The craic of the Irish

NEXT month the Hiberno-Prince of radio, Ryan Tubridy, will travel east to take to the airwaves of England.

The radio and television host confirmed last April that he would be taking over from compatriot Graham Norton who presents an eponymous light hearted show every Saturday from 10am to 1pm on BBC 2. Although he is set to stay for only eight weeks, when the announcement was made newspapers here were awash with speculation that Tubridy would leave RTÉ for good — something which was discounted straight away.

Unsurprisingly, the move has caused some controversy. Critics of the 37-year-old were indignant at the idea of him double-jobbing and think he should stay put, even though his main show The Late Late, is off air.

The idea that Tubridy might go over to the BBC, gain valuable experience and make contacts which he may be able to use to enhance his Irish shows, has apparently yet to dawn on his critics. Even if he does end up staying, he would not be the first.

The English seem to have something of a fetish for Irish broadcasters and presenters. No other ‘minority’ comes close to us in terms of numbers presenting and broadcasting there and on July 23 Tubridy will join Norton, Terry Wogan, Eamon Andrews, Gay Byrne, Dara Ó Briain and many other Irish who have made their names across the water.

It is hardly surprising though when you bear in mind that, as recently as 2008, the male Irish accent was voted the sexiest male accent in a survey of 5,000 women from around the world, beating the Scottish and the French accents into second and third respectively. In surveys Irish accents are repeatedly chosen as being among the most trusted.

According to Daily Telegraph radio critic, Gillian Reynolds, it is not just our beautiful voices that do it for the English.

“I know nothing of Mr Tubridy,” she says. “But I think Irish voices are generally popular because they are classless. But voice alone won’t do it.

“What distinguishes Irish broadcasters like Graham Norton and Terry Wogan is their command of words and their assured, fluent delivery. Patrick Kielty is not so popular because he seems a bit deficient in the vocabulary and charm departments, although Radio 2 seems to be thrusting him at us quite a lot lately. I am prejudiced, though, because I am from Liverpool and, like most people from there, I have a lot of Irish in my genetic and cultural inheritance.”

Reynold’s point about classlessness is interesting because, of course, the voices of Tubridy, Norton or Wogan are far from classless over here, and all are cut from the same private schoolboy cloth.

“It is an interesting issue about Irish accents, isn’t it?” says an eminent academic of linguistics in Ireland who asked not to be named.

“My own view is that there is nothing exactly linguistic about it. I don’t think it’s anything to do with pronunciation per se, but the explanation is cultural. I think that the BBC, presumably with reference to the opinions of a certain section of English society, quite favours mild ‘regional’ accents.

“Mildly different pronunciations are enjoyed but different syntax would not be.”

While mild Irish, Scottish and, to a lesser extent, Welsh accents seem acceptable, other accents from within England seem far from acceptable with the Scouse and Birmingham accents repeatedly coming off worst in surveys. This might reflect some sort of cultural prejudice within English society, and in light of the recent arguments over Cheryl Cole’s Geordie accent it may come as a surprise to find out that in England the Newcastle twang is much loved. But perhaps the reason for the success of Irish broadcasters in Britain is connected to Received Pronunciation (RP), the accent of black and white television and Pathé News.

RP is still considered the most desirable accent for broadcasting and the (mild) Irish accent, although not exactly RP, is very close, while at the same time not loaded with the same class distinctions for the English.

For them it is just an Irish accent.