Line #157 UsefulNotes/IrishAccents


1	Howye! Ah, sure yer graaaaand, biy!
2
3	Unlike the impression given by both British and American media, there is more than one Irish accent. Researchers have found, in fact, that there's a different accent for roughly every five miles you travel -- that's a slightly different accent for ''every single town on the island,'' though naturally, only locals will be able to hear the finer differences.
4
5	The dialect is properly known as '''Irish English''' or '''Hiberno-English.''' The English language has been firmly entrenched in Ireland since the mid-19th Century, but, as with UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} and UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}, Irish English retains some grammatical features from the Irish language[[note]]Like the ''continuous present'' -- it's not unusual to hear someone say "He does be working every day"[[/note]], as well as a couple of archaic British oddities[[note]] Like the ''plural you'' surviving in everyday speech -- in UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}} and parts of the North you hear "yis/youse/yisser", as in "How are yis, did you do yisser homework?", while in the South and West you get "ye", as in "How are ye? [all of you?]"[[/note]]. Irish English is also almost entirely rhotic, except for some Dublin accents. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee_N3g4ORLk For reference, here is a video showcasing the variety of Irish accents found in Ireland]].
6
7	For other technical information about accents in predominantly English-speaking countries, see UsefulNotes/BritishAccents, UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents, UsefulNotes/CanadianAccents and the UsefulNotes/AustralianAccent.
8
9	!!Accents and examples:
10	[[foldercontrol]]
11
12	[[folder:Local or 'Common' Dublin]]
13	The broad, working-class accent in Dublin. Most commonly seen or associated with those living in the city centre but can be found in all parts of the city, as far out as Tallaght or Finglas, for example. People with this accent are sometimes known as 'howyas' after the typical greeting. The 'oo' sound in words like 'book' and 'cook' is elongated, pronounced anywhere from like the 'oo' in 'moose' to the 'yew' in 'puke' (coming out like "bewk" or "buke" respectively). The vowels in words are stretched; words such as 'school', 'mean' and 'five' tend to be pronounced as 'schoo-wul' and 'me-yen' and 'foy-ev' respectively. In certain word endings in 't', it is not pronounced and there's a ''glottal stop'' instead; eg 'mouth' -- 'mow', 'maggot' -- 'maggih', 'mot' [girlfriend] -- 'mo''. Speakers of this accent are also the most likely of the Dublin accents to turn 'th' into 't' or 'd' ('turty tree and a turd'). In all cases, tends to be [[ClusterFBomb profanity-laden]].
14
15	'''Stereotype:''' Old, wisened, salt-of-the-earth [[ApronMatron grannies]] and [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior granddads]]; street traders, especially from Moore Street, a shopping street in the inner city; criminals and gang-members. Basically, the Dublin version of Cockney and its associated stereotypes.
16
17	!!Examples:
18
19	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
20	* Dustin the Turkey, icon to a generation of Irish children.
21	* Most of the characters in ''Series/LoveHate'', but in particular Nidge and Fran[[note]]It should be noted that Nidge's actor, Creator/TomVaughanLawlor actually has an accent closer to 'D4' in reality![[/note]] .
22	* Agnes Brown from ''Series/MrsBrownsBoys'' and her family members and friends.
23	* The Harfoots from ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' speak an Irish dialect inspired by the Dublin accent.
24
25	[[AC:{{Music}}]]
26	* Music/TheDubliners, of course. In particular, Ronnie Drew had a very strong accent both while speaking and singing.
27	* Phil Lynott from Music/ThinLizzy.
28	* Music/ImeldaMay, rockabilly and jazz singer from The Liberties (inner city area).
29	* Grian Chatten of the {{post punk}} band Fontaines D.C.
30
31	[[AC:RealLife]]
32	* [[{{Creator/RTE}} Radio One]] ''Liveline'' host Joe Duffy, who's famously from 'Clontaaarf'.
33	* [[UsefulNotes/PrimeMinistersOfIreland Former Taoiseach]] Bertie Ahern, who is from Drumcondra.
34	* Labour Party leader and Tánaiste Joan Burton.
35	* Dublin grandmother Ann Grimes shouting at the street fight in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDciiG7b4Q video]].
36
37	[[AC:Video Games]]
38	* Sergeant Jack "Butcher" O'Hara of the ''VideoGame/{{Commandos}}''. The authenticity of the accent varies from game to game.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Mainstream or Suburban Dublin]]
42	The accent spoken by those in Dublin who are neither working-class nor D4; the middle class and suburban speakers.
43
44	'''Stereotype:''' None, really, since about 60% of Dubliners city- and county-wide possess it. Can be any sort of character but when they do appear they are often well educated and in prestigious jobs. Sometimes thought of as "[[Creator/{{RTE}} RTÉ]] English", in which it is considered roughly equivalent to [[IAmVeryBritish BBC English or Received Pronunciation.]]
45
46	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
47	* Father Ted Crilly, Father Dougal [=McGuire=] and Father Jack Hackett from ''Series/FatherTed''. While the show is set on an island off the west coast of Ireland, the main characters have all been [[ReassignedToAntarctica sent there by Bishop Brennan from the mainland]] for various infractions.
48	* The Garda characters, Mick Moynihan and Ciaran Madden in ''Series/LoveHate''.
49	** The dentist, Andrew Reddin and his wife from series four.
50	* Colm Meaney, and thus, Miles O'Brien from ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
51
52	[[AC:{{Music}}]]
53	* Bono from {{Music/U2}}.
54	* Music/SineadOConnor.
55
56	[[AC:RealLife]]
57	* Most {{Creator/RTE}} news presenters.
58	* Former ''Late Late Show'' presenter (1965--1999) Gay Byrne.
59	** Former ''Late Late Show'' presenter (1999--2009) Pat Kenny.
60	** Former ''Late Late Show'' presenter (2009--2023) Ryan Tubridy.
61	* Author Roddy Doyle.
62	* Actor Creator/ColinFarrell.
63	* Actor Creator/BrendanGleeson.
64	* Deputy Leader of Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou [=McDonald=].
65	* Current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:New or 'D4' Dublin]]
69	An accent among a certain class of younger people born after around 1970. Named after the Dublin 4 postcode, an extremely affluent and expensive area (in terms of property prices) of the city where this accent is stereotypically found. A typical sentence might be "I'm ''totally'' taking the DORT[[note]]that's Dublin Area Rapid Transit, or DART[[/note]] to the [[UsefulNotes/RugbyUnion rogby]], roysh[[note]]right[[/note]]?"
70
71	'''Stereotype:''' [[UpperClassTwit Upper class twits]], basically -- rich kids from privileged background; Daddy is a barrister and Mammy is a "lady who lunches" and spends her time going to America on shopping trips; he plays rugby (if a he; didn't engage in sports, if female) and attends Trinity College. The milder version ('New Dublin' as opposed to 'D4') seems to gradually be turning into 'anyone middle class or higher but especially female born after the early 1980s' as it is becoming popular outside Dublin among younger people.
72
73	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
74	* Jim Moriarty from ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' has his own actor's D4 accent, played up for [[LargeHam hamminess]], when he's not pretending to be someone with a different accent.
75
76	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
77	* Literature/RossOCarrollKelly is a parody D4 character and star of a newspaper column and a number of 'autobiographical' novels.
78
79	[[AC:{{Music}}]]
80	* Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats and Band Aid fame has a version of this that's somewhat more nasal and downmarket; the D4 accent didn't really develop in Ireland until the late 1980s, on account of Irish people's massive exposure to transatlantic TV. Geldof comes from the right area, but he's from an earlier generation.
81	* John and Edward 'Jedward' Grimes.
82	* Downplayed with The Edge from Music/{{U2}}, who was born in England to a Welsh family and grew up in a middle-class part of north Dublin.
83
84	[[AC:RealLife]]
85	* TV Chef, Rachel Allen.
86	* Former TD Paul Gogarty of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CosVhlxpFao Fuck you, Deputy Stagg]]" fame.
87	* Professional wrestler Wrestling/BeckyLynch has a D4 accent, unlike Irish wrestlers of the past, to the point where many fans have asked WhatTheHellIsThatAccent.
88	* Actress Creator/KatieMcGrath is technically from just across the county border in County Wicklow but went to school in Dublin and has this accent.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Country, Midlands or 'Culchie']]
92	A ''very'' wide range of different accents, separate here from Cork and Kerry, because, well, most people think of them as separate. Most people outside Dublin can narrow down an accent by county, and within a county many can narrow it down to a town (towns only a few miles apart can have audibly different accents.) This is the accent most likely represented in {{Oireland}}, if it's not the ludicrous Kerry-esque stage-Oirish accent of the obviously FakeIrish actor, but there is a great difference between the relatively sing-song Galway accent and the extremely flat Midlands accent.
93
94	'''Stereotype:''' Farmers, GAA fans (other than the Dublin footballers, obviously).
95
96	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
97	* Podge and Rodge from ''Series/AScareAtBedtime''.
98	* All the characters from former soap opera ''Glenroe'', set in Wicklow.
99	* Pat Shortt, seen in ''Series/FatherTed'' and his own series ''Series/{{Killinaskully}}'', has a quintessential Tipperary accent.
100	* The characters in the 2005 mini-series ''Pure Mule'' have the very distinctive Offaly accent, which is as flat as the local countryside and which is caricaturable as ownly huving wun vuwel sownd.[[note]]Something like the Offaly accent can be produced by forming your mouth into a pout as if you're about to play the trumpet, and then attempting to talk without moving your lips.[[/note]]
101
102	[[AC:Other]]
103	* Irish-American columnist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finley_Peter_Dunne Finley Peter Dunne]] (1867-1936) frequently wrote his columns for the Chicago Tribune featuring the fictitious Mr. Dooley, an Irish immigrant bartender from County Roscommon, with a [[PhoneticAccent Funetik Accent]]:
104	-->"Th' newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs the polis force an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim afterward. They ain't annything it don't turn its hand to fr'm explainin' th' docthrine iv thransubstantiation to composin' saleratus biskit. Ye can git anny kind of information ye want to in ye'er fav'rite newspaper about ye'erself or annywan else." [[note]] The newspaper does everything for us. It runs the police force and the banks, commands the militia, controls the legislature, baptizes the young, comforts the afflicted, afflicts the comfortable, buries the dead and roasts them afterward. There isn't anything it doesn't turn its hand to from explaining the doctrine of transsubstantiation, to composing saleratus biscuit. (sodium bicarbonate biscuit, another name for soda crackers) You can get any kind of information you want to in your favorite newspaper about yourself or anyone else." [[/note]]
105
106	[[AC:RealLife]]
107	* Current President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins (from Galway).
108	* Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, from Offaly.
109	* Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, from Mayo.
110	* Wrestling/FergalDevitt, better known as Finn Balor, is from Bray, County Wicklow.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Traveller]]
114	See UsefulNotes/IrishTravellers for more information. Traveller accents usually sound like thick Connacht accents. Many also speak Traveller cant, known to native speakers as '''Gammon''' and linguistics experts as '''Shelta'''.
115
116	[[AC:Film]]
117	* Creator/TomHardy based ComicBook/{{Bane}}'s accent in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' on Traveller boxer Bartley Gorman.
118	* ''Film/{{Snatch}}'': [[Creator/BradPitt Mickey]] is pretty much TheUnintelligible. [[Creator/JasonStatham Turkish]] describes his manner of speaking as "It's not English. It's not Irish. It's just Pikey." (By the way, do ''not'' refer to the accent, or people, as "pikey" in real life. [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch "Pikey" is considered a strong racial slur by Travellers]], and Statham's character is meant to be abusing NWordPrivileges, not using an everyday slang term.) [[FakeIrish Pitt]] actually [[ShownTheirWork did the research]] -- the accent is exaggerated for comic effect but basically close to the real thing.
119
120	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
121	* Patrick, the pipe bomb maker and main nemesis in series five of ''Series/LoveHate''.
122
123	[[AC:Web Video]]
124	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6aDrzs3Fs&t=135s Davy Joyce]], a traveller who [[MemeticMutation went viral]] for referring to his rival as "Shite-in-the-bucket".
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Cork]]
128	General characterized by [[LikeIsLikeAComma "Y'know, like]] [[VerbalTic biiiiiiyyyyyyyyy!"]]. Cork people tend to pronounce Cork as "Cark". Many areas also stretch out the end of sentences, with a rising tone similar to asking a question. Parodies of the accent tend to sound something like a cross between a ValleyGirl and Creator/WilliamShatner.
129
130	'''Stereotype:''' Colourful characters; wants to separate Cork county into its own country. Also hates Dublin with a passion and considers Cork superior. Often joked to be [[EverythingIsBigInTexas the Irish equivalent of Texans]] (and to consider their neighbours in Kerry the Irish equivalent of Mexicans).
131
132	[[AC:Film]]
133	* Conor Mac Sweeney and "Jock" O'Keefe from ''The Young Offenders'' and its SequelSeries, a pair of {{Lower Class Lout}}s from the city's northside. Most of the rest of the cast, particularly Billy Murphy, as well.
134
135	[[AC:Live Action TV]]
136	* Sister Michael from ''Series/DerryGirls'' has a snarkier version of the usual portrayal of this accent.
137
138	[[AC:RealLife]]
139	* Brendan O'Connor, presenter of ''The Saturday Night Show''.
140	* Current Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
141	* Creator/JackGleeson, actor best known as Joffrey Baratheon from ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
142	* Strangely enough, surviving recordings of archetypal Dublin author Creator/JamesJoyce reveal that he had a high-pitched Cork accent, on account of his father John being very much a Corkman.
143
144	[[AC:WebOriginal]]
145	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jv3EvkqJlQ The chicken]] from ''Sminky Shorts''.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Limerick]]
149	Nasal and sharp.
150
151	'''Stereotype:''' Shank-toting, yokes-dropping underprivileged youth who'd stab you as soon as look at you.
152
153	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
154	* The Music/{{Rubberbandits}}, Blind Boy Boat Club and Mr. Chrome, two rappers who made their debut as online crank phone call peddlers and eventually migrated to Republic Of Telly, a sketch comedy TV show on RTÉ, where they perfected their blend of brain-melting idiocy, surrealism and hip-hop tunes. They later stormed the Edinburgh Festival and went on to produce a pilot for Channel Four which fell through, but have since moved on to ITV, and will make a show about the 1916 rising for RTÉ. Best known for their song "Horse Outside", which produced a shitstorm of outraged [[MoralGuardians moral guardians]] due to lyrics like "Fuck your Mitsubishi, I've a Horse Outside" and a video involving a short segment in which a character talked about how the married couple oughtn't give up on the partying if they have kids. People took to the radio show [=LiveLine=] to complain, but the segment was interrupted by the intrusion of Blind Boy, who [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0zoCP1HOcY phoned in to give an erudite lecture on irony, misdirection and semiotics]] in an accent so thick you could prop up a car with it.
155	-->'''Joe Duffy:''' Are you the fella that wears the plastic bag over his head?
156	-->'''Blind Boy:''' Well, there're two've us who wear plastic bags over our heads, I'm wan of 'em.
157	-->'''Joe Duffy:''' And... can you talk properly, or is this your...
158	-->'''Blind Boy:''' 'Chamean, can I talk praperly? Dis is Blind Boy Boat Club from da Rubberbandits, an' I'm an your shoo, willin' to speak, Joe-Joe.
159	-->'''Joe Duffy:''' Okay, what do you think of Willie O'Dea's support?
160	-->'''Blind Boy:''' I tink it's anreal, fair play ta Willie and tanks for supportin', it's grayat, like. [...] Anywan who's got a complayant about the video or the sang, like, yer man Anthony's who's talking away dere, what he needs to do, someone needs to give dat man a dictionary, an he needs to look up da word "ironeh".
161	-->[''Stunned pause from host and callers'']
162	-->'''Joe Duffy:''' Anthony?
163	-->'''Anthony:''' [''sourly''] Absolute joke.
164	-->'''Blind Boy:''' Absolutely, it's an absolute joke, you put it well dere yirself, kid.
165	-->'''Anthony:''' I mean, I'm all for humour, et cetera, but what you're bringing in about children, and house parties and drugs and all that, it's a disgrace.
166	-->'''Blind Boy:''' Ahl right, one second now, right. Okeh. The line yer referrin' tah, about children and house parties and drugs, right, let me speak now a second, right--yoor lookin' at that from a very '''denotative''' perspective, right?
167
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Kerry]]
171	Has a tendency to [[TrrrillingRrrs rrrrrroll the Rrrs]], and to pronounce "s" at the start of words as "sh".
172
173	'''Stereotype:''' Flat-cap wearing farmers, rampant xenophobes and [[CloudCuckoolander weirdos]]. Also hates Dublin.
174
175	[[AC:RealLife]]
176	* The late TD [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGgsaUeuqgg Jackie Healy-Rae]].
177	** His son, current TD [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ga5XHjHuAo Michael Healy-Rae]].
178
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Northern]]
182	The Norries/Nordies. Shared here with UsefulNotes/BritishAccents. Also the [[TheUnintelligible Donegal accent]][[note]]And if you think their accent in English is unintelligible, wait till you hear Donegal Irish. It sounds more like... [[UsefulNotes/ChineseDialectsAndAccents Mandarin]], maybe? To other Irish speakers -- especially the more consonantal Munster Irish speakers -- it sounds like nothing but vowels, like "being petted with a language", as comedian Des Bishop put it.[[/note]]
183	UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland offers three main flavours of the local accent:
184	* Belfast accents tend to be harsh
185	* Western accents ((London)Derry/Tyrone/Fermanagh) tend to be softer
186	* [[TheDeepSouth Irish Sea/North Channel coastal]] accents which are a mix of two with a hint of [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scottish]] for good measure
187
188	One of the most notable sounds in the Northern Irish accent is "ar". People speak into their jaws, again audible when the "ow" sound is used. So when you next meet a Northern Irish person ask them to say "An hour in the power shower", and it comes out as "An arr in the par shar". Also, "ow" is pronounced more like "oi", leading to HilarityEnsues when it comes to "how now brown cow". This sound is particularly distinctive because it tends to be retained by Northern Irish people even when otherwise they are toning down their accent (such as newsreaders presenting national news): in the middle of an otherwise RP-sounding sentence we will be told that the Prime Minister has announced that interests rates will come "doyn". Although again, this is not the same all over Northern Ireland. People from (London)Derry do tend to pronounce power -- "Pau-yer". Also see "k-yar" for "car", "say-vin" for "seven" and "fill-um" for "film".
189
190	The key to speaking Irish Sea Coast Norn Irn (which is a mix of the above, Scottish and 'rural') -- talk through your nose and drop the middle out of every word, or drop half the syllables. Spaces are optional. "I went to see the doctor" becomes "Aahwentuh se thu doc'er". You can ''see'' English people's brains stop dead as they try to decipher it. Trying to talk to anyone from Pakistan, Africa or Jamaica is a lost cause.
191
192	Long story short -- we have the same amount of regional variations in accent, in an area smaller than Wales, as in the rest of the UK.
193
194	'''Stereotype:''' Inevitably, WesternTerrorists taking random elements from the Villain tropebook.
195
196	'''Fictional examples:'''
197	* Jim [=McDonald=] in ''Series/CoronationStreet'' -- an alcoholic wife-beater, so he was.
198	* Everyone except southerner Tommy Tiernan in ''Series/DerryGirls''.
199	* ''Series/GiveMyHeadPeace''
200	* How NOT to do a Northern Irish accent -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJrovKgrTw If It's Doomsday, It Must Be Belfast]].
201	* Rory Flanagan in ''Series/{{Glee}}''. It isn't distinguished as Northern Irish by any characters in show, probably due to the writers not wanting to get into [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland complicated politics]], but it's a Derry accent like the actor's.
202	* A large portion of the cast in the BBC drama ''Series/TheFall2013'', which makes sense, as it's set in Belfast.
203	* Superintendent Hastings in ''Series/LineOfDuty''.
204
205	'''Real-life examples:'''
206	* Jackie Wright, Belfast-born sidekick/ButtMonkey on ''Series/TheBennyHillShow''.
207	* Ian Paisley -- "criminality" used to be one of his favourite words.
208	* James Nesbitt of ''Murphy's Law'' fame, who commonly subverts the NI accent stereotype by regularly playing good guys.
209	* Nadine Coyle of Music/GirlsAloud has an exaggerated Derry accent.
210	* As mentioned above, Damian [=McGinty=], who rose to fame after winning ''Series/TheGleeProject'', and now plays Rory Flanagan on ''Series/{{Glee}}'', has a Derry accent.
211	* Colin Morgan, although he shifts to an English accent for ''Series/{{Merlin\|2008}}''
212	* And of course, Creator/LiamNeeson who tends to use his natural Ballymena accent in most of his films, though his accent is quite muted and soft.
213	* James Burke, the BBC's main science reporter in TheSixties and TheSeventies, known across the Pond as "That Guy Who Made ''Series/{{Connections}}''" speaks in what sounds like RP to an American, but upon closer listening is very clearly Derry with English schooling from the age of 11--that habit of dropping into rhoticity gives it away.
214	* Music/VanMorrison, when speaking and not singing, betrays his East Belfast roots.
215	* Gary Lightbody from Music/SnowPatrol, both when singing and speaking.
216	[[/folder]]

Context UsefulNotes / IrishAccents