Brummies are pronouncing Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy’s name wrongly - how to say it properly

It’s time to put the record straight - Birmingham.

Cillian Murphy is undoubtedly a Brummie treasure. His role as Tommy Shelby in the Peaky Blinders has catapulted Birmingham onto a new level of fame. Instead of people having a dig at our Brummie accents and wrongly making out the city is a concrete jungle - he has helped our beloved Brum to become cool.

Birmingham has become associated with chic retro fashion, brilliant music and some seriously fascinating heritage beyond being industrial revolution leaders with the help of the Peaky Blinders. The action packed period drama showcased the story of the people inside the Victorian factories and slums who helped to shape our lives today.

And Cillian even brought a bit of sex appeal to the way we speak. Yet there are far too many people in Birmingham who don’t know how to pronounce his name!

With the Irish acting star about to hit the big screen once more with the release of Oppenheimer, one of the most anticipated films of the year, it’s time to take action before it gets worse - bab! Like me, Cillian, has an Irish language name, so some of the letters are not pronounced the same way as they are in the English language.

Many non-Irish fans for some reason believe ‘Cillian’ is pronounced with an S sound, like "Sillian". But it’s instead pronounced just like the Anglicized spelling of the name, ‘Killian’ ("Kill-ee-an"). You may wonder why it’s not spelt with a K. But just bear in mind that Irish is a different language to English, so it’s got a few different rules.

Also, in English, Carole doesn’t get called Sarole and camera isn’t pronounced Samera - so there’s no need to get to frustrated with the Irish ‘C’. However, I’ve been thinking, Cillian may have got off lucky. In case you’re wondering, my name is pronounced Fin-oo-la (and I’m a born and bred Brummie)!