Saoirse Ronan explains that absolutely godawful Aer Lingus sketch from her time on SNL

Paul Moore

It’s a hard one to forget.

With a new film to promote, On Chesil Beach, Saoirse Ronan is well overdue a holiday because the talented Irish actress has had a very busy 18 months. After receiving her third Oscar-nomination for Lady Bird, she also has Mary Queen of Scots and The Seagull set for release.

Simply put, Ronan is one of the most gifted actors in the world and while we’d watch her in any film, there’s one skit that we definitely won’t be in a rush to see again.

Remember the Aer Lingus-inspired sketch that featured on SNL?

Well, how could any Irish person forget it?

Dated stereotypes of Ireland and Paddywhackery in popular culture in the US isn’t exactly a new phenomenon and it was in plentiful supply here. We get to see lots of bad Irish accents, a runway worker wearing an Aran jumper, a menu made up exclusively of potato dishes and an endless amount of dogs.

Can someone please explain the whole dogs thing? It’s just weird.

Truth be told, the skit isn’t really that offensive – we can all laugh at ourselves – it’s just really bad.

Clip via – Saturday Night Live

The actress previously spoke about the segment when she appeared on The Late Late Show but in a recent interview with The Independent, the star of Brooklyn elaborated on it further.

She said: “One of the brilliant things about the Irish is that we can take the piss out of ourselves. And I love Aer Lingus, I’ve flown with them since I was a child, and one of the most emotional moments for me about going home is when I get on an Aer Lingus flight and I hear the Irish accent and I’m surrounded by people from home.”

Ronan goes on to say that the skit was no “done in bad taste or anything like that, and you also have to remember, it’s a comedy show, and they poke fun at everyone, and they poke fun at themselves, and we had sketches about Brooklyn as well and I wasn’t offended. It was all a bit of craic, like.”

We’re fairly confident that we’re going to enjoy her next few films more than that SNL skit. Still though, the dogs?!?!

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