What's wrong with an Irish accent

Anyone got any idea why an American accent is often used on TV and Radio advertising in this country. The latest one is an American woman advertising a "Rod Stuart (sic)" concert in Ireland. Rod is not American and the concert is in Ireland so why do we need someone with an American accent? Or an Aussie one for the Harvey whatnot store.

Are we ashamed of our own accent ? Is it not as cool as a foreign accent ? We have some of the leading pop groups in the world yet we need foreigners to tell us about pop concerts. I wouldn't expect to be driving in Dallas and to hear an Irish accent telling me about a Cindy Lauper concert in Forth Worth.

Tony Fenton and his affected American accent really pis*es me off at well.

Nothing. They do the same thing in the US, apparently. In the Deep South they have people from northern states on the radio and TV so when people go there they don't think the South is full of rednecks.

There's an American DJ on spin103.8. He's actually really funny. And isn't Tony D on FM104 English?

Anyway, would you really rather that gobsh!te Jeremy Dixon from FM104 instead........? :D

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Anyone got any idea why an American accent is often used on TV and Radio advertising in this country. The latest one is an American woman advertising a "Rod Stuart (sic)" concert in Ireland. Rod is not American and the concert is in Ireland so why do we need someone with an American accent? Or an Aussie one for the Harvey whatnot store.

Are we ashamed of our own accent ? Is it not as cool as a foreign accent ? We have some of the leading pop groups in the world yet we need foreigners to tell us about pop concerts. I wouldn't expect to be driving in Dallas and to hear an Irish accent telling me about a Cindy Lauper concert in Forth Worth.

Tony Fenton and his affected American accent really pis*es me off at well.

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Jesus, I was only thinking about that yesterday.

We had a lecturer in UCG you'd swear was born and reared in the US.

The joke was he left "Tuam" and came back to "Toom".

I can't understand, either, why Irish people, when arranging a meeting, use the term "we'll touch base". YUK.

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Originally Posted by sirhamish

I can't understand, either, why Irish people, when arranging a meeting, use the term "we'll touch base". YUK.

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Never heard anyone say that? :confused: Must be an Athlone thing?

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Originally Posted by superfrank

Never heard anyone say that? :confused: Must be an Athlone thing?

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Heard it alot in Dublin when I worked there between 97 and 2000. Usually came from some young wan in PR. Are they trained to talk like that???
Athlone? "Touch base"? More like "which pub". :D

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Anyone got any idea why an American accent is often used on TV and Radio advertising in this country. The latest one is an American woman advertising a "Rod Stuart (sic)" concert in Ireland. Rod is not American and the concert is in Ireland so why do we need someone with an American accent? Or an Aussie one for the Harvey whatnot store.

Are we ashamed of our own accent ? Is it not as cool as a foreign accent ? We have some of the leading pop groups in the world yet we need foreigners to tell us about pop concerts. I wouldn't expect to be driving in Dallas and to hear an Irish accent telling me about a Cindy Lauper concert in Forth Worth.

Tony Fenton and his affected American accent really pis*es me off at well.

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here in the U.S., there has been a trend over the years for commercials to use English/British voices in commercials, in particular, for high-end products and services, comes down to marketing basically, ad firms have polled people about various accents and the British/English accent has come out on top as one that people "trust"....it does, in a way, bother me.

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Originally Posted by SaucyJack

here in the U.S., there has been a trend over the years for commercials to use English/British voices in commercials, in particular, for high-end products and services, comes down to marketing basically, ad firms have polled people about various accents and the British/English accent has come out on top as one that people "trust"....it does, in a way, bother me.

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Yeah, some Uk poll recently found that people had more trust in the Scottish accent in adverts, newsreading etc. Then again polls???

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Originally Posted by Conor74

I can't understand why Irish people have taken to ending sentences with the word 'mate', and calling people 'plonker', 'pillock', 't*at', 'git' and other terms of abuse from the east end of London.

If Podge and Rodge showed us anything, it's that we can come up with perfectly good swearwords ourselves - 'S**tehawk' being one that springs to mind..

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I'm :o to admit Conor74 that I use "git", "pillock" and "man" sometimes.

Regarding the word "git". I used to hear, in Meath, the term "get" as in "Hamish, you're a right get". :D Would that be a version of "git" and are not some East End terms taken from Irish? I noticed in a magazine in The Guardian (last weekend) that "craic" is used again and again in adverts for folks concerts in the UK, even when there are no Irish bands playing. Maybe terms travel back and forth with transient workers for example.
Conor, I though $h!tehawk was from the US or Canada???? :confused:

Just wondering??

Please and love, man!!! :D

Irish accent here in the deep south of the U.S. is top dog with the totty. I practice mine every day! :D

On a more serious note, my Irish accent is a great ice breaker when it comes to doing business over here. It gives you a great opportunity to build repore with clients.

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Originally Posted by strangeirish

Irish accent here in the deep south of the U.S. is top dog with the totty. I practice mine every day! :D

On a more serious note, my Irish accent is a great ice breaker when it comes to doing business over here. It gives you a great opportunity to build repore with clients.

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My only visit to the US, strangeirish, was in 1981 and when introduced to the yanks, inevitably the term "sure and begorrah" came out. My reply was, "Ah, another Bing Crosby fan" :D

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Originally Posted by Conor74

Ya gobsheen ya, ya donkey's testicles!! :D ;)

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LOL :D :D

Well. y'know donkey's are well hung!!! :D

i found that big time in america strangeirish, i remember one case i was working on and the client was real thick and thick with me as he thought i was giving him the shove off, i wasnt, but anyhow once i rang him up to explain he realised i was irish and we had a great aul chat, he was all apologetic and started praising me!hehe

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

i found that big time in america strangeirish, i remember one case i was working on and the client was real thick and thick with me as he thought i was giving him the shove off, i wasnt, but anyhow once i rang him up to explain he realised i was irish and we had a great aul chat, he was all apologetic and started praising me!hehe

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Sure, wouldn't anyone like you POS. The Smiths wrote a song about you, y'know - "This Charming Man". :D

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Originally Posted by Conor74

I didn't, but then again us Kerrymen are only familiar with the anatomy of sheep...

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Ah Jesus Conor don't mention sheep or Kerrs Tribe will start slagging me again. :eek:

Back to accents, we use the term "sham" here. "Howya, sham" . I think sham means fellow/man/something like that. Kinda same as in "Howya head".

They use it in Tuam too but prounce it differently - havem't the Saw Doctors some song with "sham" in the lyrics/name????

My Dad, GRH, was a Kildare man but he used to religiously buy The Kerryman paper - don't remember why?? You could get it up here every week no problem, back in the 60s.

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Originally Posted by sirhamish

My only visit to the US, strangeirish, was in 1981 and when introduced to the yanks, inevitably the term "sure and begorrah" came out. My reply was, "Ah, another Bing Crosby fan" :D

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Yea, I still get that from some of the older yanks. Good to play with it though and have a laugh with them. Of course, I do like to tell them that I'm related to Maureen O'Hara and that I have a signed copy of the original 'Quite Man' in the boot of the car :D and that I would sell it to them rale chape like!

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Originally Posted by strangeirish

Yea, I still get that from some of the older yanks. Good to play with it though and have a laugh with them. Of course, I do like to tell them that I'm related to Maureen O'Hara and that I have a signed copy of the original 'Quite Man' in the boot of the car :D

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Way to go Strangeirish. From your posts, I've no doubt you're well able for them :D

It's hilarious when ever I am ordering something by phone from England or talking to a Sky Tv representative - the way they try to pronounce Ballinasloe has to be heard to be believed.

I remember a Radio Luxembourg DJ, back in the 60s, prouncing Portlaoise as Port Louise. :D

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Originally Posted by sirhamish

Way to go Strangeirish. From your posts, I've no doubt you're well able for them :D

It's hilarious when ever I am ordering something by phone from England or talking to a Sky Tv representative - the way they try to pronounce Ballinasloe has to be heard to be believed.

I remember a Radio Luxembourg DJ, back in the 60s, prouncing Portlaoise as Port Louise. :D

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I remeber a girl in work last summer, scottish girl, she had to phone up Coleraine to speak to a customer, she said to me" Oh i 'm going to phone a Paddy in Collar-rain" :rolleyes: Nearly crying laughing, I thought, no way I'm correcting her, let her make an eejit of herself (hated the bitch anyway) So she called up on speakerphone so we could all hear (she always made her calls on speakerphone, wanted to let everyone hear her all the time, show-off :rolleyes: , was class because she said " Hello, is that (e.g )Magee's of Collar-rain?" All the guys on the other end of the phone were roaring laughing at her...she was raging....i was quietly smirking my arse off :D

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Originally Posted by sirhamish

I noticed in a magazine in The Guardian (last weekend) that "craic" is used again and again in adverts for folks concerts in the UK

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"craic" comes from "crack" which is a Scots word, which originally came from Dutch as far as I know. The word is basically British, it's just the spelling c-r-a-i-c which is ours.

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Anyway there's nothing wrong with the Irish accent, nothing wrong with our 'Hiberno-English'.

Thank you for your order Mr Gannon. Your street is Mackney, thank you and town is.....er...Bawl...er Ball...er Bawlslog....er....Balinslough....er...Ballyslow... er (usually let them go on a bit)...er....that'll be county Galway then. :D

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Originally Posted by MacAonghusa

"craic" comes from "crack" which is a Scots word, which originally came from Dutch as far as I know. The word is basically British, it's just the spelling c-r-a-i-c which is ours.

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Anyway there's nothing wrong with the Irish accent, nothing wrong with our 'Hiberno-English'.

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What about "creac" - where does that fit in??????