Search icon

Movies & TV

13th Jan 2016

VIDEO: Saoirse Ronan teaches Stephen Colbert how to pronounce uniquely Irish names

Conor Heneghan

You tell ’em Saoirse.

Saoirse Ronan, with the help of Ryan Gosling amongst others, has done a pretty good job of getting Hollywood to pronounce her name correctly of late.

And now that she’s got her own name sorted, she’s on a crusade to make sure that Americans will never pronounce names like Niamh, Siobhán and Oisín in the wrong again, starting with her appearance on the Stephen Colbert show last night.

maraid

Colbert asked Saoirse to give him a lesson in speaking in an Irish accent and Saoirse obliged, warning him against the high-pitched tone that foreigners instantly adopt for some reason and urging him to sound “melodic and sing-songy”.

She also gave him a lesson in how to pronounce some of the aforementioned names unique to these shores and hopefully now, no phonetic instructions will be needed by Caoimhes, Mairéads and Tadghs when travelling to the States in future.

Clip via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Keep up the good work Saoirse.

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge

Topics:

Saoirse Ronan,TV