It’s Officially Hot Irish Guy Summer

If you’re confused about the Hollywood writers’ strike, Colin Farrell likely cleared things up for you. The actor sent the internet into a collective spiral when he recently walked the picket line in L.A. and gave an impassioned interview about the rights of writers, actors, and creatives, all while wearing a SAG-AFTRA T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up just so. His hair slicked back with a matching black headband, he declared, “Greed turns some of the smartest people on this planet into the biggest fools.” Between the anti-capitalist rhetoric, the passion for a good cause and, again, the headband—he is perhaps one of the only men in the world who can pull off this hair accessory with aplomb—Farrell, who was born in Castlerock, Ireland, confirmed once and for all that famous Irish guys are having their best summer ever.

Irish men have long been overshadowed by their British neighbors, overlooked for their equally alluring accents, commitment to brooding, and ability to look handsome in literally any sweater. Taylor Swift did not, for example, make a song called “Dublin Boy.” Instead, she sings about the charm of British men, high tea, and the West End—“They say home is where the heart is,” she croons, “But God, I love the English.” But this summer, with Irish men on the picket lines, at the box office, and on TikTok, they’re finally getting their hotness due. Here, an extremely important taxonomy of Irish hotties. And remember, Jamie Dornan and Jonathan Rhys Meyers walked so these men could run.

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Colin Farrell

The Socially Active Irish Hottie

We’ve already mentioned the right-side-of-history political agenda, muscles, and headband, and there’s honestly not much more to it. As Joanna Robinson aptly put it on Twitter, “Some of us have been dedicated Colin girls from the start, through the lean times, and he’s just constantly rewarding us for that loyalty.”

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Cillian Murphy

The Unsettling Irish Hottie

With his gua-sha’d face, inability to comprehend internet references, and summer box office smash hit, Cillian Murphy is without a doubt this summer’s most unsettling hot man. Even though half of Oppenheimer is in black and white, you can somehow tell that his eyes, which seem equally dazzling and predatory, are ice blue. Murphy has always been hot, despite playing some of cinema’s creepiest men (28 Days Later, Red Eye), and that in and of itself is a coup. This summer, he managed to play the man who invented a bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of people while looking like a gaunt rag doll, and still come out on top as one of the season’s most handsome men. It is a brilliant, confusing time to be a Cillian Murphy fan.

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Pierce Brosnan

The Irish Zaddy

Pierce Brosnan is 70 years old, but if you watched his performance in the newly released Netflix film The Outlaws, you would simply never know it—the actor has aged like a fine (County Cork) wine. Though we are concerned about his commitment to questionable facial hair, we still welcome him into the canon of Irish hotties with open arms. After all, this is the man who played James Bond for nearly a decade, so we simply must.

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Paul Mescal

The Sadboy Irish Hottie

No one has done more for men who love a simple silver chain necklace than Paul Mescal. As if these photos of him moonlighting as a soccer commentator weren’t already enough, Searchlight Pictures just dropped a first look at his new movie, All of Us Strangers, with Andrew Scott. He also wore a cute little ascot tie thing to the 2023 Olivier Awards (it’s like the British Tonys) and, despite all odds, it worked. (Also, never forget his 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party look, which single handedly made an argument for flared pants on men.)

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Daryl McCormack

The Multi-Hyphenate Irish Hottie

After winning both a BAFTA and a 2023 Chopard Trophy, Daryl McCormack is poised to have his best summer ever. After starring in Bad Sisters and Good Luck to You Leo Grande, he took on the role of an ambitious young writer in the thriller The Lesson, which was released in June. He also posed for the cover of ELLE UK’s March issue, because have you SEEN this man?

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Hozier

The Musical Irish Hottie

There is something about Hozier that makes girls who read books on Friday nights absolutely feral. The Bray, Ireland native (née Andrew John Hozier-Byrne) released his self-titled album in 2014, and nine years later, lyrics from it are still viral on TikTok. Yes, “No grave can hold my body down / I’ll crawl home to her” is currently trending as women attempt to reconcile the unbelievably romantic nature of the singer with the men in their own lives. As one TikToker put it, “The way Hozier writes lyrics like this and we have to deal with ‘you up.’” Obviously, he has a new album out August 18, because—yes—it’s a hot Irish boy summer.