It's not exactly the same thing, but your discomfort with a more-than-half-based-on-18th-c-Ireland "fantasy" setting reminds me of my one problem with Canadian comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop, which is that it's explicitly set in Canada circa 2005, but (probably because of copyright issues) all the sports teams have fictional names and logos, and it doesn't feel right (especially since sports fandom identity is a plot point.)