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Cillian Murphy returned to Ireland because his kids had posh English accents

Cillian Murphy moved his family back to Dublin from London in 2015. (Getty)
Cillian Murphy moved his family back to Dublin from London in 2015. (Getty)

Cillian Murphy made the move back to his native Ireland in order to prevent his children from having English accents.

The Peaky Blinders star had lived in London for 14 years when he decided to relocate his family to Dublin in 2015.

Read more: Cillian Murphy sad to finish Peaky Blinders without Helen McCrory

Murphy married his long-term partner — visual artist Yvonne McGuinness — in 2004 and their sons were born in 2005 and 2007, so had lived their entire lives in Britain before the move.

He told the Armchair Expert podcast: "We wanted the kids to be Irish. They were sort of at that age where they were pre-teens and had very posh English accents and I wasn't appreciating that too much. So we decided to come back."

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Murphy said the decision that it was "a nice time to come home" was also driven by a desire on the part of himself and Yvonne to be around their parents.

As well as his TV role on Peaky Blinders, which came to an end this month after six series, Murphy has been a fixture in Hollywood, appearing in films such as Batman Begins and A Quiet Place Part II.

Read more: Peaky Blinders fans thrilled as Tom Hardy returns

He has also been a regular collaborator of director Christopher Nolan and will portray the architect of the atomic bomb for the filmmaker's upcoming biopic Oppenheimer.

Despite his success in the States, Murphy doesn't fancy a permanent move to Los Angeles — although he "loves visiting" the city.

Cillian Murphy returned as Tommy Shelby for the final series of Peaky Blinders. (BBC)
Cillian Murphy returned as Tommy Shelby for the final series of Peaky Blinders. (BBC)

He added: "I just feel European. I just feel Irish. I’d feel like a bit of an interloper if I lived in California. I couldn’t envisage living there permanently."

Murphy has won numerous awards for his portrayal of Birmingham gang leader Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, which has proven to be one of the BBC's most popular recent dramas.

Read more: Steven Knight defends violence of Peaky Blinders

More than three million viewers watched the fiery conclusion to the sixth series, with creator Steven Knight promising that a movie outing for the characters will follow to conclude the story.

For Murphy, meanwhile, he has Oppenheimer in the pipeline as well as a voice role in the animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo novel Kensuke's Kingdom.

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