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The Oscar-winning director of Wild Mountain Thyme has addressed the furore around ‘Oirish’ accents in the film, insisting that he doesn’t care what the Irish think.
The trailer for the hit romance film was met with widespread mockery due to some of the visuals and accents from stars Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan.
But director John Patrick Shanley has taken the criticism in stride.
In an interview with VarietyMr. Shanley said “nothing good will come” trying to make the Irish love you.
He compared himself to John Millington Synge and Frank McCourt, whose works drew criticism for their depiction of Ireland as impoverished and its people as primitive and violent.
“I told Emily (Blunt) when we first talked about this project, ‘I’m not making this movie for the Irish.’
“If you try to make the Irish love you, nothing good will come of it.
“I’m making this movie for everyone else and for all the people who want to go to Ireland.
“The Irish reaction to what is written about Ireland has been tumultuous since the time of John Millington Synge, when Western world playboy it was discontinued because people thought it was pornographic.
“Frank McCourt was a friend of mine and made fun of Angela’s ashes.
“You bring The Quiet Man for the people there and it’s like Jesus Christ, it’s an abomination.
“That’s all I can say about it,” he said.
Mr. Shanley went on to suggest that the dialogue he saw Emily Blunt yell in a fierce accent – “It was HE who kissed me” – was “how farmers talk.”
“The language of Ireland is similar to the soil of Ireland. It is absolutely fundamental to the identity of the Irish people.
“It is very appropriate to celebrate the fabulous way these farmers speak,” he said.
In an extensive interview, Shanley spoke about filming in “beautiful” May with its unpredictable weather.
“It’s always a fluid thing when you’re directing a movie. You are dealing with the facts in the field on a daily basis and of course there was the changeable weather of County Mayo and I was working with a lot of animals.
“The farm becomes the centerpiece of making it as a movie. They (the audience) want beautiful images and things to look at.
“The public wants to be taken to a place where it has never been before. Most of us never get to live on a farm in the west of Ireland. “
Mr. Shanley firmly stated his own Irish credentials and remembered his aunts dancing around the living room to the accordion.
“My father did not come to the United States until he was 24 years old. He grew up on a farm in central Ireland that still belongs to my family to this day.
“When I sat in the Shanley family kitchen and listened to people talk, I was in love.
“I couldn’t believe the level of conversation. It was wonderful.
“They were eccentric as hell, but so was I, so I finally felt ‘I’m home.’
“I will never be Irish and I will never be fully American.
“I am an Irish-American, who is kind of a mermaid. We have elements of both cultures going.
“Most of my father’s brothers came and they all had high heels.
“My father played the accordion in the living room and sang and my aunts danced in the living room. Both of my mother’s parents were from Ireland. So I’m pretty damn Irish. “
Online editors
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