Yorkshireman has brain surgery... and wakes up singing in thick Irish accent



After his brain operation, Chris Gregory woke up a new man.

An Irishman actually.

And just to be sure, to be sure, the 30-year-old Yorkshire man sat up in his hospital bed and sang a stirring rendition of Danny Boy to his astonished fiancee.

Mr Gregory had spent three days on a life-support machine in the intensive care unit when he came round.

Seeing his bride to be he beamed and declared "It's da broid' in a thick Dublin accent.

For the next half hour, he amazed relatives with his broad Gaelic lilt. But by the next day his own Yorkshire accent was back.

Phenomenon: Yorkshireman Chris Gregory shocked his wife Mary when he woke up after a brain operation and started talking and singing like an Irishman

Now totally recovered, Mr Gregory and the woman he has since married are planning to take a trip across the Irish Sea for the first time to sample the culture for real.

Payroll officer Mary Gregory, 36, said: 'I couldn’t believe it when I walked on to the ward and heard someone singing Danny Boy really loud. It sounded like a drunken Irishman, and all the racket seemed to coming from the direction of Chris’s bed.

'I thought to myself: "It can’t possibly be him…" But when I pulled back the curtains Chris was sitting up in bed belting out the tune with all the right words and the thick Irish accent like he’d grown up in Dublin and lived there all his life.

'All the nurses were trying really hard not to laugh, and I was too. I just couldn’t take it in at first, it seemed so comical, but it didn’t matter at all because I’d been so worried about losing him altogether.

'Chris’s Yorkshire accent had vanished completely, and he was talking like an Irishman all the time.



'At one point he looked at me adoringly and said: "You’re da fabbest gal oi know!!" with a perfect Irish lilt in his voice.

'It sounded crazy, but I didn’t care. It was just great to have him back in one piece after such a traumatic time.'

Mr Gregory, who had the emergency surgery at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital in December 2007 after a blood vessel ruptured in his brain, was born and bred in the city and has no Irish links.

'The difference was amazing. His accent was just like it had been before,' Mrs Gregory said.

'Chris looked totally confused when I reminded him about singing Danny Boy and speaking like an Irishman. He couldn’t remember a thing about it, and he still can’t now.

'It’s not as if Chris has any Irish relatives. He’s no connection with the country and he’s never been there - that’s what makes it all so strange.'

Mr Gregory, who is now back at work, said: 'I just don’t remember a thing about it - I wish I’d been able to listen to it all, but I don’t have any recollection of what happened when I came round.

'I’ve told Mary that she should have videoed me. At least then I could have sat back and watched myself singing Danny Boy.'

Specialists have linked the phenomenon to a condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome - which can affect the control of the lips, tongue and vocal cords in extremely rare neurological cases.

The syndrome was first discovered in Norway in 1941 when a young woman - who’d been in injured in a bombing raid - woke up speaking with a German accent.

Geordie Linda Walker, 60, made headlines in 2006 when she began talking with a strong Jamaican accent after a stroke.

Czech speedway rider Matej Kus came round speaking perfect English with a posh twang after he was knocked unconscious in 2007 while racing for Berwick Bandits in a league fixture at Glasgow Tigers.

The 18-year-old sounded like a newsreader at first - but lost the ability to speak English altogether a few days later.

