Potatoes, we forgot the potatoes' Fake trailer ignites debate over Hollywood's Irish 'cliche bingo'

A man in a bar with a flat cap, bloodied knuckles and a dreamy look puts down his whiskey and writes a letter. "Dear Erin," he begins, and a soundtrack of fiddles swells as he yearns for his lost love in the distant land of America.

- Rory Carroll

The trailer for the upcoming film - with the tagline: "She was the Irish goodbye he never forgot" - ran in recent weeks in cinemas and online and was accompanied by a poster showing green mountains, shamrocks and a rainbow.

For many, it was Hollywood's latest affront to Ireland. "What did we Irish people ever do to you to deserve this?" said one social media post. "Christ could they not find a leprechaun to complete cliche bingo," said another. Some sought solace in sarcasm. "I think they nailed it. I'm always in the pub in the 1910s writing love letters to American girls with my big dirty fingernails. Finally I feel seen."

Last week came the twist: EPIC, the Irish emigration museum in Dublin, revealed it had made the trailer and that the film, titled Dear Erin, did not exist. The trailer was a stunt to lampoon the stereotyping of Ireland seen in Hollywood romcoms such as Wild Mountain Thyme, Irish Wish, Leap Year and PS I Love You.

"It was time to call it out," the museum said in a statement. "We created a trailer for a film that we hope never gets made, and filled it with all of the tired, cliched portrayals of Irish people often seen in Hollywood movies."