Mark;

I have relatives from Cork and Galway, and those from Galway are by far easier to understand. I must say that I truly enjoy hearing the Irish speak English, as it adds color and beauty to an otherwise dull language!

Then there are the “blessings” such as, “May God bless you and the devil take your soul”! It would be improper to just call someone an SOB as we would in “proper English” (American version or otherwise). Tell someone where to go, how to get there, express you feelings, and not swear. Beautiful!

The range of accents within Ireland is truly amazing. People from Cork can be difficult to understand. A priest at my local parish is from Dublin. He and his family moved from Dublin to Cork, for about one year.

During that time Father Prendergast, then a young boy, picked up the Corkonian accent. When he returned to Dublin with his family, all his friends called him “Corky”! Father Prendergast is now in his 70’s and still suffers from that Corkonian accent.

Another priest from Belfast cannot be understood by anyone I have met. That is the norm for those poor souls from Belfast, and from the north of Ireland. Now if they were a part of the Irish Republic instead a part of the UK, then they might learn how to speak and be understood! :)

Don’t get me wrong about Dubliners. They too have a distinguishable accent, although I have no problem understanding them. I have a friend named Ronnie Drew, who started a well known music group called “The Dubliners”.

When Ronnie finished school he went to Spain to study flamenco guitar and teach English. I have been playing flamenco guitar for about 50 years by the way.

I tell people that visit Spain that if they are in a café and they see a Spaniard having a pint of Guinness who speaks English with a Dublin accent, then you know he was one of Ronnie’s students! :)

Tom


>if the person was Irish it may be that you got someone from the west or Cork, both have very heavy accents and i have trouble understanding them sometimes, especially Leesiders (people from Cork). i am amazed sometimes at the range of accents for such a small country. we actually speak excellent english in dublin and every year have tens of thousands of franch, spanish and italian students coming here ot learn english. the way we speak is influenced by the irish language so to some, even in England, phrases we use may no sence.
>~M
>
>>Our firm become a Microsoft partner. Today I needed to talk with a Microsoft worker from Ireland.
>>
>>He only asked me an ID number and a phone number and I difficulty understood him. He wasn't talking like in the films or non-english speakers. I went to Taiwan and I can talk with chinese people in english but I couldn't talk with him (Microsoft's worker) even only two words. :((