Going Posh 🔍🔎 RTE, Dublin’s Chattering Classes And The Dublin Accent

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ When you spend a long time outside of a country, you tend to notice changes when you finally come back to live there.

I spent 17 years in Colombia and upon my return to Ireland, there were a number of things that stood out, some of which were interesting and positive, others not so much.

Ireland is more diverse, that can be appreciated at a glance. It is plain to be seen and makes the place that bit more interesting. But there are other changes, I do not like. Growing up in a working class area of Dublin, I was always conscious of how the working class Dublin accent was frowned upon. We were told we should learn to speak proper. I would now know to correct that, by sticking my size nine up their arse whilst I whispered, proper is informal and you should really say properly which is the correct form of the adverb that modifies the verb to speak. But I digress. Now that I have come back, I see the Dublin accent in retreat and also forms and words creeping into everyday language through the chattering classes that are the staple presenters on RTE. Their horrible twangs have crept into everyday speech and ruined the melodious sound of Irish accents.

The first thing to notice is that everyone wants to sound like a Yank, which I suppose makes a change from the standard imitation of British forms of speech, which has not gone away. You can hear how they lift the sound of words towards the end, imitating the annoying Yankee speech pattern we hear on TV. Not sure how common it is in the US, its presence there might be due to their own chattering classes. So, raise the tone towards the end, placing a certain emphasis on the last syllable and you have it. I am go iiingggg. It is the sort of accent US comedians use when the butt of their jokes is stupid, and that is how it sounds to me.

The other thing of course is the TH. Posh people used to always try and pronounce it, because that is how the Brits spoke, though when they conquered Ireland, they didn’t pronounce their THs either, but the BBC do, so it is must be good. It is not that there has been some linguistic shift whilst I was away. It is just for show. I recently heard a PbP politician on the radio going to great lengths to try and pronounce it when asked their opinion. I THink.. and then forgetting to do it, or overdoing it on other words. There are apparently two TH sounds in English, soft and hard, who knew? Well, those of you from the North did as you pronounce them anyway. I heard the same politician on the radio today, forgetting to pronounce TH, we were back to my beloved I tink. It does make a change from the equally ridiculous habit of yore, when trade union bureaucrats would fake a working-class Dublin accent you could cut diamonds with, one they didn’t normally speak with. This accent was reserved for media interviews and May Day rallies. Sometimes they even remembered to take off their fine suits for the occasion, so the accent blended in with the cloth. But back to our politicians Me thinks if they are going to do this, well pay for some elocution lessons and go the whole hog and remember to do it consistently and properly, you can’t fake it just some of the time. Dublin’s chattering classes won’t respect you otherwise and you can drop it when canvassing round Tallaght, Ballymun or Crumlin. You can keep it up in Dún Laoghaire though, depending on the street you are in.

The other thing that has changed are words. The lexicon has undergone some changes. This is quite natural and happens even in the most isolated societies. Words come and go, sometimes their meaning changes. Chap was once not only synonymous with fella, but also meant the handsome lead role in a film. That meaning died out slowly, naturally. Other words became offensive, spastic was once a medical term related to cerebral palsy in use for over 200 years and was derived from the word spasm. It was given offensive connotations in the 1970s and then fell into disuse completely, outside of medical settings and even within them to some degree. I am not talking about chap or insults, but other more common words.

In those 17 years, the word film which was beginning to be replaced by movie, has now died a death. It has been completely replaced by Movie which journalists on RTE and lots of people pronounce exactly the way the Yanks do. Of course, saying pictures went out with the Indians. The last time anyone said to me they were going to the pictures was quite some time ago, before I left Ireland. I asked for a serviette in a café one day and yes, I know it comes from French. The waitress hadn’t a clue what it was (no clue as our Yankee emulators might say). Eventually, she figured out I wanted a napkin. It took me a moment to realise that wasn’t a small nappy.

The other Yankeeism is Good. How are you? I am apparently good, good at what no one is able to say, but they are good. No one is well, fine or that very Irish expression, grand. At least not on the radio and amongst younger people eager to emulate whatever banal rubbish is being pushed as entertainment.

Though it is not all Yankeeisms, RTE still do their bit to emulate the Brits from time to time. Apparently, it is not Bewleys Café anymore but rather Bew Lays. Who is this Mr Bew and what does he lay and where has not been explained. But this is how RTE thinks our betters speak and so emulates them. It is not just restricted to broadcasts. The next time you are on a bus or train that announces the names of stops, listen carefully. I no longer recognise the names of the streets of the neighbourhood I grew up in. And don’t get me started on Drogheda. When I was young, we used to laugh at how in the Thorn Birds TV series produced in Australia the name of the estate was Drogheda and apparently it was pronounced Draw Gee Da. Not as many laughing anymore, the trains do their own take on it and the G is pronounced. It is only a matter of time before our jokes about Yanks looking for directions to Conny Marey, Mullin Jar or At Ten Ree are no longer jokes but our own way of speaking.

So, what is my point? Is this a mere rant against changes. Partly. But more against the nature of the changes, that start amongst Dublin’s chattering classes who have unparalleled access to the airwaves as presenters and guests and so set trends. These trends always used to slavishly copy the Brits, now the Brits vie with the Yanks in the coolness stakes for our lexicon, that annoying Yankee twang that everyone seems to put at the end of their words and then just the plain butchering of the pronunciation of place names, all because those who influence these patterns are intellectually lazy and have no dignity. This happens in other parts of the world and in other languages where English words that have local equivalents are imported, sometimes very badly, like Hair Shop for barbers, or Please as if no one knew how to say it in the local language. In Colombia, the middle class never have un descanso, but rather a Break and the boss is the Manager, never anything else. And Le Weekend is more French than Fin de Semaine.

Despite Bew Lays, I am still waiting for someone to emulate how they think the Brits speak and out do the RTE presenter who in the 1980s, pronounced Posthumously as Post Who Moss Lee (I kid you not). I will leave RTE to their ways and whoever wants to copy them, just don’t correct me with this rubbish, I can still laugh at the Thorn Birds, Yanks going to Mullingar and I feel grand when I do.

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.