The ten worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies

During the 2 years I spent at Camp Lejune in the early 60s, Northern marines sometimes belittled and rediculed their fellow countrymen of the South because of their accents. One day a Staff Sgt. from the Mid-West greatly embarrassed a Southern PFC by taking the accent thing too far. Then a 1st Lt. came to the rescue of the aboused PFC and let the SSgt. know who was boss. I often wondred what happened to the PFC and now I know. In Aug of 66 he was K.I.A. as a Sgt.in Vietnam - and his accent no longer mattered.

You guys only found TEN???!!!!!!! Slackers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who can forget Tom Cruise's terrible Oirish accent in Ron Howard's Far and Away? I wish most of us native Irish could. The roars of laughter in cinemas across Ireland had to be heard to be believed. Remember his "You're a carker Shannon you're a carker" I think he meant "you're a corker". My godmother was one of the voice coaches on the film and tried to teach him a West of Ireland accent - all in vain. The hammy script did't help. It was voted the worst attempt at an Irish accent ever. His then wife Nicole Kidman did a slightly better job.

Have to give props to Johnny Depp for his Dublin accent in "Chocolate" - I hadn't seen him before and wondered who the new actor from Dublin was. The rest of them are dire indeed!

Oh dear Lord.

Although this is about Irish accents in Hollywood Movies, we should remember that all accents in movies are a compromise to facilitate world-wide understanding. Just take 'Westerns' for example: The white characters always speak in a modern mid-western American accent, with few exceptions. To portray the historical speech accurately, you would have to incorporate every version of broken, tortured English as must have been spoken by the European-wide influx of early settlers. Only 'Indians' and 'Mexicans' seemed to be marked out for separate accents. The great skill of American screen actors has now begun to break down these walls and we are usually treated to location-specific accents nowadays - especially in TV productions. >>> But the actors who deliver every role in their own voice and accent, as John Wayne did and Liam Neeson tends to,should they wish to improve,the astonishingly accomplished and vocally versatile Meryl Streep shows them what a high mountain that is, should they ever care to climb it!

re no. 9 Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You - what accent? Except for a few words (and 'bloody' is more of an English thing) he didn't even sound Irish. The other guy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, did a much better job.

My vote for the most evil Irish accent goes to Bertie Ahern when he tries to convience the Irish public he had nothing to do with the bankers and developers raping the Irish economy.

One wonders why movie people have not discovered that you really should use an Irish actor to play an Irish part. I would just as soon enjoy the sound of fingernails being raked across a blackboard than listening to Sean Connery's Irish accent.

You really think as a youngster just starting out in film, Colin Farrell would tell the man who picked him for the part [after seeing him in the stage play A Little World of Our Own] his accent wasn't believable?

It seems to me Connery's accent is ALWAYS the same...Scots!

Funny and true.

I thought that Meryl Streep's attempt at a Donegal accent in Dancing at Lughnasa was bloody awful. Her character was a teacher; did she not study some Gaeilge before attempting this role?

Donald Sutherland in "The Eagle Has Landed". Not the film's only problem...

This was an interesting article the first five or six times it appeared in Irish Central. Can we move on now with a different filler article?