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Little IRISH Ruairi
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Message 1.Â
Posted by stirling (U14701384) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
I heard Ruairi speaking this week and he still has a broad Irish accent. How can this be? It's nearly 4 years since his mother died and he went to live with Jennifer and Brian. Children just don't maintain an accent unless it is regularly (i.e. daily) reinforced. Also children like to 'fit in' and sound like those around them.
My children needed to return to the UK from Gibraltar for one school term when they were 8 and 5. They stayed with granddad in Newcastle starting the local school on the Monday as 'Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú' as you can get and by Wednesday both were speaking with a broad Geordie accent.
I know we may need to be reminded from time to time how Ruairi joined the Aldridge family but a false accent is just naff. -
Message 2
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
Hi stirling,
The actor who plays Ruairi (Ciaran Coyle) is Irish, so the accent isn't "fake".
There was a lot of discussion in the team about whether Ruairi would have entirely lost his accent or not. He has kept in touch with his Irish grandmother so the production team felt that he wouldn't necessarily have entirely lost his accent.
Hope that clarifies things
Tayler -
Message 3
Posted by stirling (U14701384) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
No this doesn't clarify things - the premise remains - a very young child surrounded by English Midland speakers with an occasion visit to granny in Ireland would not account for the very clear Irish accent now. Yes he may revert back when he visits Granny but the accent which does and will dominate will be the English he hears at home and at school.
Do you intend that Ruairi will retain his Irish accent throughout? If you do then the ridiculous aspects will do more than 'grate' on the ear of the listener.
I believe when I referred to the accent as 'fake' I was not referring to the child speaking the lines. I meant that a real Ruairi in the same circumstances would not have an Irish accent after all this time. Therefore it was the programme makers who were creating an accent which would not be there naturally; so it was therefore a 'fake' or 'created for the effect', accent. -
Message 4
Posted by Westsussexbird or Birdy aka Westie (U6316532) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
I thought he sounded just like a robot it was as if Stephen Hawking was playing the part.
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Message 5
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
**with an occasion visit to granny in Ireland**
He asn't been to Ireland at all, since the one visit he made to see a gravestone put on Siobhan's grave, has he? -
Message 6
Posted by Oh Crikey (U14700433) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
The actor who plays Ruairi (Ciaran Coyle) is Irish, so the accent isn't "fake".
There was a lot of discussion in the team about whether Ruairi would have entirely lost his accent or not. He has kept in touch with his Irish grandmother so the production team felt that he wouldn't necessarily have entirely lost his accent.Â
Hi Tayler,
Aliencorrie's post, number 3 on the following thread, is particularly useful in that it lists a tiny fraction of the threads that have only recently addressed this subject.
As you will doubtless appreciate but be unable to affirm, the explanation from the producers is the preposterous balderdash and poppycock.
And even if one accepts the utterly fatuous and credulity-denying explanation you have been fed by a (doubtless giggling, smirking, lying on floor & rolling around with mirth) production team, the problem is that it fails to address the secondary issue: while Ciaran Coyle may indeed be a genuine Irish automaton conveniently resident near The Mailbox, he has COMPLETELY THE **WRONG** IRISH ACCENT.
Siobhan - and by extension her mother (unless Siobhan too was raised in a foreign country from infancy, separated from her natural mother) - had a totally different accent to that which emanates from Ruairi whenever someone presses the on-button on his remote control!
It's like saying that the infant son of a Cornishman will maintain his English accent by speaking on the phone to his Cornish grandmother ... and then finding that the lad has a broad Yorkshire accent and sounds like Geoffrey Boycott! -
Message 7
Posted by Oh Crikey (U14700433) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
The missing thread link from my above post. -
Message 8
Posted by Dragonfly (U2223700) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
Neatly put, Oh Crikey.
(a) It is utterly ridiculous that he should have an Irish accent of any description now, for the millions of reasons others have already given over and over again.
(b) It is even more ridiculous that the production team thinks that any old Irish accent will do, not one that bears a relationship to Siobhan's! -
Message 9
Posted by stirling (U14701384) on Friday, 3rd December 2010
I was leaving Ruairi the Robot on one side for the moment - but your point is correctly made
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Message 10
Posted by Haysie (U2222907) on Saturday, 4th December 2010
I have just heard Ruairi speak for the first time on listen again - don't hear too many epis these days but was intrigued to hear what Kate was up to and had seen reference to the Irish Dalek. Well, yes, I did burst out laughing on hearing the delivery. Poor lad.
But...I would also like to say that unlikely as Ruairi's retained (though incorrect) Irish accent is, I don't think it impossible. I moved from one accent area to another when 6 and never lost my original accent. This did not lead to an easy life in the playground but for some reason my voice didn't adapt. Perhaps it didn't want to! But years afterwards people still guess that I came from my original area and are surprised to hear that the majority of my childhood was spent in the second area.
Parents, I hear you say. Well. Father had the accent of the second area. Mum had accent of the first area. So it may have been maternal influence, but I think it's more the fact that my voice doesn't drift into accents all that naturally. It may be the minority experience but it does make me feel that Ruairi's accent is not entirely illogical.
Apart from not being the right accent - then again I was very unclear where Siobahn went back to in Ireland - was it to her old family area? It's perfectly possible that she grew up somewhere (eg in the West) and then moved to Dublin for greater work opportunity. That could give her and Ruariri different accents. But despite having Irish family I can't place Siobahn's accent geographically - or Ruairi's come to that. Rather like the little Dalek though. -
Message 11
Posted by Gene Bailey (U2924633) on Sunday, 5th December 2010
I agree entirely, Ruairi should have lost his Irish accent by now. Pat Lewis was in her twenties and had lived all her life in Wales, but still lost her Welsh accent completely within months of wedding Tony.
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Message 12
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Sunday, 5th December 2010
Over at "my place" we have an alternate theory.
Ruairi has had a stroke, but none of the Aldridges have noticed yet because all "Oirish" accents sound the same to them. It explains the bizarre accent, the halting delivery and his (presumed) difficulty in spelling his own name. Simples. -
Message 13
Posted by Haysie (U2222907) on Sunday, 5th December 2010
Just spluttered tea on my screen! Thanks Peet.
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