Mickey Rourke: it’s not just the name…

It’s a well-known fact that if a person achieves global fame in the world of art, entertainment, politics or sport then there is a very good chance that they have some remote link to our glorious, wet rock in the North Atlantic. If any sort of a link can be established, regardless of how tenuous, then we own that individual and we can rightfully expect them to publicly attribute their greatness to the glowing Emerald blood in their veins, appear on the Late Late Toy Show and regularly enjoy Guinness-soaked stew with a hurl.

With a name like his it’s no surprise that scraggy man-mountain Sin City and The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke has fairly extensive Irish roots. Before his took his Irish-sounding acting name, Mickey was named after his father PhillipAndre Rourke, Sr. an Irish-American amateur bodybuilder. Phillp Sr. upped and left when the actor was just six, though luckily Mickey never held a grudge against our precious isle and frequently popped over for filming, house-hunting and controversial tattoos.

Coming to Ireland

In 1989 Rourke first channeled his Irish-Catholic roots and starred in A Prayer for the Dying, playing a former IRA member trying to escape his past.

Though Rourke later disowned the movie upon viewing (crap apparently), he was inspired enough to get an IRA symbol tattooed to his left forearm. The same year he also claimed to have donated much of his fee for his film Francesco (also crap) to the group. Nope, we at JOE aren't touching on any of those revelations with a bargepole.

In lighter news, Mickey actually purchased a £750,000 home in Co. Wicklow in 2001 with then-wife model Carré Otis. Now a swinging bachelor, we have no evidence of whether or not Mickey sold the Wicklow home but it’s easy to imagine the Hollywood hell raiser stashing some Dutchie behind a wall, pulling the box of a bird in the Koo night club and scrapping knackers outside Apache Pizza - it’s what he loves to do.

For his alcohol-related problems, questionable tattoos and amateur boxing credentials, Mickey Rourke is about as Irish as Tayto-stuffed Barn Brack and another celeb we're proud to call our own.

Emmet Purcell