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>We recently had a family reunion on the Irish side of the family. My wife Katy (Enriqueta) is from Peru and speaks Castilian and the American form of English. Katy had no problem understanding the cousins from Canada as they spoke. However, the cousins from New Zealand, England and Ireland gave here a challenge, with New Zealand being the most difficult for her! For some reason I had no problem understand anyone and we had a great time.
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>I have met some people from areas of the United States whom I was not able to understand. With great accuracy I can tell you where a person from Ireland is from by his/her accent. Some English accents can indicate where a person is from.

The problem with the NZers is that they appear use only one vowel, 90% of the time, "i". You say "Some English accents can indicate where a person is from" - that's almost like English understatement. Regional accents in UK can vary county by county, part of the city even, and have degrees of dilution with distance from accent epi-centre, to where they meet those from another. I used to live literally on a dividing line between the Scouse accent (curiously similar to a "Newfie" accent!) and Lancashire accent (like on Coronation Street if you've ever seen that).

There's definitely a distinct difference between a N. Irish an Eire accent, but I'd find it hard to hone in on parts of each country. What makes you so keen?.

The trouble discerning what a Brit is saying, I found in the US, is not so much the accent as what one says. e.g. in Boston bars I had great trouble ordering a beer, repeating "Could I have a beer please" over and over, to uncomprehending ears, till I tried "Can I get a beer?", which won immediately. :-)

Thereafter I learned to adopt the American way, and so begin to mimic the natives. If I were to live in the States or Canada for any length of time I'd end up adopting the local accent (all but the Canadian "owoo" for the "ou" dipthong! - I was in Toronto during the "powooer ouoodages" the other year)