Editorial: Save the Cork accent!
A Cork TD attracted international attention this week for a really surprising reason.
A fiery and passionate Dáil speech on the housing crisis in Ireland by Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould on 28 January has gone viral on social media for the similarities between his northside accent and that of Jamaicans.
A popular Jamaican account @colomboclaat976 on X shared a video of the TD speaking in the Dáil, commenting on how similar his accent is to a Jamaican one.
“If you nuh careful u think a Anju him a cuss. This is an Irish Politician Thomas Gould. The influence the Irish has on the Jamaican accent is uncanny lol.”
The post has countless replies asking if it's real as they also think it’s a Jamaican accent! Some even thought it was AI!
One commenter wrote: “My granddad told me when he first came to England from Jamaica in the ‘60s, for the first few years some of the only people that had no issues understanding or conversing with him were Irish people!”
Ireland has had a strong influence on Jamaica. The Irish have been in Jamaica for hundreds of years. Oliver Cromwell forcibly deported many Irish to Jamaica in the 1600s and emigration continued for more than 200 years.
Thomas Gould told broadcaster Paul Byrne yesterday that he’s been contacted by people from all over the world: “I never actually thought of this until I started getting contacted. Listen, I think it’s nice, it’s amusing but it’s also a positive story because I’m getting people contacting me it’s great to hear a Cork voice. I’d a lady who works and lives in Jamaica who contacted me yesterday to say how proud she was when everyone in Cork was talking about it.
“It’s fun and a quirky story but I’m really proud of where I’m from, I’m really proud of my Cork accent and people now living around the world hear it and it probably brings a smile to their face, so that’s a good thing I think.”
The Boston Globe had a video two weeks ago called ‘Is the Boston accent disappearing?’ And the Boston accent is one of the most distinctive in the world. Technology has lead to a flattening and rounding off of accents with younger English speakers tending to have more neutral accents that their parents or grandparents.
It’s sad to see the loss of accents which bring a point of difference for regions and areas.
Accents bring colour, richness and uniqueness to our language and highlight different cultures so the loss of accents is a sad thing indeed. Well done to Thomas for being proud of his Cork accent!