First printed recipe: English author Hannah Glasse published the earliest known recipe for modern mashed potatoes in her 1747 book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.
The recipe: She instructed cooks to boil and peel potatoes, then vigorously mash them with butter, salt, and milk.
Obviously Britain and Ireland are very close to one another, and someone being English doesn’t mean they don’t have Irish parentage or tutelage or friends. (Even in those days.)
Britain + Ireland are also called “The British isles,” so unfortunately for the Irish, even if we disambiguate to include the possibility of it being an Irish creation, it will still be called a “British” dish - which merely makes it look like it’s English again, to most people.
Hard to say if it’s Irish. It could be. But:
Obviously Britain and Ireland are very close to one another, and someone being English doesn’t mean they don’t have Irish parentage or tutelage or friends. (Even in those days.)
Britain + Ireland are also called “The British isles,” so unfortunately for the Irish, even if we disambiguate to include the possibility of it being an Irish creation, it will still be called a “British” dish - which merely makes it look like it’s English again, to most people.