Hunger Games: The Gaelic Thread

Hunger Games: The Gaelic Thread

Tracing the Irish and Scottish thread running through the author, the crew, and the entire main cast

The Author

Suzanne Collins Author, The Hunger Games • Father's surname: Collins • Mother's maiden name: Brady • Both are common Irish surnames

Behind The Camera

Gary Ross Director, Film 1 • Ross is a Scottish surname

Stephen Mirrione Editor, Film 1 • Attended Bellarmine College Preparatory — a Jesuit all-boys prep school

The Cast: All Irish or Scottish

Donald Sutherland President Snow • Mother: Dorothy Isobel (nee McNichol) • Father: Frederick McLea Sutherland • Of Scottish ancestry; grandfather was a Scots church minister • Acted 18 months at Perth Repertory Theatre, Scotland (1960), and toured Arbroath, Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy

Julianne Moore Alma Coin • Moore is a common Irish surname • Father: Peter Moore Smith • Mother: Anne (nee Love), from Greenock, Scotland — migrated to the US in 1951 • Brother is novelist Peter Moore Smith • Attended Boston University (Boston: a major Irish city)

Jennifer Lawrence Katniss Everdeen • Lawrence surname has Scottish and Irish origins

Willow Shields Primrose Everdeen • Shields surname connected to Irish and Scottish origin

Paula Malcomson Mother of Katniss & Primrose • Actress from Belfast, Northern Ireland

Woody Harrelson Haymitch Abernathy • Played the Irish magician Merritt McKinney in the Now You See Me franchise

Josh Hutcherson Peeta Mellark • Scottish dad

Liam Hemsworth Gale Hawthorne • Ancestry includes Irish and Scottish, alongside English and German

Elizabeth Banks Effie Trinket • Describes her family as "old-school Irish Catholic"

Philip Seymour Hoffman Plutarch Heavensbee • Mother: Marilyn O'Connor (nee Loucks) • Father: Gordon Stowell Hoffman, had Irish and German ancestry

Sam Claflin Finnick Odair • Claflin has Gaelic (Scottish and Irish) roots — a phonetic evolution of McLaughlin or MacLachlan

Jena Malone Johanna Mason • Partly Norwegian descent; also has Irish ancestry

Jeffrey Wright Beetee Latier • Wright surname has Scottish connections

Alan Ritchson Gloss • Mother's maiden name Harrell, connected to Irish • Ritchson surname has Scottish connections

The Jesuit Thread

Two of the franchise's key behind-camera roles both trace to Jesuit education.

Stephen Mirrione Editor, Film 1 • Bellarmine College Preparatory — Jesuit all-boys prep school

Francis Lawrence Director, Films 2-4 • Jesuit educated • Earned his film production degree at Loyola Marymount University Film School

Sourced from public biographical records. Draw your own conclusions.