Putting Paddy the Irishman in the frame: 'We wanted to challenge the stereotype'

Ross O'Callaghan's photographic project involves taking pictures of all sorts of people named Paddy

Clockwise: Ross O'Callaghan, the man behind the Paddy Irishman Project; Paddy Liam O'Brien, sheep-shearer; Paddy Martins, actor

Ross O’Callaghan is a cinematographer who has visited more than 100 countries in the past twenty years. Wherever he has been, the one thing that has always riled him is being labelled a Paddy, a term that stereotypes Irishmen as inebriates and boors.

“Take America,” he says. “If you were arrested, you’d be taken away in a Paddywagon. And why was that? It was because the wagon was usually full of drunk Irishmen. And for a long time, that was a stereotype that many Irish people who went to America felt they had to conform to.”