The most challenging thing about compiling a Top Ten list of bad Irish accents is deciding which films should make it - there is no shortage of contenders. But making a list of Best Irish Accents is an altogether different matter.

It's not so much a matter of narrowing it down, as finding examples of good, or at the very least, passable, Irish accents on film. (We've excluded Irish actors on this least, because there's no really challenge in it for them. Although occasionally, even Irish actors screw up Irish accents - Pierce Brosnan in "Evelyn" being a notable example.)

But there a few examples...

1) Brad Pitt in "Snatch"

This isn't quite so much an Irish accent, as a Traveler accent. (Travelers are a group of nomadic people in Ireland, who tend to live in caravans. They are similar to gypsies.) But anyone who has ever encountered any Travelers in the UK or Ireland, and who has seen Snatch, will tell you that Pitt absolutely nails the accent in that movie. This more than redeems him from his work in "The Devil's Own."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0_sL5AAVQ

2) Cate Blanchett in "Veronica Guerin"

When this movie was released in 2003, it was well noted that this was the first occasion in cinematic history that a Hollywood actress had effectively captured a Dublin accent. Blanchett was superb in this movie, playing Veronica Guerin, a crusading Irish journalist assassinated by a gang of drug dealers she was writing about. She puts lesser actresses like Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts to shame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qmbYjG5GwQ

3) No one else.

Yes, that's right - Blanchett and Pitt are the only two actors who have ever carried off a successful Irish accent on film.