'I started wondering what other Paddys might have stories worth telling...' Photographer and filmmaker Ross O'Callaghan introduces The Paddy Irishman Project, and his ongoing mission to document Ireland’s Paddys...
Several years ago, I first met architect Paddy Bradley while filming the building of his shipping container house for Channel 4’s Grand Designs. His achievement was so impressive and engaging, the episode went on to be cited as the show’s most popular of all time. As I was driving from the North back to Dublin late at night having just wrapped on the last shots, I couldn’t stop thinking about the story - a regular guy who designed and built a world class house in the field behind his parent’s house.
That’s not a typical Paddy, I thought.
I thought about how often I’d been called 'Paddy’ as an Irishman abroad in my work filming in more than 100 countries around the world. I started wondering what other Paddys might have stories worth telling. This was the start of the Paddy Irishman Project; our work to meet, photograph and record the stories of those identifying as Irish and male. Why? To challenge the idea that there’s any such thing as a ‘typical’ Paddy.
Launched on St. Patrick’s Day last year with a call for interested and interesting Paddys to get in touch, more than 1,000 Paddys made contact in the first few weeks.
My idea was always to take a far-reaching, affectionate and curious look at the depth and breadth of Irish male experience. The work seeks to consider identity on our island, our common humanity and uncover at how much has changed and what values have stayed the same through personal stories and lived history in several generations that tell the true story of Ireland - and not the stereotype.
This is the first photographic study of its kind, but I never expected the public here and beyond (our story featured in the U.K., U.S., Canadian and Australian media) to be as excited by it as I am.
This is about Paddys from all walks of life. So far, we have captured portraits of more than 30 Paddys. There are well-known Paddys, or those with a public profile like double Olympian Paddy Barnes, musician Paddy Mulcahy or disability activist Paddy Smyth, and those you may never have heard of but who have incredible stories.
We’ve photographed people like Paddy Kehoe, part of the famous syndicate who won the Lotto by buying up enough tickets; Paddy Hazelton, adopted at four months of age from Uganda who became a professional trad musician and bodhran player most recently with band Moxie; and Paddy Fay, the first homeless person campaigner Peter McVerry ever housed.
This year, I want to tell the story of Ireland’s youngest Paddy, taking his first breath of life, so I’m looking for someone who knows they’re expecting a Paddy to let me into that moment. I want to find a Patricia who is now a Paddy or a Paddy who is now a Patricia because those stories need to be told – and I’d like to meet more Paddys who weren’t born in Ireland – who may not have been born ‘Irish’ – but who have made their life here. The first thing we want to do with the stories and photographs is to hold an exhibition in New York City on St. Patrick’s Day. My ambition was always to ‘export’ this story of contemporary Ireland to the world and where better than the city that embraces St. Patrick’s Day in the same way we do at home in Ireland. The plan had been to do this in 2022, but Covid challenges meant pushing that back to 2023. Now, we have another year, I know the final exhibition will be bigger and better again.
The Paddy Irishman Project is a fine art photography project by Ross O’Callaghan with creative agency The Brill Building. Find out more here.
