Overhearing Ireland: Mediatized personae in Irish accent culture

Metapragmatic representations of ‘accent’ in Irish English over a 400-year period are examined, identifying the phonological shibboleths that have remained in place as emblems of ‘Irishness’ over the whole period. A textual structure based on direct quotation is shown to have supported a brisk trade in commodified text-artifacts (joke-books, pamphlets, a web site) that present amusing anecdotes of Irish English speech. These narrational miniatures vivify a wide range of recognizable personae, inviting readers to align (or dis-align) themselves with the Irish ‘characters’ represented. The figure of the overhearer as reporter has been central to the genre ever since a shift to realist reportage around 1800.