How to Act with an Irish Accent

Welcome, fellow actors!

This is a guide to help you learn how to speak with an Irish accent so that you can expand your resume and find roles that would be impossible to land without this ability. With our help, you'll be able to act opposite
Colin Farrell and not end up sounding like Sean Connery in
The Untouchables.

We'll start off by listening to the accent of a sixty-year-old man from County Clare, Ireland. Just click here to begin.

Now that you have heard an authentic Irish accent, we'll look at the pronunciation.

Irish dialect has a shorter alphabet than English. Their alphabet consist of: ABCDEFGHILMNOPRSTU. The long vowels are
pronounced: i=she, e=me, a=day, o=cow, u=too.
Short vowels are pronounced: i=pit, e=get, a=tap or top, o=book, u=look.

Consonant + h
bh =v
Sean Bhan Bhocht = Shan Van Vocht
ch =gutteral ch or k/q
Taoiseach = Teeshock
dh =silent or g
ceilidh = kayli
fh =silent
Fhear Muí = Are Mwee
gh =g or y or silent
Bean an Tigh = Ban a' Tee
mh =v, w or silent
Niamh = Neev
ph =f
Stíophán = Stefawn
sh =silent or h
Ní Shé = Nee Hay
th =h
thug (gave) = hoog - pron. as in hook

If you need further help, an in-depth pronunciation guide can be found here, or the following video may be of assistance.





















So, for your exercise, you are going to visit this site.

There, you will find all the information you will need to speak with an Irish accent. Read over each of the three sections, and then practice a bit.

To get a better hold on what an Irish accent sounds like, check out this link from YouTube. The guy is a little bit of a dork, but he gives some good information.

Once you have a good grasp on the accent, try reading a paragraph out of a book aloud or singing your favorite song with an Irish accent.

Good Luck!!!!

Ken Stoner
Maddison Green
Sharon Espina
Sarah Klingler