[darraghenright]

In my experience, there's a cohort of middle-aged British men out there who absolutely cannot help but demonstrate their "oirish" accent as soon as they are in Ireland or meet an Irish person. It's a bit weird but I try to take it as an endearment.

That said, Irish people tend to be very fond of accent mimickery too.

[MaxPengwing]

When I moved to Ireland in 2014 I made the mistake of having an Oxbridge accent, and there was quite a few people who did not take kindly to that. One train station attendee put up a gone for lunch sign in my face mid sentence, and it wasn't even past breakfast time. I was being perfectly courteous and was just having some trouble understanding how to charge my leap card.

That's when I realised, Oxbridge is not good if you want people to not instantly dislike you in Ireland.

[darraghenright]

Ouch, well that wasn't very nice, sorry to hear that. Since you mentioned using a Leap card a few years ago I'm guessing you were in Dublin. I live in Cork, we're much friendlier down here! How have you found your experiences since?

My partner is from the East Midlands and of course her accent is quite different, but on a couple of occasions my partner has gotten an angry scowl from some random old man, usually in some small-town pub.

I thought anti-English sentiment had gone the way of the dodo — when I was a kid it was more common — but I guess it's still hanging on in places :(

[smcl]

I think many with strong "regional" accents would trade a minor train station inconvenience over lifelong pay disparity and diminished career prospects.

[blibble]

what is an oxbridge accent?

cambridgeshire and oxfordshire accents are rather different

most of the students attending won't be from either

as someone who did attend: I can count the amount of people I met that spoke RP on one hand

[smcl]

Haven't personally heard of an "Oxbridge accent" but my brain filled it in subconsciously.

[darraghenright]

To add something coincidental to this subject that happened yesterday:

I'm in Nottingham in my holidays at the moment — I spoke to an elderly man who was originally from the north of England and he happened to bring up accents.

He was in the army for a few years and he said he had to change his accent because [putting on a strong northern accent] "if oi talk loike this, people thought oi was a blimmin' idiot".