{"id":569380,"date":"2026-07-26T19:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569380\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:50:11","slug":"theres-only-one-barry-keoghan-but-try-telling-that-to-his-doppelgangers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569380\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s only one Barry Keoghan … but try telling that to his doppelg\u00e4ngers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s only one Barry Keoghan<\/a> \u2013 but Dublin found two dead ringers at a competition on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Grand Canal Quay in Dublin was braced for a flood of men saying \u201cciao\u201d with their baby blue eyes, as the start of the Barry Keoghan lookalike contest drew near \u2013 with its grand \u20ac20 prize.<\/p>\n

The competition was announced in a viral social media reel, with posters appearing around Dublin city. But given the competition from the All-Ireland men\u2019s football final, the turnout wasn\u2019t all that was hoped for.<\/p>\n

The competition was the brainchild of one Jack Lawrence. The 26-year-old from Tullamore, Co Offaly, has been posting on TikTok for years, documenting his journey as a competitive Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner.<\/p>\n

In recent years, however, as Barry Keoghan has grown in popularity and risen to acting stardom, Lawrence began to be told that he looked quite like the Saltburn actor.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph:Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

\u201cI always get comments saying like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the Meal Deal version of Barry Keoghan\u2019 or the \u2018Barry Keoghan from D4\u2032.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments, which started online, have now escalated to a daily occurrence when he walks down the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few months have been crazy. Anywhere I go in public, I get \u2018recognised\u2019,\u201d he said. At a recent gig in Whelan\u2019s, he was approached multiple times by people looking for a selfie with \u201cBarry Keoghan\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is constantly asked to repeat classic lines from Keoghan\u2019s stardom.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Ciao Valentino\u2019 is a classic,\u201d he said. Along with the famous scene from The Banshees of Inisherin \u2013 \u201cYou probably wouldn\u2019t ever want to, I don\u2019t know … to fall in love with a boy like me, would ya?\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, the clamour became a bit of an insecurity for Lawrence, who said he wants to be recognised for being \u201cJack\u201d and for his ju-jitsu success.<\/p>\n

\"IrishIrish actor Barry Keoghan. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess if it\u2019s going to happen already, I can\u2019t really change that. So, I just have to embrace it. I\u2019m embracing it full scale by doing this contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

A side benefit, he said, is that while the celebrity has admitted to avoiding the public eye due to social media comments about his appearance, Lawrence and his other lookalikes can \u201ccelebrate looking like Barry Keoghan\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday he was joined by fellow lookalike Patrick Collins (23). Originally from Athlone Town, Collins lives in Dublin where he works for a non-governmental organisation.<\/p>\n

About 10 friends of his, he said, sent him links to the contest before it popped up naturally on his social media feed. Almost resigned to his fate, Collins said he knew he had to go along.<\/p>\n

Having seen posters in Dame Street, an assortment of Trinity College Dublin students decided to ditch their master\u2019s theses and trudge down to attend the most important competition in Dublin on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Along with assorted passersby and innocent bystanders, the group became the de facto judges, but were split on who the winner should be.<\/p>\n

Engineering students Natasha Sultan (24) from Canada; Nathalie Montress (23) from the US; and Sorya Gerhard (25) from Germany were convinced the TikTok star should be the winner.<\/p>\n

Their friends, German screen studies student Carolina Faulhaber and Belgian climate adaptation engineering student Marie Da Froidmont (both 25) disagreed.<\/p>\n

Suddenly involved, having been chatting on a nearby bench, Eoghan Farrell (25) from Portlaoise, Co Laois, and Vincent Bohol (27) from Clongriffin, Co Dublin, sided with Collins. <\/p>\n

Between the two lookalikes, it was a close affair. Lawrence and Collins, each sharing strong similarities in their features to the renowned actor, were neck and neck going down to the final judge.<\/p>\n

Having split the vote among the assembled crowd of students and bemused onlookers, the organisers approached one final person \u2013 hospitality worker and Budapest native Gr\u00e9ta Dusnoki-Zseb\u0151k.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old, whose eyes lit up in recognition at the mention of Keoghan, cast the deciding vote in favour of Collins.<\/p>\n

In his victory speech, Collins said it was a \u201ctrue honour\u201d to be compared to the great Irish actor, encouraging anyone who looks like a celebrity to \u201cembrace it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lawrence was a gracious loser, raising Collins\u2019s hand in a final tribute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s only one Barry Keoghan \u2013 but Dublin found two dead ringers at a competition on Sunday. Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49654,615,93,61,60,6116],"class_list":["post-569380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-barry-keoghan","tag-dublin","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}