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The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies

Julia Roberts and Sean Connery may have won Oscars, but they can't pull off an Irish accent!

Conn Corrigan,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, July 10, 2011, 7:08 AM

Updated Sunday, July 10, 2011, 7:08 AM

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Julia Roberts as Mary Reilly

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The Irish accent, judging from some of Hollywood's attempts at it over the years, must surely be one of the most difficult for actors to master. We've plowed through the archives and nominated our top 10 worst offenders. What do you think? Read down through our list or use the playlist on the right to listen to the top 10 Worst Hollywood Irish accents!

1. SEAN CONNERY IN DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE"

The gold standard to judge against all other bad Irish accents must surely remain Sean Connery's portrayal of Michael McBride, in the Walt Disney classic "Darby O' Gill and the Little People."

2.SEAN CONNERY IN "THE UNTOUCHABLES"

That was in 1959; by 1987, when he starred as the tough Irish cop Jim Malone in "The Untouchables," things had scarcely improved (though ironically, he nabbed the Best Supporting Actor Oscar).

it's not just the Irish accent that the Bond star has grappled with it - no doubt he also made the cut for some Top 10 List of Bad Russian Accents for his portrayal of Captain Marko Ramius, in "The Hunt for Red October."

3. KEVIN SPACEY IN "ORDINARY DECENT CRIMINAL"

Every so often, U.S. actors - even really good, respected actors like Kevin Spacey - come out with stuff like "Ordinary Decent Criminal," a fairly unremarkable movie save for the fact that the main stars all try to outdo one another on the bad Irish accent front.

It's a kind of bizarre concoction of various Irish regional accents - a little bit of Dublin, a touch of Northern Ireland - that slips into American every fifth sentence or so.

It's astonishing that Colin Farrell, a native Dubliner, didn't think of saying to Spacey, "What the f**k, Kevin?! No one in Ireland, and I mean no one, talks like that! Now go get a voice coach and give the Oirish accent a rest!"

This mustn't have happened - and indeed, the director, Thaddeus O'Sullivan, himself an Irishman, somehow failed to spot that Spacey's co-star, Linda Fiorentino, had an equally ridiculous accent. Shame on both O'Sullivan and Farrell for not spotting these...

It remains a mystery why this film actually got made, when John Boorman's "The General" - a movie about the same thing - came out before it, and is vastly superior.

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cuchulain9 | Jul 31, 2011, 08:57 PM EDT

In the Untouchables, Connery appeared to make no effort to speak with anything other than his own Scottish accent. When I remarked about this to some very American friends, they didn't realize his accent was Scottish and not Irish! I guess the director assumed most Americans wouldn't notice either.

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OldMariner | Jul 11, 2011, 04:00 PM EDT

I have wondered why Brit, Irish and Aussie actors can master American accents (e.g. the guy that plays "House") and yet we native born Americans do poorly trying their accents regardless of our environment growing up. I do give some credit to Brad Pitt's Ulster accent.

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johnymac60 | Jul 11, 2011, 02:28 PM EDT

Hey, youse. "You're forgetting about the thousand men standing behind me. That's a mistake." Nay more o' these negative comments, or I'll start shootin' - me mouth off. Begorragh. Boyos.

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TriciaG28 | Jul 11, 2011, 11:55 AM EDT

And can someone explain to me why Leo DiCaprio is supposed to have an Irish accent in Gangs of New York when he was a very young child when his father is killed and he's raised in a workhouse in America!

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TriciaG28 | Jul 11, 2011, 11:53 AM EDT

John Wayne in The Quiet Man wasn't supposed to have an Irish accent. It's made quite clear that he was a young child when he travelled to America (he says about his mother "Dead, America, when I was 12".) But yeah, Gerard Butler, quite simply appalling!

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rachheals | Jul 11, 2011, 12:59 AM EDT

No, as a true Irishwoman I have to say the ENTIRE cast of PS I Love You should be shot, as well as BOTH Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Far & Away...extremely bad. And yes, I always wonder why other Irish actors on-set or behind the camera don't seem to have the heart to tell these "superstars" no person with any sort of Irish connection will ever fall for that accent...which is 3/4 of the world's population!!!!!

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JerryLynch | Jul 10, 2011, 06:29 PM EDT

Where's Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Gangs of New York?"

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oaklongan | Jul 10, 2011, 05:11 PM EDT

sorry, didn't get to the second page of the article and saw that you DID have Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away included as one of the worst Irish accents in a film... THERE ARE SO MANY INTERESTING ARTICLES A DAY ON IRISHCENTRAL.COM, TODAY JUST RACED THROUGH...

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oaklongan | Jul 10, 2011, 05:06 PM EDT

You forgot to include Tommy Lee Jones in the 1990's in "Blown Away" about an Irish 'terrorist' Ryan Gaerity who gets sprung from prison in Northern Ireland and heads to Boston... Ireland.

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carrickcourt | Jul 10, 2011, 10:47 AM EDT

Your search of "archives" for worst Irish accents in film appears to be of only films from the late 1950's and on. Suggest expanding your historical "archive" search to include films since the 1930's. To me the worst Irish "accent" in a film is John Wayne in "The Quiet Man". The Duke does not even try to do an Irish "accent" in this film, though he is supposed to be an Irish man returning to his home place from a America.

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Youthguy | Jul 10, 2011, 09:40 AM EDT

you are missing the abysmal accent by Richard Gere of all people pretending to be an Irish terrorist in The Jackal. Awful movie, awful accent. Must be on a par with Brad Pitt!

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