>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)

Terry;

I have relatives from Galway, Cork and friends from Dublin. Naas, Belfast and other areas of Ireland. The Belfast accent is easily recognizable, and the others are no problem for me.

English accents tend to type cast a person perhaps unfairly. It seems to be a class distinction to some degree.

I wish I could spell this so it would sound like a Bostonian said it. They like to drop r’s and double t’s are butchered.

I am going to park my car and get a bottle of beer becomes - I am going to pak my ca and get a ba-el of bee-a.

Shades of” My Fair Lady”, “Why can’t the English learn to speak”? sung by Rex Harrison. My favorite parts are in bold!

“An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,
The moment he talks he makes some other
Englishman despise him.
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get.
Oh, why can't the English learn to set
A good example to people whose
English is painful to your ears?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely
disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks have taught their
Greek. In France every Frenchman knows
his language from "A" to "Zed"
The French never care what they do, actually,
as long as they pronounce in properly”.

Tom