Ed Sheeran has come under fire after stating he "identifies culturally" as Irish on The Louis Theroux Podcast, despite being born in Yorkshire and raised in Suffolk. The 34-year-old singer says he spent much of his childhood in Ireland with his father’s large Belfast-based family and grew up surrounded by traditional Irish music.

Sheeran’s Irish roots inspired his 2017 hit “Nancy Mulligan,” which tells the story of his grandparents’ forbidden love — a Catholic woman and Protestant man shunned by their families during WWII. The couple went on to have eight children, including Ed’s father.

Following the recent death of his beloved grandmother Nancy, Ed missed her funeral due to his U.S. copyright trial, which he later won. Her life and loss inspired his song “Supermarket Flowers.”

While many fans supported his cultural ties to Ireland, others criticized him online, accusing him of “pretending” to be Irish and dismissing his claims as inauthentic.