A thirst for the Irish

Sabrina Carpenter may already be dating an Irish hunk: The actress and singer attended the Vanity Fair Oscars party last Sunday with Irish actor Barry Keoghan, adding fuel to rumors about their romantic involvement.

But whatever feelings Ms. Carpenter had for Mr. Keoghan didn’t stop her from saying she had a crush on Cillian Murphy, another Irishman, in an interview with Vanity Fair filmed before the party. Mrs Carpenter joked that if she saw Mr. Murphy at the event, she would leave with him.

After a video of the interview was shared on Instagram, Mr Keoghan left a comment. There were no words on it, just two emojis: a person with their hand raised and a clover. Another user commented: “She has a thing for the Irish just like me.”

Mr. Keoghan, 31, and Mr. Murphy, 47, along with Paul Mescal, 28, and Andrew Scott, 47, have recently infused popular culture with great Irish energy by starring in the films “Saltburn,” “Oppenheimer ‘ and ‘All of us strangers.” As a result, these actors have ushered in a moment for Irish crushes.

Some of them seem to have leaned on their reputations. Mr Keoghan appeared on a version of the cover of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue ass naked. His body was only slightly more dressed up during a Valentine’s Day campaign by the dating app Bumble; those images, when shared on social medialeft some people drooling in the comments.

Weeks ago, Mr. Mescal was spotted walking the streets of New York in shorts and a cropped sweatshirt that exposed the hair on his lower body (a spot some suggestively call a “happy trail”).

Olamide Asanpaola, 26, recently shared a video on TikTok, in which she talked about Mr Keoghan’s ability to “look directly at the camera and try” to seduce you – only instead of “seduce” she used a four-letter word that was not suitable for publication.

Ms. Asanpaola, a musician from New York, said in an interview that Irish men like Mr. Keoghan have attractive qualities that go beyond charisma. “They just seem so progressive,” she said, and “they carry themselves with such grace.”

Bailey Kormick, 26, wrote in a caption for one video that she shared on TikTok: “Irish men just hit differently.” In an interview, Ms. Kormick, a marketing manager in Washington, D.C., who is of Irish descent, said this may have something to do with their accent. “I feel like it’s a little bit more sexy and rustic,” she said.

Some of Mr. Murphy’s admirers said they were drawn to the Oscar winner because of another characteristic: his eyes. Or, as Hayden Reis, a twenty-year-old student from New York, put it: “those beautiful blue eyes that put you in a trance.”

Noelia Caceres, 26, who works at a mental health clinic in Miami, echoed this sentiment. “Cillian Murphy’s eyes, my god,” she said, adding that he and other Irish actors have electrifying screen charisma.

Ms. Caceres noted that she is in love with people from all backgrounds and that she does not fetishize Irish men, but is playful. “We like to joke,” she says.

The focus has not only been on celebrities, but also on some lesser-known men in Ireland. In the two years since James Doyle, 21, started his business TikTok accounthe has gained around 1.3 million followers by posting light-hearted videos showing snippets of his daily life in Leitrim, about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Dublin.

Mr. Doyle, whose red hair is styled in a mullet, said he has “a big American audience.” He thinks part of that has to do with his “country accent.”

“I think the biggest appeal to Americans about Irish guys is that we have a kind of mystery about them, especially because they can’t understand our accent,” he said.

Sarah Geraghty, 39, a communications consultant and former wedding columnist at The Irish Times, said many people swoon over Irish men because “they have an unsophisticated, almost quintessentially Irish, modesty about them.”

“I think Cillian Murphy’s speech at the Oscars made all that clear,” she said descriptively the actor’s comments – including a shout-out to his home country – as understated and delivered with grace.

Andrea Bo, a 25-year-old medical assistant in Houston, said she was one of many people planning to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day this weekend. Ahead of the holiday, which falls on Sunday, Ms. Bo Posted on the social media platform In a caption, she referred to the shirt as her Saint Patrick’s Day outfit.

Do her holiday plans include meeting an Irish cutie? “Fingers crossed,” Mrs. Bo said.