Saoirse Ronan appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night and explained everything from Irish accents to Catholicism to the presenter.

Ronan stars in Lady Bird - a movie about a teenager at a Catholic high school in California and her difficult relationship with her mother.

The film has so far received a 100% ‘fresh’ rating from Rotten Tomatoes and the religious element gave Ronan the chance to explain how much stricter Ireland’s deeply embedded Catholicism is:    

“Were you raised Catholic?” Colbert asks Ronan

“I was raised Catholic yeah. And you know it’s a much more sort of cultural thing in Ireland than it is [here]. I mean there are very religious Catholics. I went to a Catholic school, made my first communion, confirmation and all that sort of stuff.”

“In this movie you eat unconsecrated communion wafers as a snack,” Colbert chides her.

“I know,” she replies contritely. “There’s no way you’d be let away with that in Ireland. There’s no way.”

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“But it’s unconsecrated… It’s just a piece of bread.”

“Yeah but still like,” Rona counters aghast. “It’s against the rules. God will be looking down on you, judging you, Stephen.”

“That accent puts a chill down my back just now,” Colbert told the laughing audience. “You’re like a character in a James Joyce novel.”

Earlier on Colbert praised her “perfectly” spoken American accent in the film. Ronan said that, “My [Irish] accent is so sort of like, ‘Ooooooh and it’s out there and it’s very melodic and sort of like ‘Like me!”’... An Irish accent is like that!

“There’s an eagerness to it.”

“A bounce to it?” Colbert queries.

“Yeah and I think with a Californian accent it’s a lot more laid back, so I actually found that quite difficult.”

Ronan was born in The Bronx to undocumented parents but moved back to Ireland when she was two. As a child she starred in the movie ‘Atonement’ but got her big break in ‘Brooklyn’ - a seminal tale of a young Irishwoman who immigrates to America.

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Over the weekend eyebrows were raised after she appeared in Saturday Night Live’s much panned Aer Lingus sketch but perhaps after she explained Irish Catholicism all is forgiven? Let us know what you think in the comments below!