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castiron"A Scandal in Bohemia" inspired me to do some noodling in Google Book Search to check on the pronunciation of "Irene". While “ee-rain-eh” may well have been the correct British pronunciation of the name, Adler was born in New Jersey; this 1851 poem published in Philadelphia (i.e. just across the river from NJ) suggests that “eye-reen” would have been an American pronunciation at least that early.
So my personal Holmes canon is that ACD (or Watson, if you prefer) may have been thinking three syllables, and Adler herself might use that pronunciation now, but her parents called her Irene as in "Goodnight, Irene".
(Assuming, of course, that "Irene Adler" is her birth name and not a stage name; I think the letter she writes Holmes [and, for that matter, her general personality] suggests that it's indeed her birth name, but if Irene is a name she took on in England or Europe, then the three-syllable version would likely be correct.)
So my personal Holmes canon is that ACD (or Watson, if you prefer) may have been thinking three syllables, and Adler herself might use that pronunciation now, but her parents called her Irene as in "Goodnight, Irene".
(Assuming, of course, that "Irene Adler" is her birth name and not a stage name; I think the letter she writes Holmes [and, for that matter, her general personality] suggests that it's indeed her birth name, but if Irene is a name she took on in England or Europe, then the three-syllable version would likely be correct.)