Changing the accent on Siri to Irish and why we love Ireland

Ireland has always been a popular destination for Australians.Credit: iStock

We all went a bit mad during lockdowns in Australia. Especially those of us who love to travel – these were hard times. You would have done anything back then to tap into the travelling vibe, to feel like you were free, that you were somewhere else for a while, doing the thing you love.

And so, I figured out a way. You know Siri, on your iPhone? You may not realise this, but you can change the way Siri sounds. You can change her accent. She arrives set to your local accent so she sounds familiar, but there are a variety of voices you can give her.

And so during lockdown last year I changed my Siri to have my favourite accent in the world: Irish. I still have Irish Siri. She's still set that way. Any time I set a timer, or ask to Google something, I feel just for a split second like I'm in Ireland.

And who wouldn't want that? This country has always been a popular travel destination for Australians – and a favourite of mine – a place that feels at once foreign and yet pleasingly familiar. That's something one of my fellow Traveller writers, John Borthwick, has also experienced, as he tells Flight of Fancy, the Traveller podcast, on this week's episode.

"When I first went there I was so struck by the familiarity of the place," says Borthwick. "As soon as I landed there I went, 'I know half these places. I know half these people'. And there were four very familiar elements there in particular: music, the love of language, drinking, and swearing.

"I thought, 'I'm almost at home'."

That sense of familiarity is sure to draw plenty of people back to the Emerald Isle now that it has reopened to the world of tourism. Though Ireland has been one of the more cautious countries in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic, having imposed restrictions on foreign tourists until February this year, it has now begun rolling out the "green carpet".

"We took a somewhat similar approach to yourselves in Australia, in that we were quite cautious about COVID," says Siobhan McManamy, the acting CEO of Tourism Ireland, speaking on Flight of Fancy. "And likewise, in the times that we have been open, people here learned to love their country again.

"Irish people travelled at home and they learned to re-experience places they'd probably forgotten about. And there was a huge amount of innovation and creativity that happened [in response to that], a lot of new businesses opened, which has been great for tourism."

Australians know Ireland, even if they haven't already been there. They know Guinness, they know Gaelic football, they know the rolling hills and the what are quite possibly the greatest pubs on the planet. They also know about the concept of the "craic", that essential Irish pursuit of a good time, which is still very much there to be had in this post-restriction world.

"A good time is time spent with people, that's a really important part of it," McManamy tells Flight of Fancy. "Time spent with friends, probably involving a Guinness or two, and it's a really good night if it ends with a sing-song. Everyone here has a party piece of varying qualities; most Irish people will give you a song. They can all sing, they can all play."

The way to ensure you experience a good craic, according to both McManamy and Borthwick, is to give yourself plenty of time in Ireland to just allow things to happen. This is a country with plenty of well-known attractions – the Cliffs of Moher, the Giant's Causeway, the Ring of Kerry, the Wild Atlantic Way – but a great holiday in Ireland involves space for spontaneity.

"I would recommend self-driving, and I would give myself a week," Borthwick recommends. "Ireland demands at least a week, and not a highly structured itinerary, because one of the joys of Ireland is the people you meet and the things you trip over. You don't want to be rushing from A to B."

McManamy agrees: "The worst thing you can do in Ireland is to have a to-do list and to rush through that. You can have things you want to do, but you need time in between those to take a breath and let things happen."

And be sure you change your phone to Irish Siri.

Find out more about Ireland in this week's Flight of Fancy podcast.