What's the story with Saoirse Ronan's accent?

AlanG wrote: »

It worked for Colin Farrell the private school kid from Castleknock with the inner city accent so I guess the raw Dublin accent is a plus in Hollywood.

Huh? Farrell doesn't have close to an "inner city" Dublin accent. I'm wondering how many here have much on the ground knowledge of Dublin accents. I have noticed that those from beyond the Pale tend to assume the Dublin accent is the "ahhh stoooory buud" accent, but it's not, it's one of them and quite localised and has become more exaggerated down the years. QV my previous reference to Luke Kelly. He was born and bred on Sheriff street and a "howya bud" type accent he had not.

I know the D4 with added Valley Girl "MOM" accent is seen as the "middle class" accent in Dublin(and elsewhere) these days, but it's quite the recent phenomenon. It's on its second generation these days, but the first iteration of it was more often than not to be found in second generation Dubliners trying to take the "country" out of their parent's who did well accents and origins. At one point Ireland and Dublin had one of the highest numbers of elocution teachers and classes in the English speaking world, including private schools as a subject(mostly for girls). You can even see the echo of some of that where people can be so consciously(or subconsciously) afraid of dropping aitches that they add them where not required. EG Heighth

Brian? wrote: »

I don't find it particularly working class Dublin at all. I grew up is West Tallaght, she sounds quite posh by that standard. She has a soft Dublin accent, not very far from my own to be honest.

Exactly. She'd be stick out like a sore thumb among many modern "working class" Dubliners. Pre the widespread Dort accent that sprung up and grew from the 80's onwards, hers would be pretty close to the South Dublin "middle class" accent of the past.

For such a small town, Dublin had/has quite the range of accents. Some of which have all but vanished. The more upper class "Anglo" one is pretty much gone. Senator David Norris would be the only current one I can think of off hand. It's quite a lilting one, not nearly as "West Brit" as might be imagined and would almost be seen as "stage Irish" these days(another example, though from a Corkonian might be Graham Norton). Here's Sam Beckett a Foxrock lad with an example of it(even after years of living away from the place).


James Joyce another, this time from Rathgar(and again a long time away).


George Bernard Shaw, from Synge Street in the heart of Dublin.


Speaking recieved English of the BBC they are not(even moreso back then, as the BBC accent has softened a lot in the interim).

Blaire Teeny Photocopier wrote: »

Honestly, I think the Howaya accent and the D4 accent have been so exaggerated and overplayed that at this stage it seems like lots of people feckin Culshies don't have a clue what normal Dublin people sound like.

All my previous waffle explained in one sentence(though I made a slight changette… :pac:)

That Mid Atlantic D4 accent is sadly not contained in Dublin. I've heard it a fair bit throughout Ireland. A Kerry woman I know has it even though her parents have fantastic Kerry accents. I dunno what the hell she's up to.