ga Páidín Plaisteach (A person pretending to be Irish)