Because Electric Light Orchestra is my favorite band, I know that they (as well as Black Sabbath and the Moody Blues) are from Birmingham. But, that probably makes me the exception to the rule among Americans. 
Nah, most Americans know there’s an Ireland, so there must be a Northern Ireland—and a Southern Ireland, and an Eastern Ireland, and a Western Ireland. And the part in the middle.
Not in Northern Ireland they won’t. That scots-irish crap is an irrelevance to all but a tiny few.
And if the OP is talking about pop culture and judging the country by how many famous people it has produced, then its undersells things to stop at Van Morrision.
George Best? Rory McElroy? Kenneth Branagh? Bear Grylls? Eddie Irvine? C.S Lewis? Brian Friel?
And thats without getting into a host of names that are famous to me but perhaps not to Americans, like Gerry Adams, Sam Neill, The Undertones, Norman Whiteside, Pat Jennings, Joey Dunlop, Neil Hannon (The divine comedy), Brian Friel, Darren Clarke, James Nesbitt and gods knows how many more.
Like the Republic, I think Northern Ireland punches above its weight on the world stage to be honest.
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I think this points to one of the answers to the question. From an American standpoint ‘Scots Irish’ is very real as their heritage. From a modern Northern Irish POV it’s a lot less so. That’s just a difference in perspective, but no particular reason Americans whose connection to Ireland is different should see the country (or countries) the same way current inhabitants of Ireland do. That’s true of ‘Irish’ (which in the US tends to be short for ‘Irish Catholic’) in the US also. I’ve heard many times how Irish-Americans like myself know nothing of Ireland. I do know little first hand of today’s Ireland. But I do know the image of Ireland reflected in my grandparent/great aunt/uncles. They were American born, even most of their parents were. But they were not fully assimilated Americans ‘just like everyone else’ either, as almost all American born people of Irish descent are now. That’s what real to me of Ireland, and no less valid as long as I’m not saying that’s today’s Ireland, which I’m not.
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Perhaps, but being English speaking is a lot of that in English centered pop culture compared to the whole rest of the world. It’s not as dramatic comparing to say New Zealand. And in terms of US consciousness of it, Americans don’t necessarily track down where English speaking foreign entertainers with ‘funny accents’ come from particularly (and they are often imitating American accents anyway in movies and TV) unless they are big fans of that particular celebrity.
Earlier answers brought up the important aspect that a lot of Americans’ idea of Northern Ireland is formed by the sectarian conflict, which has died down fortunately, so the place is just not in the news as much as it was say when I was a kid. And again it’s fine for people in Northern Ireland to be highly conscious of NI as a separate thing (though a significant minority of NI Catholics say in recent polls they want union with the Republic). But it’s not necessarily just American ignorance to see ‘Ireland’ mainly as one (cultural not political) thing.
Stiff Little Fingers.
The Tom Clancy book (and film) Patriot Games features the IRA and their attempts to kill Jack Ryan. The book was a best seller and the film starred Harrison Ford. According to IMDB the film made a Cumulative Worldwide Gross: $94,700,000.
Of course, this was over 20 years ago.
I’d imagine the average person from Northern Ireland could name Bernie Sanders as a person from Vermont or New Hampshire.
And Duran Duran! But we digress…
Oh we’re like that about every country, even our own! Nothing personal.
Actually, a lot of generalizations in the OP. While probably correct, I’d assume almost American on these boards is at least familiar with Northern Ireland.
I don’t know about Heaney, but Liam Neeson is Irish Catholic, not Ulster Scots.
But Neeson claims he was inspired by Ian Paisley.*
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- See kids, this is how you use Wikipedia for research without your teacher finding out–just follow the links at the bottom of the entry.
- See kids, this is how you use Wikipedia for research without your teacher finding out–just follow the links at the bottom of the entry.
Northern Ireland is lucky to be noticed at all by Americans and American pop culture. And that notice is almost entirely because a number of Americans claim Irish ancestry. The world’s largest film producer is completely ignored in America. At least Ireland gets the occasional rerun of Ballykissangel on PBS.
Same here. A voice and accent that could suspend time, but a face that could stop a clock. 
I am ashamed of the role Chicago’s Irish played in supporting the IRA (I think we held a ChiDope at a bar at the center of it) and was overjoyed a short time after the Good Friday Agreement was signed that the big news out of NI was just some stupid corruption scandal. Northern Ireland had become a land that anybody* in Chicago could understand! But yeah, few Yanks have a clue about NI.
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- Almost said “any Paddy” but caught myself because it isn’t just the Irish in Chicago who are corrupt.
- Almost said “any Paddy” but caught myself because it isn’t just the Irish in Chicago who are corrupt.
Bollywood is located in Northern Ireland?
I could, because I had at least a couple of colleagues from Northern Ireland at the newspapers in Thailand. Doubt others here would know them, however.
FWIW, I’m American, and I know all about the Undertones and SLF. But those are fairly niche bands - I’m sure most Americans would be equally hard pressed to name a cultural figure from Belgium other than Jean Claude Van Damme, where my mind goes straight to Plastic Bertrand.
This life’s for me!
I knew SLF did a song about Ulster, but I didn’t know they were from there. I had no idea PB was from Belgium – I assumed they were French.
With THAT accent? 
Alright, I get what you’re saying. And yes, there are other counties of Ulster that are not part of Northern Ireland. And there are people from Ulster that have no connection to Scotland.
I kinda sympathize with the Irish because they were oppressed by the English, but I also have to sympathize with the Northern Irish Protestants and Ulster Scots because it’s not like the descendants of those people had any say in the situation of being a Protestant enclave in a Catholic country, or an extension of the UK. It would be shitty to have to worry about the IRA blowing you up for no reason. I also get why they had to form these paramilitary groups, they had to do something to protect themselves from terrorism. (These same paramilitary groups have apparently been involved in organized crime and seem to have a number of Mafia-like feuds, which isn’t cool, but again just like the Italian Mafia in the U.S., I understand why it exists.)
I’m just glad the situation seems to have calmed down there. I can’t remember the last time an act of terrorism anywhere in Ireland or Northern Ireland made international news.
I’d take that bet. I’m sure they might know who Bernie Sanders is, but I doubt most Northern Irish would know what state he’s from.
If they follow the BBC, they probably know who Sanders is. I read the BBC primarily, but I don’t know if the site I see is tailored for audiences in North America.