Cillian Murphy's subtle anti-monarchy gesture to Prince Harry

Amid the torrent of news surrounding Cillian Murphy, the newly minted Oscar winner for Best Actor in 'Oppenheimer,' social media has revisited his subtle anti-monarchy gesture toward Prince Harry from back in 2017.

This moment occurred during the world premiere of Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, on July 13, 2017.

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As Prince Harry was greeting actors Barry Keoghan, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy, Murphy stood out by keeping his hands in his pockets while shaking hands with the prince, paired with what some interpreted as a sarcastic and challenging gaze.

What's so special about the gesture of hands in pockets? For the Irish, it's a tradition and a historical claim that goes back more than a century and speaks volumes about the disputes between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

To understand the story, we must go back to the time of the Irish War of Independence, a guerrilla war that took place between 1919 and 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British security forces in Ireland.

During that conflict, Ireland came under martial law Irish men who kept their hands in their pockets became targets for British soldiers. According to an article on University College Cork, warnings were issued in Tipperary that: "a civilian with his hands in his pockets is necessarily an object of suspicion…"

The warning continued that an Irish man with hands in the pockets "renders him liable to arrest and, in an emergency, runs the risk of coming under fire.’

According to the Irish Examiner, a police order in Macroom was even worse, ordering all males passing through the town to keep their hands out of their pockets, as infringing could mean they were shot. Macroom and Tipperary are both in southern Ireland. Murphy is from the same area.

Since then, many Irish figures have adopted this stance in front of members of the British crown, paying their own tribute to the Irish victims of that conflict and expressing their rejection of the monarchical institution. Reportedly, that was also the case of rugby star Ronan O’Gara in 2009 when he met Queen Elizabeth II at a reception in Belfast after winning the Six Nations Tournament.

Yet, the gesture that made even more noise was that of actor Cillian Murphy, who was born in the city of Cork and has always proudly boasted of his Irish nationality. He took his Irish pride to the forefront again at the 96th Academy Awards, where he won the award for best actor.

“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world," he said, "so I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”

Murphy started his speech by saying, "I am a very proud Irishman standing here tonight," and finished it off with some Irish as well: “Go raibh mile maith agat,” which means thank you very much.

And it's not the first time he has asserted his Irish nationality. In a 2010 interview for the release of the movie 'Inception', another project with director Christopher Nolan, he promptly corrected an interviewer who introduced him as a "British actor" by firmly emphasizing that no, he's Irish.

In another instance, during a 2022 interview for the Armchair Expert podcast, he mentioned why, in part, he moved back to Ireland after 14 years of living in London. "We wanted the kids to be Irish. They were sort of at that age where they were pre-teens, they had very posh English accents and I wasn’t appreciating that too much so we decided to come back."

He also joked about starting to sing an Irish independence song against the British crown after winning the BAFTA for Best Actor for 'Oppenheimer' in February 2024. As reported by the Belfast Telegraph, he said in the press room, "I’m a really proud Irishman – ’course I am. And it means a lot to me to be Irish. I don’t know what else to say – should I sing a rebel song?”

With his declaration of being a "proud Irishman" at the Oscars, Cillian Murphy has once again made clear where his roots lie, and social media has resurrected a republican gesture and hands in pockets that seem to carry significant meaning.

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