You scumbag You maggot you cheap lousy…

I’d still use fag to mean cigarette and I’d never use it to mean “gay man” and the meaning would be obvious from the context. Eg “she was just smoking fags and doing nothing”.

I’d personally never say faggot because in my experience it’s only ever offensive. But it’s obviously very regional and I wouldn’t dream of telling people who’ve experienced its use as an inoffensive term that they’re remembering wrong or that their (highly respected) dictionary is poor 🙄

It's pathetic. I have the original, uncensored song on my phone, and I always play it at Christmas as part of my playlist. I'm a gay man. I hope other people can enjoy it too realising this song isn't a homophobic slur. I've never been called a faggot either. Some of my friends have said fag, but I find it endearing.

On the other hand, I find queer extremely offensive, but the community has brought that word back to them, so yeah.

Dubliner here. It was a term that was used to slag men and was homophobic yes. We still sing it here so we don't ignore our homophobic past in music.

This. People seem to have forgotten the original use of some words, which is a shame. It’s hilarious though when my elderly Mum sometimes calls me a Slut over my housekeeping (or lack of it in her opinion) and I see my friends look horrified 🤣

The word Faggot (as a unit) highlighted in the wiki article that @AthWat posted means a bundle of sticks, for kindling.
Kindling (faggot) is something you burn to make a fire.

In American history, I have heard that the word faggot started so to be used as a homophobic slur against gay people, suggesting a 'faggot' a gay person, should be burned or thrown into a fire. I.e. They should be kindling.
So that makes it a very real and cruel slur.

In England meanwhile,we historically used the word 'fag' as a short version of 'faggot', since a cigarette is also something you burn, like kindling.

Off topic but we use hoor (hooa) in Northumberland. I never knew other areas used it.

Same here. Also remember bugger being used in the same way. Apologies if I can't find a citation to hand but my oral history will have to do.

I thought the NYPD choir were the drunks in the holding cells.

Braggart would have fitted it almost as well and people wouldn't have had to have this argument over and over again.
Irish people of my parents generation were fast and loose with the insults. I heard the word 'hoor' (which means whore) for many years before I was old enough to know what it meant.

First thing that springs to mind is some sort of offal you wouldn’t want to eat.

People our age don't use it though, do they?

Older people though? 100% Mr Brains based!

The song has been changed for air play so I have no idea why people continue to argue about it.

My Grandad called me a faggot my whole life and I'm 100% sure it was nothing to do with gays or sticks.

He was literally calling me a meatball, usually because I'd said something a bit dim. Nobody in the UK in the 70's used the term for gay people.

I call my child a sausage pretty much every day with the exact same energy.

Fingers crossed that's not a future term for anything sensitive because I'd honestly struggle to stop using the term!

The NYPD choir was a slang term used in the the Irish Bars for when officers got pissed up and started to sing in the Bar. Often of Irish descent they would sing songs like Galway Bay. He wrote the song after a period of frequenting the bars of NY. This is what he was referring to.

Recently?

It was well-known to be offensive when I was a child. I'm 48.

He never admitted that was the reason for that insult, if it was. But it's definitely plausible because he did hint in other songs about addiction ruining performance, so to speak.

If you read the lyrics it is absolutely a term to insult. Any other interpretation is just not correct and makes no sens what so ever. Doesn't matter if it is used affectionately in some contexts with Irish Granny, in this song it is an insult as part of an exchange which accuses one of being a 'bum' 'a punk' 'an old slut on junk' and the other as 'scumbag' 'maggot'. The next line saying 'cheap lousy faggot' isn't suddenly affectionate, isn't about meat balls, sticks or a little ribbing between drunks.
Not sure why people are trying to reinvent facts. It doesn't reflect any view, it depicts a drunken argument which involve slurs, and which, I would say, Shane had seen plenty of in his life.

I always took it to mean that Kirsty was yelling ‘ya cheap loudly faggot’ as a spiteful gay slur because he was impotent due to drink. Merry Christmas, me arse!

It's the homeopathy theory of language.

Like, lungs have spots, and some plants have similar spots, so the plant and the lungs must be somehow related and have sympathy for each other and be related.

You are not the centre of the world though.Just because you have never heard it used this way, does not mean everybody else is wrong.

American English is so prevalent in language online, so it seeps in everywhere - sometimes without even being aware of it - i didn't realise that semetry was American English and graveyard was British English.

The word woke gets used a lot online, often in the wrong context and it's original meaning is long gone.

Was just coming in to say exactly this, generally something like 'ya little faggit' not meant with any current slur or connotation.

I’m Irish, older relatives used say it affectionately but exasperatedly about children. Like you cheeky brat.

"it tells is an unreal fantasy of 1940s New York dreamed up in 1980s London."

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/06/fairytale-new-york-pogues-christmas-anthem

As I said, the song is Anglo-Irish (McGowan's identity). The only thing "american" is naming some locations.

Shane was educated at Westminster School in the late 60s early 70s and the word in those circles was very much used as a general slur, like homophobic slurs were generally used by just saying 'you're gay' in an insulting way. Even in the late 80s when the song was written it was a slur and it was definitely written as one. Shane used to come into the HiBi in Nenagh often, before he died, when I worked in Nenagh and if ever asked would always say he wouldn't use the word now and didn't intend to offend anyone and if they wanted to change it our over play it with another word he had no problem with that. It didn't reflrct his views at all. Its a drunken argument between two alcoholics who use offensive slurs in their argument. That's actually the point of using the word. Attempts to sanitise it or reinvent what was or is, meant in the lyrics are just not accurate.
Plenty of his songs contain challenging or perceived offensive ideas or words. Try listening to the songs on Rum Sodomy and the Lash album. Old man Drag about underage male prostitution, for example, or Billy bones about shooting Arabs and Israelis running like Shiit Muslims.
If you want to find offence in what they wrote there's plenty of examples but in FToNY it wasn't about lazy people, sticks or meat balls.

Are you talking to me?

Taylor and Francis is a very highly regarded, reputable international publisher used by specialists.