# Shittest Irish accent competition



## DotCommunist (Aug 12, 2009)

Who's is the crappiest, Donald Sutherland as Liam Devlin in The Eagle has Landed, or the 'actors' in those few irish themed episodes of Heroes?

are thier greater travesties than these still?

Poll-maybe later.


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## Pickman's model (Aug 12, 2009)

james coburn in fistful of dynamite


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## klang (Aug 12, 2009)

Haven't seen any episodes of heroes, but always thought that Mick Jagger pulled of a pretty bad irish accent in 'ned kelly'.


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## Griff (Aug 12, 2009)

Top 10 Worst Irish Accents


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## Pickman's model (Aug 12, 2009)

Griff said:


> Top 10 Worst Irish Accents



but what's YOUR opinion?


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## Santino (Aug 12, 2009)

That woman out of Burn Notice who used to be in Press Gang.


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## DotCommunist (Aug 12, 2009)

Sutherelands galls me the most cos it's a bum note in a near flawless boys own adventure war film


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## Griff (Aug 12, 2009)

Pickman's model said:


> but what's YOUR opinion?



I'd agree with you about Coburn, shocking.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

Didn't Tom Cruise play an Irishman (that film with Nicole Kidman)?

ah, it's on that Top 10 list up there

7. TOM CRUISE IN "FAR AND AWAY"
To be perfectly fair to the much pilloried Tom Cruise, his Irish accent in "Far and Away" is truly appalling.


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## DotCommunist (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Didn't Tom Cruise play an Irishman (that film with Nicole Kidman)?



yeah it's in Griffs link of the top 10 worst. I've not seen the film. Tom Cruise is a dick.


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## Bakunin (Aug 12, 2009)

Griff said:


> I'd agree with you about Coburn, shocking.



Does anyone remember his 'Australian' accent in 'The Great Escape'?

Dreadful.

Although his portrayal of the war-weary Sergeant Steiner in 'Cross Of Iron' pretty much makes me forgive him anything to be honest.

And I defy anyone to say otherwise.


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## Griff (Aug 12, 2009)

Bakunin said:


> Although his portrayal of the war-weary Sergeant Steiner in 'Cross Of Iron' pretty much makes me forgive him anything to be honest.
> 
> And I defy anyone to say otherwise.









Not to mention Flint.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

Griff said:


> Not to mention Flint.


 

Why's she got grapes in her hair?


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## stupid dogbot (Aug 12, 2009)

Brad Pitt in that terrorist thing with Harrison Ford. Dreadful.


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## Griff (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Why's she got grapes in her hair?



Grapes and assorted hanging fruit were very fashionable in the '60s.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

stupid dogbot said:


> Brad Pitt in that terrorist thing with Harrison Ford. Dreadful.


 

The Devil's Own



Any tv episode where you have a load of Chicago/New York cops or firefighters at a Irish bar


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## elevendayempire (Aug 12, 2009)

David Boreanaz in Angel was pretty bad. Oh, and the Oirish gangsters in Sin City - even though I looked some of the actors up and they were actually from Ireland. WTF?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

Griff said:


> Grapes and assorted hanging fruit were very fashionable in the '60s.


 


The other four girls in the picture must have been kept out of the loop


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## The Octagon (Aug 12, 2009)

Tom Cruise in Far & Away

David Boreanaz in 'Angel'

Colin Farrell (that's surely not a genuine accent?)


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## Paul Russell (Aug 12, 2009)

Sadie Frost in Shopping (the film).


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

elevendayempire said:


> David Boreanaz in Angel was pretty bad. Oh, and the Oirish gangsters in Sin City - even though I looked some of the actors up and they were actually from Ireland. WTF?


 

Yeah, but probably not born there or moved to the States when they were young and now speak it with an embarrassing plastic-paddy accent


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

The Octagon said:


> Tom Cruise in Far & Away
> 
> David Boreanaz in 'Angel'
> 
> Colin Farrell (that's surely not a genuine accent?)


 

I'm sure they're showing repeats of BallyK on one of the digital channels.  Watch it and judge for yourself


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## Biglittlefish (Aug 12, 2009)

Anyone see that sitcom Gabrial Byrne had for about 5 minutes? Every fucking actor around had laugh out load shit accents. He must have taught 'I can never go home after this'.


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## The Octagon (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> I'm sure they're showing repeats of BallyK on one of the digital channels.  Watch it and judge for yourself



*adopts whiny teenage voice*

Aw, do I have to?

I managed to avoid it the first time around (for the most part).


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## Biglittlefish (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> I'm sure they're showing repeats of BallyK on one of the digital channels.  Watch it and judge for yourself



I think it was always a little thicker than it needed to be for the area hes from.


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## sleaterkinney (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Didn't Tom Cruise play an Irishman (that film with Nicole Kidman)?
> 
> ah, it's on that Top 10 list up there
> 
> ...



This is definitely the worst I've heard.


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## fubert (Aug 12, 2009)

stupid dogbot said:


> Brad Pitt in that terrorist thing with Harrison Ford. Dreadful.



Agreed.

But his pikey accent in that Guy Richie samey same film he was was good.


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## subversplat (Aug 12, 2009)

Some of those Irish Bostonians in The Dwepawded are cringingly fantastic 

Theyis goys wot yoy ca'an hit and goys wot you ca'ayn't


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## stupid dogbot (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> The Devil's Own



That's the one.

I can't really remember Far and Away, but I'm willing to bet Cruise was shitter.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

stupid dogbot said:


> That's the one.
> 
> I can't really remember Far and Away, but I'm willing to bet Cruise was shitter.


 

Most definitely


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

The Octagon said:


> *adopts whiny teenage voice*
> 
> Aw, do I have to?
> 
> I managed to avoid it the first time around (for the most part).


 

You can lust after Dervla Kirwan


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

Biglittlefish said:


> I think it was always a little thicker than it needed to be for the area hes from.


 

What I'm saying is, he wasn't famous before BallyK and as it was an Irish series, his accent would probably be 100 times more natural there on that show, made for a Irish/English audience, than any accent he decides to exaggerate for the benefit of the Americans.


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## seeformiles (Aug 12, 2009)

Richard Gere in "The Jackal" was pretty bad

Julia Roberts in "Mary Reilly" was atrocious

Probably the worst was Sean Connery in "The Untouchables"

(compared to those Brad Pitt's one wasn't too bad really)


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## Bakunin (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> You can lust after Dervla Kirwan



Who doesn't?


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## Dillinger4 (Aug 12, 2009)

Terry Wogan.

He doesn't fool me.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

Bakunin said:


> Who doesn't?


 

The Octagon on watching BallyK 



> Originally Posted by *The Octagon*
> 
> 
> _*adopts whiny teenage voice*
> ...


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## Red O (Aug 12, 2009)

DiCaprio in Gangs of New York. Cameron Diaz's was actually half decent in comparison.


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## fieryjack (Aug 12, 2009)

Natasha McElhone in Ronin.


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## stupid dogbot (Aug 12, 2009)

fieryjack said:


> Natasha McElhone in Ronin.



God, and Jonathon Pryce.

"Right, so your motivation is that your Oirish terrorists, ok?"


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## Flashman (Aug 12, 2009)

Julia Roberts - Michael Collins

I think anyway, only saw it the once and I think she was shit.


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## krtek a houby (Aug 12, 2009)

Orson Welles in "The Lady from Shanghai".

Irish accents are very difficult on the whole. So many diverse and regional - Dublin alone has so many different accents!

Kate Blanchett was quite good in "Veronica Guerin".


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## skyscraper101 (Aug 12, 2009)

Wot no mention of Michael J. Fox's "Seamus McFly"


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Aug 12, 2009)

jer said:


> Orson Welles in "The Lady from Shanghai".
> 
> Irish accents are very difficult on the whole. So many diverse and regional - Dublin alone has so many different accents!
> 
> Kate Blanchett was quite good in "Veronica Guerin".


 

yeah, but you'd have to have a finely tuned ear to hear the differences between some.  It's obvious when someone's from Dublin and Belfast etc. but if you put a Clare man next to a Tipperary man, there's no way I'd be able to know who came from where.  You'd probably have to come from Ireland and maybe even those counties to notice the differences


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## Bakunin (Aug 12, 2009)

jer said:


> Irish accents are very difficult on the whole. So many diverse and regional - Dublin alone has so many different accents!



It's the same with the West Country accents. A lot of people think that there's just the one ('Orlroight, moi luvver!', 'Oooooarrrrrgh!' and so on) when in fact there are a great many different accents depending on which part of the West Country you happen to be in. 

Plymouth is very distinctive, while outside of Plymouth the Dartmoor accent is much more subtle for instance. 'West Country' is an easy accent to parody, but as there's no single West Country accent it's also a minefield for any actor to try and get right, depending on where in the region their character is supposed to be from.


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## AKA pseudonym (Aug 12, 2009)

Tom Cruise(far n away) and Brad Pitts in that Harrison film were woeful...
to be sure, to be sure
Im sure i willl think off others..

eta: and Bono's wtf kinda accent is that...


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## elevendayempire (Aug 12, 2009)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Yeah, but probably not born there or moved to the States when they were young and now speak it with an embarrassing plastic-paddy accent


Sin City was a truly cringeworthy experience for me. I'd read the comic beforehand, and we were sitting next to an Irish couple on their first date. And as the Clive Owen segment of the film started, I thought, "Oh fuck, this is the story with the appalling Oirish terrerrist stereotypes who 'like to blow up pubs'."


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## 8den (Aug 12, 2009)

Nicole Kidman's accent in far and away is slightly worse than Tom's.


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## DaveCinzano (Dec 19, 2012)

Stephen Boyd in _The Squeeze_ sounds like whoever voiced Gerry Adams through the 1980s.



(39s on)


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## SpookyFrank (Dec 19, 2012)

Johnny Depp in Chocolat springs to mind...


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## youngian (Dec 19, 2012)

Griff said:


> Top 10 Worst Irish Accents


 
Some mitigating circumstances in that list;

Lloyd Bridges's Irish accent in Blown Away was even worse than Tommy Lee Jones.

Sean Connery in the Untouchables at least decided to drop his Oirish after 10 minutes after realising he's Sean Connery and has previously got away with playing Scottish sounding Latvian submarine captain and an Eygptian alongside a French Highlander. 

Brad Pitt at least paid his dues with his Irish traveller in Snatch.


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## friedaweed (Dec 19, 2012)

Ellen Barkin in Into the West

1.34 She even talks out the side of her mouth 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=TOAb-sUCm7U


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## DaveCinzano (Dec 19, 2012)

friedaweed said:


> Ellen Barkin in Into the West
> 
> 1.34 She even talks out the side of her mouth
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=TOAb-sUCm7U


She does that in all her films, though.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Dec 19, 2012)

friedaweed said:


> Ellen Barkin in Into the West
> 
> 1.34 She even talks out the side of her mouth
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=TOAb-sUCm7U


 
I've got that film on DVD somewhere


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## friedaweed (Dec 19, 2012)

DaveCinzano said:


> She does that in all her films, though.


Fair doos. I don't normally look at her lips


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## friedaweed (Dec 19, 2012)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> I've got that film on DVD somewhere


It's our fav family movie


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Dec 19, 2012)

friedaweed said:


> It's our fav family movie


 
May have to dig it out for another viewing


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## friedaweed (Dec 19, 2012)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> May have to dig it out for another viewing


"Now young man what's your name?"
"Murphy"
"Yes I know you're a Murphy but what's your first name?"
"Mr Murphy"


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## DaveCinzano (Dec 19, 2012)

friedaweed said:


> Fair doos. I don't normally look at her lips


I suspect there is a generation of awkward, hormonal teenagers who grew up with _The Big Easy_ and _Sea Of Love_ which is now saddled with a stroke fetish.


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## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 19, 2012)

Brad Pitt is the worst.


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## 89 Til Infinity (Dec 19, 2012)

Andy Mcphee's was pretty funny sounding


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## DexterTCN (Dec 19, 2012)

Any where the supposedly irish/descent character says 'boyo'.


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## youngian (Dec 20, 2012)

Anyone checked Vinnie Jones's accent efforts as bare knuckle boxer Smasher O'Driscoll (I kid you not ) in Strength and Honour?


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## DexterTCN (Dec 20, 2012)

youngian said:


> ...Smasher O'Driscoll (I kid you not ) ...




In tears.


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 20, 2012)

Season 2 of Heroes has some prime examples of shit Irish accents


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## rekil (Mar 19, 2018)

Saturday Night Live people doing very very bad accents for a sketch about the Irish proclivity for incest.  Huge show, why so shitty.  



Spoiler: trigger warning: painfully unfunny


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## krtek a houby (Mar 19, 2018)

copliker said:


> Saturday Night Live people doing very very bad accents for a sketch about the Irish proclivity for incest.  Huge show, why so shitty.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: trigger warning: painfully unfunny




Won't play this end but reminds me of this story
'That’s what they do in Ireland' - Tilda Swinton's ex reveals he was child of an incestuous relationship - Independent.ie

_Speaking of incest, Byrne made the bizarre claim: "That's what they do in Ireland." _


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## stavros (Mar 19, 2018)




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## butchersapron (Mar 19, 2018)

copliker said:


> Saturday Night Live people doing very very bad accents for a sketch about the Irish proclivity for incest.  Huge show, why so shitty.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: trigger warning: painfully unfunny



I wonder what was the last year that could've gone out on UK tv? Mid 80s?


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## IC3D (Mar 19, 2018)




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## Poot (Mar 19, 2018)

butchersapron said:


> I wonder what was the last year that could've gone out on UK tv? Mid 80s?


I think Les Dennis and Dustin Gee probably turned it down.


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## stavros (Mar 19, 2018)

From 2 minutes in:


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## rekil (Mar 19, 2018)

butchersapron said:


> I wonder what was the last year that could've gone out on UK tv? Mid 80s?





Poot said:


> I think Les Dennis and Dustin Gee probably turned it down.


 The Grumbleweeds were the last act I remember soldiering on with this sort of _outré _material.


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## butchersapron (Mar 19, 2018)

My mum went this last weekend to a irish weekend at pontins - this, stuff apart from old showbands was the full menu. They had to escape to a pub for the rugby.


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## butcher (Mar 20, 2018)

Weirdly Pierce Brosnan in The Foreigner, terrible Gerery adams accent, OK film


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## rekil (Apr 27, 2018)

Last night I watched The Lady from Shanghai (1947) - IMDb and Orson Welles did a passable vaguely west of Ireland accent. No dialogue howlers and he didn't bump into the furniture once.

If I ever find The Dawning (1988) - IMDb I fear that Anthony Hopkins will not be up to the job.



> An I.R.A. gunman on the run from the government. He meets up with an idealistic young woman and attempts to win her support for his cause.


It sounds like it wrote itself.


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## 1%er (Apr 27, 2018)

It has to be Shane MacGowan surely, the English guy (born in Pembury, Kent) who according to a couple of people quoted in the books "Here comes everybody and Kiss my arse" used to speak with a mockney accent and then developed an Irish accent over night.


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## Nanker Phelge (Apr 27, 2018)

Gotta be Rourke...


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## rekil (Sep 27, 2018)

I watched Ocean's 8 the other night for no justifiable reason and Helena Bonham Carter's accent was the least rubbish thing about it. She does her usual overacting and meanders into norn ironery at points. Ocean's 13 was shit as well.

On the other hand, Alexa Davies in The Detectorists was excellent.


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## Pickman's model (Sep 27, 2018)

1%er said:


> It has to be Shane MacGowan surely, the English guy (born in Pembury, Kent) who according to a couple of people quoted in the books "Here comes everybody and Kiss my arse" used to speak with a mockney accent and then developed an Irish accent over night.


if you're going to say people are [x] depending on where they were born, then the duke of wellington's irish. he never thought of himself as irish and said just because a man is born in a stable it doesn't make him a horse. if someone is born to english parents in england then obvs they're english. but if someone is born to irish parents in england and then taken back to ireland the position's a little less clear.


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## rekil (Sep 27, 2018)

Pickman's model said:


> then the duke of wellington's irish. he never thought of himself as irish and said just because a man is born in a stable it doesn't make him a horse.


That was Daniel O'Connell. Is your pedantry crown slipping?


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## Pickman's model (Sep 27, 2018)

copliker said:


> That was Daniel O'Connell. Is your pedantry crown slipping?


it slipped years ago


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## 1%er (Sep 27, 2018)

Pickman's model said:


> if you're going to say people are [x] depending on where they were born, then the duke of wellington's irish. he never thought of himself as irish and said just because a man is born in a stable it doesn't make him a horse. if someone is born to english parents in england then obvs they're english. but if someone is born to irish parents in england and then taken back to ireland the position's a little less clear.


I am not saying anything other than according to people who knew him well, claim in the books "Here comes everybody" and "Kiss my arse" that he developed his Irish accent overnight. He is English by his own admission, I haven't determined that I was just passing on what he has said himself 

Both the books above are worth a read BTW, I was reading Here comes everybody at the time I made my above post, which is why his name sprang to mind


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## Saul Goodman (Sep 27, 2018)




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## DotCommunist (Sep 27, 2018)

surely someone has mentioned  sam niel in peaky blinders


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## Idris2002 (Sep 27, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


>


His sensitive and moving portrayal of Charlie Haughey awoke the conscience of a nation.


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## Saul Goodman (Sep 27, 2018)

Idris2002 said:


> His sensitive and moving portrayal of Charlie Haughey awoke the conscience of a nation.


His ever-changing Irish/English accent in GoT makes him a strong contender for shittest Irish accent ever. Which, considering he is actually Irish, is some achievement.


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## Idris2002 (Sep 27, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> His ever-changing Irish/English accent in GoT makes him a strong contender for shittest Irish accent ever. Which, considering he is actually Irish, is some achievement.



GoT is a fantasy series, and as a genre fantasy is of course notorious for its gritty realism and scrupulous accuracy.


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## Saul Goodman (Sep 27, 2018)

Idris2002 said:


> GoT is a fantasy series.


You're shitting me? I thought it was real!
Still the shittest Irish accent I've ever heard. Made worse because he's Irish.


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## friedaweed (Sep 27, 2018)

Connery in The Untouchables. Even his Scottish accent is suss.


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## Reno (Sep 27, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> His ever-changing Irish/English accent in GoT makes him a strong contender for shittest Irish accent ever. Which, considering he is actually Irish, is some achievement.


It would be a shit Riverlands/Westeros accent. Ireland doesn’t exist in the world of GoT.


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## krtek a houby (Sep 28, 2018)

Reno said:


> It would be a shit Riverlands/Westeros accent. Ireland doesn’t exist in the world of GoT.



Kind of does if you turn it upside down


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## Shechemite (Sep 28, 2018)

Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great.


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## mystic pyjamas (Sep 28, 2018)

The one on my apple homepod.


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## rekil (Oct 2, 2018)

Whoever plays Ben Gunn in Black Sails. No need to darby o'gill it to death me hearty.


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## hammerntongues (Oct 2, 2018)

For me the worst Irish accents appeared in possibly  the worst ever film,  Irish or otherwise . Far and Away , Cruise and Kidman . 

Just curious if there is a US forum that takes the piss out of bad English accents in US films , of course there is . I would be intrigued to know how good , or bad , Idris Elba and Dominic West were as Stringer Bell and Jimmy McNulty in The Wire . Faultless TV drama ? or was it spoilt for US viewers by shitty accents ?


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> Ireland doesn’t exist in the world of GoT.





krtek a houby said:


> Kind of does if you turn it upside down


Quite obviously a copy of Ireland.
And a shitload of key locations on GoT are in Ireland.
The least Irish thing about GoT is Littlefinger's accent!


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

hammerntongues said:


> For me the worst Irish accents appeared in possibly  the worst ever film,  Irish or otherwise . Far and Away , Cruise and Kidman .
> 
> Just curious if there is a US forum that takes the piss out of bad English accents in US films , of course there is . I would be intrigued to know how good , or bad , Idris Elba and Dominic West were as Stringer Bell and Jimmy McNulty in The Wire . Faultless TV drama ? or was it spoilt for US viewers by shitty accents ?



The accents on The Wire have mostly been considered to be pretty good. British actors are classically trained, which gives them an advantage over US movie stars, who may never have gotten any classical training.

Language Log on the Accents in “The Wire”

https://www.quora.com/Did-The-Wires-Jimmy-Mcnulty-have-a-good-American-accent

That said, different actors are good at different things and a performance can still be good even if the accent isn’t 100%. Finding the emotional truth in a character is a completely different skill from the mimicry needed in getting a local accent right. Sigourney Weaver is an actor I love, yet she’s utterly crap at accents.


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> Quite obviously a copy of Ireland.
> And a shitload of key locations on GoT are in Ireland.
> The least Irish thing about GoT is Littlefinger's accent!



It’s still not Ireland, no matter how much you insist the accents have to be authentic to a place which simply doesn’t exist in GoT. I thought that’s a fairly obvious thing to grasp about fantasy as a genre, but apparent not. You may just as well be complaining that dragons look nothing like they do in the series.


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> It’s still not Ireland, no matter how much you insist the accents have to be authentic to a place which doesn’t exist in that world. I thought that’s a fairly obvious thing to grasp about fantasy as a genre, but apparent not. You may just as well be complaining that dragons look nothing like they do in the series,


You're missing the point, completely. I'd try to explain but it seems you're not very good at that whole comprehension thing.


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> You're missing the point, completely. I'd try to explain but it seems you're not very good at that whole comprehension thing.


I'm not missing you point, I'm disagreeing with you. Thanks for being a patronising twat though. No news there then.


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## Baronage-Phase (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> I'm not missing you point, I'm disagreeing with you. Thanks for being a patronising twat though. No news there then.



Since when do Irish people with Irish accents have to be based only in Ireland? 
Even in fiction....

Eta...there are Irish people worldwide ... so why not in a fictional place? After all, plenty on GoT have British accents...


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> I'm not missing you point, I'm disagreeing with you. Thanks for being a patronising twat though. No news there then.


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

PippinTook said:


> Since when do Irish people with Irish accents have to be based only in Ireland?
> Even in fiction....
> 
> Eta...there are Irish people worldwide ... so why not in a fictional place? After all, plenty on GoT have British accents...


Even if it sounds like it, it’s still not an Irish accent if Ireland doesn’t exist. If you mean our world by ”worldwide” then that’s different because in our world there is an Ireland. We in the real world, have the reference point for Ireland. GoT doesn’t take place in our world. Considering the length of the seasons, probably not even on our planet. At the very least in a parallel universe in which nobody’s ever heard of Ireland. The British accents sound like British accents but they can’t be. There is no Britain. Within the context of this world, the characters speak with Westeros accents and nobody within that world would ever refer to anything as being British or Irish. On top of that Baelish was a character who always pretended to be something he isn’t and he rose in that society from humble beginnings via manipulation and deceit. It makes sense that he doesn’t have a consistent accent, as he would try to change it to fit in. You can’t critcise for something to be inauthentic when the reference point for authenticity doesn’t exist within the context of this particular fiction.


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## Baronage-Phase (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> Even if it sounds like it, it’s still not an Irish accent if Ireland doesn’t exist. If you mean our world by ”worldwide” then that’s different because in our world there is an Ireland. We in the real world, have the reference point for Ireland. GoT doesn’t take place in our world. Considering the length of the seasons, probably not even on our planet. At the very least in a parallel universe in which nobody’s ever heard of Ireland. The British accents sound like British accents but they can’t be. There is no Britain. Within the context of this world, the characters speak with Westeros accents and nobody within that world would ever refer to anything as being British or Irish. On top of that Baelish was a character who always pretended to be something he isn’t and he rose in that society from humble beginnings via manipulation and deceit. It makes sense that he doesn’t have a consistent accent, as he would try to change it to fit in. You can’t critcise for something to be inauthentic when the reference point for authenticity doesn’t exist within the context of this particular fiction.



The guy has a rubbish cultivated Irish accent....it really is an attempted Irish accent. It's not a Welsh or English or Scottish accent. He has very deliberately chosen an Irish accent.
That's not disputable. 
Speaking as an Irish person, his accent is pure fakery. Why he chose to speak in such an appallingly bad Irish accent? Who knows..


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

PippinTook said:


> The guy has a rubbish cultivated Irish accent....it really is an attempted Irish accent. It's not a Welsh or English or Scottish accent. He has very deliberately chosen an Irish accent.
> That's not disputable.
> Speaking as an Irish person, his accent is pure fakery. Why he chose to speak in such an appallingly bad Irish accent? Who knows..


The actor is Irish, so I’d assume it is a choice he made. For all we know, that’s how the people where he comes from end up talking in his situation.


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## Baronage-Phase (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> The actor is Irish, so I’d assume it is a choice he made. For all we know, that’s how the people where he comes from end up talking in his situation.



Nobody has that accent. It's an over exaggerated brogue.  And he is doing it deliberately...for whatever reason. Perhaps he wanted there to be an alternative to the British accents and American accents on the show.


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## Reno (Oct 2, 2018)

PippinTook said:


> Nobody has that accent.


Nobody has dragons


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## Baronage-Phase (Oct 2, 2018)

Reno said:


> Nobody has dragons



You can't compare an accent with a dragon...

Come to think of it ...those dragons sounded Welsh


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 2, 2018)

He could simply have kept his Irish accent (seeing as Ireland doesn't exist in GoT), but instead he's drifting from Irish to English to Indian to...


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## krtek a houby (Oct 3, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> He could simply have kept his Irish accent (seeing as Ireland doesn't exist in GoT), but instead he's drifting from Irish to English to Indian to...



Is this Aiden Gillen we're talking about? His accents always pulled into question, seems to be in a constant state of flux! Also, Michael Fassbender's accent is often a bit changeable in the X-Men films on close inspection.

Back to Westeros and Liam Cunningham's Geordie accent is pretty decent.


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 3, 2018)

krtek a houby said:


> Is this Aiden Gillen we're talking about?


It certainly is. The worst Irish/English/Indian/Australian, etc. accent ever


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## krtek a houby (Oct 3, 2018)

Saul Goodman said:


> It certainly is. The worst Irish/English/Indian/Australian, etc. accent ever



Or maybe his character, Littlefinger is a bit of a chameleon, modulating his accent to fit in and appease where needed. If I'm being generous.


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## rekil (Oct 3, 2018)

Irish Pronunciation Database: stad


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## Kaka Tim (Oct 3, 2018)

Reno said:


> The accents on The Wire have mostly been considered to be pretty good. British actors are classically trained, which gives them an advantage over US movie stars, who may never have gotten any classical training.
> 
> .



"classical training" has got nothing to with accents and its a pretty standard model used by any drama school in the uk or us. Doing a decent accent is down to having good mimicry skills and/or accent coaching.  One advantage brit actors might have is that they are more used to hearing american accents than american actors are british ones.


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## Reno (Oct 3, 2018)

Kaka Tim said:


> "classical training" has got nothing to with accents and its a pretty standard model used by any drama school in the uk or us. Doing a decent accent is down to having good mimicry skills and/or accent coaching.  One advantage brit actors might have is that they are more used to hearing american accents than american actors are british ones.



British training for actors is rooted in Shakespeare and geared towards stage acting, US acting is rooted in method acting propagated by Lee Strasberg and geared towards film acting. British classical training is concerned with voice training, stamina, breath control and physical transformation which sets the foundation for being able to take on completely different characters. Learning Shakespearean acting starts with being able to speak with a completely different syntax. The Method is a psychological approach which is geared to finding aspect of a character within the psychological make up of the actor. It doesn’t teach the technical aspects of British training to go outside yourself.

Many US films stars like Tom Cruise, who has been mocked for his attempts at accents, never had any formal training at all.

Why do you think British actors keep getting chosen over US actors for US roles in Hollywood films and TV ? They are far more versatile and resourceful. British actors get the technical foundation to immerse themselves in characters, US movie stars mostly play variations of themselves.

Of course there are exceptions on both sides. Meryl Streep’s approach is far more like that of a British actor, Michael Caine and Sean Connery never had any formal training and mostly played variations of themselves.

Innate talent for mimicry helps, as do dialect coaches, but on the whole British actors get chosen over US ones because of their training. It takes more than watching Starsky and Hutch on the telly to credibly inhabit a US character.


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## Kaka Tim (Oct 3, 2018)

There's more of a historical grounding in theatre in the UK than US - but outside of the RSC, actors here or the US have similar training - and Stanislavsky techniques (or "method acting") are a dominant feature for both "Shakespearean acting" has more focus on diction and projection. I dont see that either has got anything to do with the ability to do accents. I dont believe that famous RSC alumni such as lawrence oliver, Patrick Stewart or judy dench are particularly noted for their facility with accents.


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## Reno (Oct 3, 2018)

Kaka Tim said:


> There's more of a historical grounding in theatre in the UK than US - but outside of the RSC, actors here or the US have similar training - and Stanislavsky techniques (or "method acting") are a dominant feature for both "Shakespearean acting" has more focus on diction and projection. I dont see that either has got anything to do with the ability to do accents. I don't believe that famous RSC alumni such as lawrence oliver, Patrick Stewart or judy dench are particularly noted for their facility with accents.


Judi Dench's Irish accent in Philomena is considered to be one of the best by a non-Irish actor (I see no mention fo here here), Laurence Olivier worked at a time when far less attention was paid to national and historical authenticity and I'll give you Patrick Stewart. You can cherry pick as much as you like and find poor and good examples on either side, but when you ask US casting directors why British actors are dominating character roles in Hollywood is widely considered to be down to their training. With that comes that they master foreign accents better than their US counterparts and that is part training, part innate ability and part hiring a good dialect coach.

Are British Actors Better Trained Than Their American Counterparts? | BBC America


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## Kaka Tim (Oct 3, 2018)

Reno said:


> Judi Dench's Irish accent in Philomena is considered to be one of the best by a non-Irish actor (I see no mention fo here here), Laurence Olivier worked at a time when far less attention was paid to national and historical authenticity and I'll give you Patrick Stewart. You can cherry pick as much as you like and find poor and good examples on either side, but when you ask US casting directors why British actors are dominating character roles in Hollywood is widely considered to be down to their training. With that comes that they master foreign accents better than their US counterparts and that is part training, part innate ability and part hiring a good dialect coach.
> 
> Are British Actors Better Trained Than Their American Counterparts? | BBC America



But your conflating two things - 
1.your stating that british actors are better trained then american ones - possibly. 
2. that british acting training - specifically shakespearean training -  means they are better at accents - i see no evidence for this at all. 
People are good at accents because of their natural ability as mimics .  No amount of voice coaching is going to turn keanu reeves or michael caine into jane horrocks - and "shakespearean training" (which is kind of bollocks anyway tbh) will make no difference whatsoever. Think of it more like singing ability - coaching can improve technique - but its got to be there in the first place. 
seriously - ive studied theatre, ive done a lot of acting and drama training. I can project my voice and do diction and all that - but Im not great at accents. 
My partner is really good at them - shes done no acting training - but she is also very good at languages and has a very good musical ear, which may well be related.


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## rekil (Oct 10, 2019)

What does the class make of Keegan-Michael Key's English accent in this Key and Peele sketch? 



Spoiler


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## rekil (May 22, 2020)

The Ross O'Carroll Kelly man in Last Kingdom.



Spoiler: Orse








Rebecca Ferguson in Doctor Sleep, Alice Krige in Gretel And Hansel and Essie Davis in The horribly botched true History Of The Kelly Gang. All guilty of IRA leprachaunery. 

For what is probably a straightforward reason, Irish actor Pat McGrath plays an Irish character with a clipped bbc thenk yaw accent in ww2 haunted pub propaganda piece, Halfway House. 



Spoiler


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## Sprocket. (May 22, 2020)

He may have gotten away with it if he hadn't tried Gaelic.


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## rekil (Jun 4, 2020)

Cosmo Jarvis in Calm With Horses. Showing everyone how it's done. I thought he was Irish.









						Calm with Horses (2019) - IMDb
					

Calm with Horses: Directed by Nick Rowland. With Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Liam Carney, David Wilmot. Douglas 'Arm' Armstrong has become the feared enforcer for the drug-dealing Devers family, whilst also trying to be a good father. Torn between these two families, Arm's loyalties are tested...




					www.imdb.com


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## MrCurry (Aug 24, 2020)

This farmer (the first one in the news report) has a quality Irish accent. I understood about enough to realise he was speaking English, but no more


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## Shippou-Sensei (Aug 24, 2020)

Had that experience. Family gave a lift to a guy once. I thought he was speaking irish because I did not understand a word he said.  Turns out his accent was just that thick.

I can understand  at least 50% of what the guy in the video is saying.

heh.  just saw the end of the video.   It was also in the same(ish) area of kerry as that video.


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## Mordi (Aug 24, 2020)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> Had that experience. Family gave a lift to a guy once. I thought he was speaking irish because I did not understand a word he said.  Turns out his accent was just that thick.
> 
> I can understand  at least 50% of what the guy in the video is saying.
> 
> heh.  just saw the end of the video.   It was also in the same(ish) area of kerry as that video.



My dad has a story of running into an auld fella near Cork and apologising in Irish because he didn't understand his accent as he was from the North. A helpful interlocutor informed him that he was speaking English.


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## Orang Utan (Aug 24, 2020)

I met an old man from Cork once. Not a word


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## Saul Goodman (Aug 24, 2020)

Mordi said:


> My dad has a story of running into an auld fella near Cork and apologising in Irish because he didn't understand his accent as he was from the North. A helpful interlocutor informed him that he was speaking English.


People from Cork don't speak English.


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## Steel Icarus (Aug 24, 2020)

Orang Utan said:


> I met an old man from Cork once. Not a word


Oh, I know him. Bob Upandown


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## Sue (Aug 24, 2020)

Sons of Anarchy. I gave up in the season it went all Oirish -- bloody hell, there were some massively ropey accents in there.


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## Sue (Aug 24, 2020)

Pickman's model said:


> james coburn in fistful of dynamite


The Ireland scenes are kind of weird in general. The slightly strange menage a trois thing, shot through a Vaseline-coated lens. Great film though.


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## Ax^ (Aug 24, 2020)

has any said Brosnan yet


he is from Navan but cannot do a irish accent


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## Orang Utan (Aug 24, 2020)

Ax^ said:


> has any said Brosnan yet
> 
> 
> he is from Navan but cannot do a irish accent


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## DotCommunist (Aug 24, 2020)

Ax^ said:


> has any said Brosnan yet
> 
> 
> he is from Navan but cannot do a irish accent


I've only seen his Gerry Adams (a-like) in The Foreigner and it wasn't convincing


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## Ax^ (Aug 24, 2020)

aye that what i mean he is irish and cannot do an irish accent


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## Orang Utan (Aug 24, 2020)

He can’t even sing let alone speak


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## Aladdin (Aug 24, 2020)

MrCurry said:


> This farmer (the first one in the news report) has a quality Irish accent. I understood about enough to realise he was speaking English, but no more





I understood all of that. 
🤔


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## krtek a houby (Aug 24, 2020)

Ax^ said:


> aye that what i mean he is irish and cannot do an irish accent



Speaking of Bond, Sean Connery doesn't do convincing Irish accents, either.


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## Saul Goodman (Aug 25, 2020)

krtek a houby said:


> Speaking of Bond, Sean Connery doesn't do convincing Irish accents, either.


Sean Connery is Sean Connery. He can only do variants of Sean Connery.


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## petee (Aug 25, 2020)

Sugar Kane said:


> I understood all of that.
> 🤔



i understood the neighbor, but not mikey joe.


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## Saul Goodman (Aug 25, 2020)

petee said:


> i understood the neighbor, but not mikey joe.


I understood that there's a good reason I don't visit Cork. 🤣


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## petee (Aug 25, 2020)

Saul Goodman said:


> I understood that there's a good reason I don't visit Cork. 🤣



never been, but do you know what it is, the accent in west clare is as thick as the peat too.


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## Saul Goodman (Aug 25, 2020)

petee said:


> never been, but do you know what it is, the accent in west clare is as thick as the peat too.


Nah, I know loads of people from Clare, and I understand all of them, but I can't understand Langers, their accent or their actions.


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## Chairman Meow (Aug 25, 2020)

Cork accents are easy to understand compared to rural Kerry. There are so many accents in Ireland though. As a child we moved to a different Northern Irish town 20 miles away. and I couldn't understand a word half of them said. The strongest accent I ever heard was my mother in laws neighbour, a lovely farmer from Tipp. Not one single world could I understand, I wanted the ground to open.

Back on topic, I came on to say Tom Cruise, just hilariously bad.


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## Aladdin (Aug 25, 2020)

Saul Goodman said:


> I understood that there's a good reason I don't visit Cork. 🤣




They have Kerry accents not Cork. 
😁


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## Saul Goodman (Aug 25, 2020)

Sugar Kane said:


> They have Kerry accents not Cork.
> 😁


I didn't listen to it. I was just saying there's a good reason I don't visit Cork.


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## Thaw (Aug 26, 2020)

Guy Pearce in The Proposition is poor. Watching it now and i think there are more shitty sccents to come


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## Thaw (Aug 26, 2020)

Mick Jagger in the Ned Kelly film was worse though.


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## May Kasahara (Nov 11, 2020)

A new contender has entered the ring. In fact a whole collection of contenders.


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## Sue (Nov 11, 2020)

May Kasahara said:


> A new contender has entered the ring. In fact a whole collection of contenders.



That looks fucking _terrible_.


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## May Kasahara (Nov 11, 2020)

Doesn't it just   The comments are very entertaining though.


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## Ax^ (Nov 11, 2020)

why Christopher walkin for fuck sake 

lol


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## Sue (Nov 11, 2020)

Ax^ said:


> why Christopher walkin for fuck sake
> 
> lol


Why any of them?


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## Artaxerxes (Nov 11, 2020)

May Kasahara said:


> A new contender has entered the ring. In fact a whole collection of contenders.




Christopher Walken trying to do an Irish accent was not how I expected today to go.


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## Chairman Meow (Nov 11, 2020)

F


Sue said:


> That looks fucking _terrible_.



Fuck. Me. Dead. That looks unbelievably shit! But Walken is in it, so I might have to watch it. Imagine if you had to have a drink every time you spotted a cliche, or bad accent. You'd be dead by the end of the trailer, never mind the movie!


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## clicker (Nov 11, 2020)

Filmed in Mayo, so it should look beautiful. The accents are brutal.


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## May Kasahara (Nov 11, 2020)

2020 just keeps on giving


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## Sue (Nov 11, 2020)

May Kasahara said:


> 2020 just keeps on giving


'So how was the film?'

'It was _very_ 2020.'

'Oh.   '


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## Saffy (Nov 11, 2020)

I saw Marian Keyes thread on twitter about the accents in this film.


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## Chairman Meow (Nov 11, 2020)

Jamie Dornan somehow managed to mangle the Irish accent, _despite being Irish himself!  _


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## Ax^ (Nov 11, 2020)

Sue said:


> Why any of them?


 true by why a actor with one of the most recognisable voice accents and voice pattern and try to make he sound like he is from mayo 🤣


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## Chairman Meow (Nov 11, 2020)

I just read a tweet from a fellow Irish person, saying Now we know how the French feel about ‘Emily in Paris’.😂


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## seeformiles (Nov 11, 2020)

Natascha McElhone’s accent in “Ronin” is shockingly bad


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## Artaxerxes (Nov 11, 2020)

Saffy said:


> I saw Marian Keyes thread on twitter about the accents in this film.



The Irish times review is excellent


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## Aladdin (Nov 11, 2020)

May Kasahara said:


> A new contender has entered the ring. In fact a whole collection of contenders.




Oh dear.

Christopher Walken is pretty reasonable actually.
But Blunt is horrendous.
Dorman is shit.
Looks crap.

Mind you the story line re farm land and issues re inheritance is still very much a big problem in rural Ireland.


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## DotCommunist (Nov 11, 2020)

Thankfully this is something I would never watch even if it was better than it isn't, but Walken, how the mighty have fallen.


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## Aladdin (Nov 11, 2020)

Why in Gods name do they think people in Ireland still live in teeny cottages and go round in shite clothes? 

Pathetic ...

And...another thing. Mayo accents so not sound like that. In fact a Mayo accent is really quite bland. 

Emily Blunt is totally useless


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## Aladdin (Nov 11, 2020)

DotCommunist said:


> Thankfully this is something I would never watch even if it was better than it isn't, but Walken, how the mighty have fallen.




He must really need the money.


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## Chairman Meow (Nov 11, 2020)

True. especially considering the latest double suicide and murder case in Kanturk recently. Now that would make an interesting movie. But I expect the American audience wouldn't find it so appealing.


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## May Kasahara (Nov 11, 2020)

Discussing with my Dubliner friend this morning


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## belboid (Nov 11, 2020)

One Irish radio station changed the job title of their  film reviewer to Crime Correspondent just for this movie apparently.


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## platinumsage (Nov 11, 2020)

Actors should all strive to sound like this farmer when doing Irish accents:


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## belboid (Nov 11, 2020)

Some of the comments are just getting better and better: 

“Even we think this is a bit much” - The National Leprechaun Museum of Ireland


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## Johnny Doe (Nov 11, 2020)




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## Aladdin (Nov 11, 2020)

Legit Tyrone accent..
And a lovely wee lad this lad is.


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## Idris2002 (Sep 24, 2021)

We were watching the excellent Endeavour last night, the one with the George Best-a-like. . . the accents were very well done, but we're going with the view that the actors weren't actual Ulster Folk. 

Morse and Thursday were of course bemused by these unusually strange examples of the Irish bogtrotter, not for the last time either.


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## ska invita (Dec 29, 2021)

ladies and gentlemen, six times oscar winner Tom Hanks


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## Aladdin (Dec 29, 2021)

ska invita said:


> ladies and gentlemen, six times oscar winner Tom Hanks





His accent was ok for some of it but merged into an English accent at times...
The "OBE" sounded more like an Eastender. 
But great acting. 😁


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## krtek a houby (Dec 30, 2021)

ska invita said:


> ladies and gentlemen, six times oscar winner Tom Hanks




A flawed but still fascinating film


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## DotCommunist (Oct 29, 2022)

Some interesting decor here in an irish bar from the show 'Veronica Mars':


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## Looby (Oct 29, 2022)

I don’t expect anyone here to have seen this but Diane Ladd does a spectacularly bad accent in Chesapeake Shores, a show almost as bad as her accent.


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## Idaho (Oct 29, 2022)

Paul Russell said:


> Sadie Frost in Shopping (the film).


This film is so bad that it makes me angrily quote a post from 16 years ago.


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## spitfire (Oct 29, 2022)

The new Lord of the Rings series. 

The hobbits. Fucksakes.


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## Reno (Oct 29, 2022)

spitfire said:


> The new Lord of the Rings series.
> 
> The hobbits. Fucksakes.


Weren't those authentic Harfoot accents ?


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