Here’s What Ed Sheeran Had To Say About The Backlash Over Him Saying He ‘Identifies Culturally As Irish’

Posted on 07/08/2025 by Boris Clair

Between his hit song Galway Girl, his clear affinity for traditional Irish music and his ability to “split the G” in a pint of Guinness, Ed Sheeran has made no secret of his appreciation for Irish culture over the years.

The Shape Of You singer opened up about his Irish roots while speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast earlier in the summer, explaining how he sees himself as “culturally” Irish, despite being born in the UK.

“I class my culture as Irish. I think that’s what I grew up with,” he shared. “We’d spend all of our holidays in Ireland. My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house.

“So, I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.”

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However, it seems not everyone took too kindly to those remarks, with an ensuing backlash including accusations of being “plastic paddy”, a derogatory term often attributed to people several generations down the line in the Irish diaspora.

The Nancy Mulligan singer was raised in Suffolk, but his dad is from Belfast, and he spent lots of time in Ireland during his childhood.

Opening up about some of the criticism he received while speaking on The Tracy Clifford Show on RTÉ, the four-time Grammy winner reiterated that his upbringing was steeped in Irish culture.

“I feel like people are a bit like ‘gatekeepey’ sometimes,” he explained. “I think it comes from Americans that are 1/16th Irish… I do understand it.

He added: “But also – no one can tell me what my childhood was, or what the culture that I grew up with, or the music I grew up with, or the humour I grew up with, or the movies I grew up [were]… I grew up with it, therefore, it’s part of me.

“Therefore, I feel like it’s part of my culture and how can someone else tell me what is or isn’t how I feel?”

Ed’s comments come after he posted an initial reaction to his Instagram Story in June aimed at “anyone with an opinion after what I said about my heritage”.

“My dad is Irish. My family is Irish. I have an Irish passport,” he wrote. “The culture I was brought up around is Irish.”

He continued: “The first music I learnt was Irish. [Just because] I was born somewhere else doesn’t change my culture, I can be allowed to feel a connection to a place half my family is from.”

Elaborating about his Irish background while speaking with Louis, Ed said his culture is “something that I’m really proud of and grew up with and want to express”, before adding: “I feel like just because I was born in Britain doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to just be [British], there’s loads of people I know that are half this or quarter this.”

Just this week, Ed surprised fans with a performance in an Irish pub during a music and arts festival in Wexford.

Ed Sheeran Has 1 Bit Of Parenting Advice For First-Time Dads

Posted on 15/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Ed Sheeran has two young girls, and he’s got some advice for anyone about to be a first-time dad.

“I just think always be the one that makes the breakfast in the morning. Always be the one that gets up first and lets your partner have her lie-in and do the breakfast,” he said on last week’s episode of Kylie Kelce’s hit podcast, Not Gonna Lie.

“Because also, that’s the time of the day your kids are, uh, the least angry, because they’re rested and they wake up and it’s fun,” he said. “Your partner gets to have a lie-in, but also then you get the golden moments in the morning when your kids are like, calm and happy.”

Kelce chimed in and agreed with Sheeran’s assessment.

“I say it all the time. They’re their best selves in the morning,” the mum of four added. “They’re like sweet and cuddly, and their voices are like gentle.”

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Kylie announces some big news in this episode… (it will be available @ 12pm ET!) \n.\n.\n.\nDownload the full podcast here:\nApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-gonna-lie-with-kylie-kelce/id1780888125\nSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0RgXbSGGmwpzAyeLHbDqUD?si=4585dab89c4f4c11&nd=1&dlsi=e178bf324b99403f\n\nFollow Not Gonna Lie on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: \nlnk.to/j61XD8\n\nSupport the Show: \n\nToyota: To learn more about the Toyota Sienna, please visit https://www.toyota.com/sienna/\n\nEd Sheeran’s New Album “Play” Is Out 9/12! https://es.lnk.to/playWE\n\nChapters: \n00:23 – Intro\n01:11 – Kylie’s Big Announcement\n03:24 – Feral Child Summer\n08:06 – Breastfeeding Etiquette \n13:33 – Ed Sheeran Joins the Show\n14:10 – The Girl Dad Experience\n17:23 – Kids Music That Slaps\n22:52 – Ed’s New Album\n26:22 – Performing in Philly\n30:01 – NFL Fandom\n33:05 – Most Memorable Duets\n40:30 – Love Actually\n43:57 – Fatherhood Advice\n\n#kyliekelce 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“They want to help out as well!” Sheeran said. “So I’m handing them plates, and they’re putting the plates away, and I’m like, you’re making my job easier. And also, we’re spending time together.”

The singer continued: “So yeah, I’d say always do the morning shift. I actually love the morning shift and the evening shift. Reading 40 different stories and having someone like, fall asleep on your shoulder is actually really lovely.”

Sheeran and his wife, Cherry Seaborn, have two girls: Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran, aged 4, and Jupiter Seaborn Sheeran, who is 3.

The Perfect musician has spoken about the ways that parenthood has changed him, calling fatherhood “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.

“There’s so many different sides and shades to it,” the songwriter shared during SiriusXM Hits 1 interview in 2021. “You know, there’s difficult days, there’s amazing, easy days.”

He added: “It’s just a roller coaster of emotions. I know that sounds like a cliché thing to say, but it’s amazing. I love it.”

Ed Sheeran Had A Hilarious Reaction To Viral Clip Of Indian Police Shutting Down His Busking Performance

Posted on 11/02/2025 by Boris Clair

Ed Sheeran has spoken out after police in India abruptly shut down a street performance of his.

Over the weekend, while on tour in India, Ed popped up in Bengaluru’s Church Street street for a surprise performance.

However, in footage that was widely circulated on social media (including three million views on X alone), a local police officer was seen unplugging the Grammy winner’s sound equipment while he was in the middle of singing Shape Of You, shutting down the performance.

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A police officer unplugs Ed Sheeran’s equipment during a street performance in India:

“We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down. See you later!”

pic.twitter.com/X5MMq7Zlia

— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 10, 2025

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A police officer unplugs Ed Sheeran’s equipment during a street performance in India:

“We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down. See you later!”

pic.twitter.com/X5MMq7Zlia

— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 10, 2025

According to BBC News, the Lego House singer had acquired permission to perform in the area, which is a popular shopping and entertainment street, but officials claim they rejected this to avoid congestion.

“We had permission to busk, by the way,” he reportedly wrote on Instagram. “Hence, us playing in that exact spot was planned out before.

“It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though. See you at the show tonight.”

Fortunately, Ed seemed to find the humour in the incident.

After reposting a clip on his Instagram story on Monday evening, he quipped that the police officer “prefers Bruno Mars”.

Ed is currently on the Asian leg of his Mathematics tour, which will return to mainland Europe later this year.

The tour actually began in 2022 in support of his album Equals, with his sixth release Subtract coming out while he was still on the road.

Last week, the British singer teased that he had new material coming soon, after revealing he’d been in the studio with pop producer Savan Kotecha, who has previously worked with Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Lizzo and One Direction.

Ed Sheeran Wrote A Song About My Tiny Scottish Town. Here’s Why It’s Completely Deserved

Posted on 06/05/2023 by Boris Clair

Sitting on a corner, by the only set of traffic lights in the town of Aberfeldy, is the Black Watch pub. It’s here that an impromptu singalong was led by none other than Ed Sheeran.

That was back in 2019. And now, four years later, Sheeran has released his latest album, Subtract, with a closing number called ‘The Hills of Aberfeldy’.

It’s a folk song; the kind of tune a mournful-looking man sings standing by a bar, holding a glass of whiskey; the patrons in silent reverence, heads bowed.

In the video for the song, Sheeran (clad in a toasty-looking white cable knit jumper), sinks into the hills. He emerges from the sea more appropriately dressed in an anorak. In reality, Aberfeldy is as far from the sea as you can get in Scotland. But it does have hills. Lots of them.

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From the doors of the Black Watch, a 90 minute walk takes you up a stunning gorge called ‘The Birks’. This was the inspiration for the second most listened to song about this town, famous Scotttish poet Robert Burns’ poem ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’, written 200 years ago.

Burns fell in love here too, and lyrics from his poem are etched into signs you can spot on the walk – that’s if you can take your eyes off the red squirrels, swooping buzzards, and trickling waterfalls. This is Scotland at its most alluring.

The appeal of Aberfeldy lies in its position: nestled in the rambling Tay Valley, where clouds cling insistently to the green hills all around. It’s a part of the world that oozes romanticism, a place that’s improved by ‘dreich’ weather – the hills look more enticing in the rain, the glens more ethereal. Lichen clings to every branch, moss to every stone.

It’s the kind of stuff that songwriters live for. Sheeran’s clearly enamoured with the weather and the trees:

“Oh, leaves are covered in snow, And the water’s frozen. Oh, I long for you to be the one that I’m holding,” sings Sheeran, in full Van Morrison mode, before continuing, “Oh, leaves are starting to fall, And the sun goes cold. And my heart might break from the way of it all.”

And the leaves are indeed all around; Perthshire is known as Big Tree Country. Neighbouring village Fortingall is home to a 5,000 year old Yew tree, one of the oldest trees in Britain.

Next door to the Yew, the Fortingall Hotel holds the kind of foot-stomping folk music you might imagine Ed Sheeran enjoying on a Friday night. It’s so remote here, you wouldn’t be surprised if there were Hobbits clanking tankards in a dim corner, too.

But the biggest local nuisance are the beavers, reintroduced in recent years, who leave their tell-tale tooth marks on the trunks of trees along the river. The local Facebook group is up-in-arms about the beavers – best not mention it if you drop into the Black Watch for a pint.

More welcome are the frequent stream of hikers traversing the popular 79-mile long Rob Roy Way. The first pub they come to in town is – yes – the Black Watch.

Back in the 1800s, visitors flocked to Aberfeldy by train. Nowadays the train station is a hotel, and the visitors arrive by 4×4 with stand up paddleboards strapped to their roofs, often heading to Loch Tay, five miles away.

It’s here that Ed Sheeran once hosted a party – renting the entire Hot Box Spa for himself and friends one summer’s afternoon. It’s still open, and visitors can sip champagne in a hot tub with a view of the surrounding mountains before taking the slide into the icy waters.

One of Scotland's best known hills, Schiehallion is one of the easiest Munros to climb on a fine summer's day. — One of Scotland’s best known hills, Schiehallion is one of the easiest Munros to climb on a fine summer’s day.

Looming over the whole area is the iconic peak of Schiehallion – known in Gaelic as Sidh Chailleann, or the ‘Fairy Hill of the Caledonians’. Schiehallion gives its name to a local beer, which is of course served at the Black Watch. Many know Aberfeldy for its eponymous whisky, which is distilled in a beautiful old building, set back from the banks of the Tay on a grassy lawn.

Around the corner is Glen Lyon coffee roastery. The rustic venue hosts a small café where Gaelic singers such as Kim Carnie are known to perform. The roastery recently collaborated with trendy micro-brewery in nearby Blair Atholl on a beer called Volcano Coffee Stout. It’s as dark as the long, Scottish winter nights.

The roastery is named after a local valley dubbed Scotland’s “longest, loneliest and loveliest glen” by legendary Scottish romantic, Sir Walter Scott. Here, a winding, undulating road takes drivers past stone bridges, waterfalls, and moss-clad boulders. In autumn it’s a breath-taking journey among falling golden leaves. One can imagine Sheeran’s cheeky blue eyes grow wider as he ventured down Glen Lyon, scribbling lyrics in his little Ed Sheeran notebook.

Take a walk in any direction and you’ll stumble upon neolithic stone circles, ancient forts or still-inhabited castles.

Back in town, at the market square, are a host of independent shops. The newest of these is ‘The Shop by Ballintaggart’, an outpost of the nearby refined Ballingtaggart Farm and Grandtully Hotel.

There’s an art-deco style cinema too, which shows films, alongside hosting events such as ‘craft and craic’, and a beer club. Add in the rustic homeware store Homer, vintage and vinyl record shop MoJo, bookshop-cum-café in The Watermill, and a zero-waste shop Handam and there’s plenty to keep you busy.

There’s a lot to fall in love with around here, and we haven’t talked about the monthly farmer’s market, quaint putting green, or annual Highland Show. It was clearly enough to turn Sheeran into part folk musician, part romantic poet. With his album surely heading to Number 1, no doubt more are now on their way.

“I have never told you Darling, we fall in love with the hills of Aberfeldy.”

Help and support:

– Beat, Adult Helpline: 0808 801 0677 and Youthline: 0808 801 0711 or email help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk (adults) fyp@beateatingdisorders.org.uk (youth support)
– Samaritans, open 24 hours a day, on 116 123
– Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393