As a proud member of the Irish diaspora, I can’t help but find solace in the great personalities who’ve hailed from the green island. To name a few: Sinéad O’Connor, Oscar Wilde, The Cranberries and C.S. Lewis are all Irish-born individuals who’ve left lasting imprints on my growing interest in artistic endeavors. While any of those creatives would make for an interesting, serious deep dive, I’ve chosen to use the platform given to me by the great editors at the Ring-tum Phi to discuss an Irish phenom who only recently rejoined our cultural landscape: Uncle O’Grimacey.
Uncle O’Grimacey, according to the McDonald’s fan wiki, is a seasonal mascot who first appeared in McDonald’s advertisements in 1975, marketing the Shamrock Shake, a St. Patrick’s Day-themed milkshake. Despite only originally being used in marketing materials for three years, he has been a longtime favorite of collectors.
The original McDonald’s story, per the wiki, is that Uncle O’Grimacey hails from Sham Rock, Ireland, and every year he travels to McDonaldland, the fictional and somehow ubiquitous land where most McDonald’s mascots live. McDonaldland is similar to a parallel universe, in that McDonald’s mascots can only access the real world by first going through McDonaldland. Once he arrives in this land, Uncle O’Grimacey reunites with his nephew, Grimace, and spends the month of March enthusiastically promoting his Shamrock Shake.
For those not familiar with the genealogy of McDonald’s mascots, allow me to provide more context straight from the wiki. Uncle O’Grimacey is the uncle of Grimace, the once-evil purple blob monster whose own “Grimace Shake” was a viral sensation a few years back. Grimace’s mother is named Grimabeth, and his father, Louie. It is not confirmed if Uncle O’Grimacey is Grimace’s uncle on his mother’s or father’s side, but prominent fan theories usually associate him with the paternal side of Grimace’s family. This makes Grimace half ethnically Irish and half ethnically… Grimace.
The Washington and Lee Department of Anthropology did not respond to my inquiries about the Grimace family’s genealogy, so it’s safe to consider me the de facto authority on the subject.
Regarding his appearance, Uncle O’Grimacey wears a green cob hat and a cropped vest adorned with shamrocks and carries a shillelagh, which according to Celtic historians, is a wooden Irish tool that functions as a walking stick, dueling weapon and club. This makes Uncle O’Grimacey one of only two McDonald’s mascots to carry a weapon, the other being a discontinued pirate character who used his sword to steal Filet-O-Fish sandwiches.
Luckily for us, Uncle O’Grimacey has not fallen to the same eternal fate as the aforementioned pirate mascot. This year, for the first time in 47 years, McDonald’s has begun re-including him in their Shamrock Shake advertisement campaign. As exciting as this is for Uncle O’s Patrons — the name I’ve given to his fan base — his return has resurfaced rumors about his initial 1978 discontinuation.
According to Philadelphia-based news site Billy Penn, it is believed by many that Uncle O’Grimacey was phased out by McDonald’s after a man portraying him at a Philadelphia community event in 1978 made statements in support of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and yelled that “British soldiers were better dead than alive” to onlookers.
Most likely, the rumors of a man costumed as Uncle O’Grimacey going on a tirade are just that — rumors. The likelihood of this incident not being reported in newspapers is extremely low, even with the consideration that at that time, Philadelphia had strong Irish enclaves that supported IRA efforts and individuals. For example, in 1983 an incarcerated IRA bomber was named an honorary grand marshal in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
While I could not find any confirmation of this incident from newspaper archives or individual journalists, there is a 1997 article from the satirical website The Onion, where Uncle O’Grimacey is quoted as saying, “Release the shakes to us at once or the lives of your children will be forfeit,” referring to the limited seasonal nature of the Shamrock Shake.
Sadly, this alleged incident overshadows the extremely positive history of Uncle O’Grimacey and his Shamrock Shake. Sales from his milkshake have funded the construction of hundreds of Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide affordable housing for families with children undergoing lengthy medical treatment, according to the Ronald McDonald House Charities website.
At face value, it is easy to view Uncle O’Grimacey as a cheap attempt at nostalgia bait from a fast food restaurant that, according to CBS News, is losing customers. While this may be partially true, I, along with many others I know with Irish heritage, welcome the return of Uncle O’Grimacey with open arms. To us, he is a symbol of the long history of Irish philanthropy that has defined the values of what it means to be Irish.
So, in honor of Ireland’s sweetheart, Uncle O’Grimacey, and his escape from captivity in McDonaldland, I’ll raise, and down, a pint (of Shamrock Shake) and encourage everyone to do the same. Erin go Bragh!
