Saoirse Ronan has responded to criticism of her recent hosting stint on US show Saturday Night Live following accusations that her sketch about Aer Lingus played up to Irish stereotypes.
Ronan, who is Oscar tipped for her lead performance in the forthcoming movie Lady Bird, hosted SNL last Saturday night with music guests U2 but one skit in particular caused outrage among some Irish viewers who said it was "dreadful", "awful" and "incomprehensible".
The Irish actress donned a classic green Aer Lingus uniform for a wildly unfunny sketch overflowing with Oirish stereotypes and painful accents. It featured references to potatoes, Oscar Wilde and, for some reason, dogs.
"I am not anti-Aer Lingus! I collect my points! That's how often I fly @AerLingus! - Saoirse Ronan on that controversial Saturday Night Live @nbcsnl sketch #latelate pic.twitter.com/m88uQiLruN
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) December 8, 2017
Speaking to Ryan Tubirdy on Friday night's Late Late Show, Ronan said: "It was fun and the show is a comedy show and it was a huge thing for me to go on, a dream come true for me to go on and it was amazing.
"One of the things that was very important to me, and we had numerous meeting with producer Lorne Michaels, and he was constantly asking me was there anything I wanted.
"I said I strongly wanted to use my own accent as much as possible and I want to have at least one Irish sketch. I got to host the show and it was great to get U2."
Asked jokingly by Tubridy if she "was anti-Aer Lingus", she said: "I’m not anti-Aer Lingus! I collect my points on Aer Lingus, that's how often I fly Aer Lingue. I shop local and eat Tayto! It was so much fun and it was great to represent Ireland and great to have U2 on the show with me."
The airline subsequently took to Twitter to troll the sketch in the combative style of US President Donald Trump, writing: "Just tried watching Saturday Night Live - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Ronan impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad."
Just tried watching Saturday Night Live - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Ronan impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad
— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) December 3, 2017
In a skit that had a much softer landing, Ronan broke into song during the show in order to educate viewers about the tricky pronunciation of her name - "it's Saoirse - like 'inertia'!'
"Yes I am very Irish and I have an extremely Irish name, some would say too Irish," she said in her opening monologue.
"It’s Saoirse, it means freedom but I’ve got a little problem - it’s spelled wrong, the full typo. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. You can see why people have a hard time. If it was a Wheel of Fortune puzzle, you couldn’t afford it. There’s too many vowels, God bless them, no one has been able to pronounce my name - not even close."
U2 performed two tracks, American Soul and Get Out of Your Own Way, from their new album Songs of Experience.
