Cork Celebrity Accent Watch - Part 2

28th May 2013

Being authentic and true to your Cork heritage is a serious requirement of our religion and to be worshiped on the Rebel altar with Cork’s real heroes and stars you must be considered worthy by the congregation – us. 

On your behalf we keep a close eye on this issue by monitoring the accents of Cork’s well known sons and daughters who regularly appear in the media. Here’s the second half of our report:


Creedon
With no visual distraction the medium of radio is perfect to access someone’s accent. As the lone Rebel voice on Dublin’s RTE radio it is important that John Creedon executes the sultry swinging melodies, delightful tonal bends and mesmerising musical swagger of the Cork accent beautifully. Not only does he naturally nail all of this but he is also likely to drop in the occasional Cork slang or ballhop for bonus points.

It is rumoured that Creedon deliberately bought a gaf on Sydney Hill so that he could stick his head out of a window at any time to “tune up” – the sound of the city rising from below filling his ears before heading down to Fr. Mathew Street to broadcast his nightly music show.

Anna
She has been one of our favourite Cork beours since claiming her first All-Ireland medal in 2005 but Anna Geary has just captained the Rebels to a National League title as well as her own club Milford to All-Ireland glory and in all her interviews her Cork accent has been an example to all young Rebels not to mind fluttering the fluttery-bits of Cork’s men.

Cork's camogie captain Anna Geary: proving that you can be a flah and still play camogie

Young Cork girls who are considering adopting the infamous, and now global ‘Valley inflection’ in their droves (where they make the end of every sentence sounds like a question) need to tune into proper Corkonians like Geary for a dose of oral cop-on.

When Anna inevitably walks up the steps of Croke Park in September, we at the People’s Republic have no worries that she’ll sound pure Cork.


Cillian
His public appearances are few and far between so earlier this year we dispatched an undercover agent to the Jameson Dublin Film Festival to the premiere of ‘Broken’ where we knew Cillian Murphy would be speaking to the audience before the show. A microphone was attached to a secret device known as a Cop-on-ometer used to measure the Cork accent and placed near the stage. 

Unlike his fellow Corkonian and Hollywood star Keefa, Cillian never drifts into vowel rounding mid-Atlantic cringe and while the Ballintemple dialect doesn’t require a strong Cork accent, Murphy’s pitch is still true enough to his roots for him to receive a firm ‘pass’ on our machine.

Kat-ill-eeeeen 
De different ting about de North Central TD, Kathleen Lynch is dat she does do the dee’s very Cork. Dats wanna de best tings about her. No bo-dd-er dayure Kathleen girl. Dey’ll never tink you’re from de Dublin when you’re above in de Dawl. Dowtcha girl.

Michéal
As a potential future Taoiseach Michéal has to position himself as the voice of Ireland and this can be heard in his neutralised accent when Martin makes grand speeches – his Cork heritage is brushed under the carpet by his Dublin PR gurus so that he appeals to as many people as possible with that middle-Ireland politician accent also exhibited by his constituency running-mate Michael McGrath.

However, put Double-M in a high pressure situation like a politician cat-fight on TV and the fight in his voice quickly steers south from Harold’s Cross to Turner’s Cross. Even though his party bankrupted the state he cruises home in every election - Michéal would have to be photographed in a Dublin GAA jersey cutting up a body in a Cork jersey with a chainsaw to see any dip in his Cork vote.

Prendeville
His unmistakable vocal vibrations, unfortunately occasionally peppered with the sting of xenophobia, are beamed across the Rebel county every morning to tens of thousands of businesses and homes and thus are an important benchmark for the current status of the Cork accent. 

Why post a picture of Prendeville when you can have Cork's camogie captain instead?

While 96FM’s eighties-esque preference for i-wish-i-was-a-yank presenters has always been cringing Prendykins can’t be accused of falling into this category: Niall’s alleged Blackpool heritage (some believe it’s a double-bluff and he is actually a north-African actor/immigrant and medical card holder) and Northside accent is still audibly fighting with his defection to the leafier climes of the south side but, to his credit, nowhere are there non-Cork slants to be heard.

Added to this, his callers’ strong Cork accents often define his show – whether it’s the “i” in Niiiiall (preferred by callers over 60) or the ‘eee’ in Neeeil!– leave Prendeville’s listeners in no doubt where they are.