Irish Accents

I have recently become aware that I have a small, yet embarrassing problem. I seem to lack the ability to identify Irish accents. Luckily, it doesn't affect my daily life very much. Because I'm surrounded by Irish people, I usually don't have to ask them where they developed that exotic accent. I can just assume they're Irish... until they tell me otherwise. The trouble usually occurs when I'm watching movies or TV. I guess my brain just doesn't understand that there are Irish people outside the roles of cereal salesmen, priests, and pirates (arrghh-- that's Irish, right?). I just don't expect to see them outside of any of those situations, so I can't place them. Realizing that Keith was Irish probably went something like this (I say probably because I was too busy being embarrassed about how I had just accused him of thinking my name was Keith to remember any such conversation):

Keith: I just got off the plane from Ireland.

Me: Cool! Were you on vacation?

Keith: That's where I'm from... You can probably tell from my accent.

Me: Haha... whaaa? Ohhhh.

And now, here are a few examples of my reactions to Irish people in film.

Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood- "Why did they cast her? She doesn't even sound British!" When I saw an article about her in an Irish newspaper this summer I finally realized that she is not, in fact British.

Dylan Moran as that annoying guy from Shaun of the Dead-- "There is something very strange about the way he speaks." I recently saw him in a TV show where he was referred to as "the Irish guy," which explained a lot.

Chris O'Dowd as the cop/love interest in Bridesmaids-- "He has like a weird accent." I watched this movie with my friends while visiting Maryland a few weeks ago, so they had to inform me that he was Irish. Clearly, living in Ireland has not fixed this problem at all.