Irish in the UK - what are the things that it took you ages to realise people don't say here.

[ConflictedCheetah]

Inspired by the thread about Pancake Tuesday.

That thread has cracked me up because SO many posters are insisting no one EVER calls pancake Tuesday - it's Pancake Day - and sayu it's weird and wanky to call it that. And then all the Irish people on the thread are like ' wait, we've always called it that and never noticed that no one else did.

So what else you got?

For me, and I'm here 20 years, I only found out about a year ago that no one here calls a birth certificate a 'birth cert'. My English husband thought it was proper weird that I kept saying that. I had never picked up that it wasn't a thing! I think Irish people are so used to talking about the Leaving Cert or Junior Cert etc. that the Cert but feels natural. DH says no.

What other ways have I been unknowingly embarrassing myself for 20 years?

It's not pancake Tuesday?! Never knew that. Mother's Day is another one, think it's mothering Sunday in UK. I don't live in UK so I am not best placed to comment, but one thing I read here had me really scratching my head. It was a thread about grammar and local accents etc and someone said they know a poster is Irish if they say they brought their kids to the beach rather than took their kids to the beach. Then they described the reason that 'brought' technically shouldn't be used this way and I didn't really get it. I usually pick up on little grammar things but this one defeated me.

The press / the cupboard
doing the messages

These are also Scottish sayings

Me complaining about someone “giving out”. English people wanting to know what item they gave out 🤯

The meaning of the word 'ignorant' depending on context.

I'm not actually Irish but 'anything strange?' does not translate well into English English. Also, 'don't pretend to your father that I dropped the pan' makes perfect sense in my house, but pretend doesn't have that double meaning of 'reveal' in English English.

Giving out is a great one!

I had an English colleague who found 'right you are' as assent baffling, but I don't even think that is an Irish ism, is it?

I can't think of any more but for me it's always been Pancake Tuesday, never pancake day. I'm in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This bring/take thing is because Irish people follow the rules in Gaeilge for these words (and lots of other words). People in the UK can think this is wrong but we are speaking in a slightly different dialect.

Is brought not right in English English? Wow. I did not know that.

Amn't, press, yer man/yer wan, yoke, sound, cop on.

On the other hand it took me a while to work out why English people kept asking me whether I was all right. Why wouldn't I be?

My Irish cousin seems to say 'happy out' a lot. I have never heard anyone else say it. Is that an Irish expression or just a her thing?

I love listening to The Shrine podcast as the 3 (Irish) presenters have so many Irish expressions that remind me of my Irish family.

Drives me mad when English mnettrs criticise gotten, as in I had gotten/forgotten etc. Perfectly acceptable in Ireland and used on proper telly like the 6pm news!

Bold meaning naughty rather than courageous!!
And we say sick for any kind of illness, rather than "poorly", which is such a weedy word!

It's a combination of direction and who ends up with the object in English English.

Bring here/take there. You can ask someone to bring something to you, but you would take it to them (although if you are staying when you get there you would bring it with you.)

I think most of the things you say will also be pretty normal in Scotland, so probably more accurate to say how it's different in England as with Northern Ireland and Scotland both having the same phrases that's half the UK that think your phrases are perfectly normal

'Out' seems to be added to a lot of positive expressions in Cork to give to give the meaning of 'completely'. Not sure about the rest of the country though!

The word poorly for sick makes my skin crawl.
"That's gas" is a fav of mine.

God, yes, ‘poorly’ is the wettest of words. Awful. ‘Sick as a small hospital’ is more expressive. I think I did train myself to say ‘ill’, though.

Boxing Day for St Stephen’s Day.

References to the ‘side’ and ‘leaving it on the side’. I was always saying ‘Side of what?’

I'm Irish too and certain things I say, do get quizzical looks 🤣

"Plug it out" = To unplug something

"Out the light" = Turn the light off

"Safe home" = Have a safe journey home

"Are you after your dinner?" = Have you had your dinner yet?

My Irish immigrant parents used all of these - a lot of them I picked up myself but remember arguing with my mother that 'amn't' was ungrammatical. Never realised it was Cork dialect - assumed it was just an idiosyncratic thing. Huge regrets now for being a supercilious dick :(

My neighbour came over one evening and I said, "Are you after your dinner?"

She looked panicked and said, "No, I'm not after anything, I just came to drop your parcel round" 😳🤣

It's mothering Sunday because you used to go to your mother church. It doesn't actually have much to do with mothers, someone decided to sell cards and make money out of it.

I think there are pockets of England with different words / phrases. When I lived in Oxford nice things were 'lush' and often things were "a complete disaster".

Living in Lancashire people would ask, "What's the crack here then" meaning 'what's happening" (I know there is an Irish word craic but isn't that a good time or a party?) and in Yorkshire we would "mash the tea".

Oh, and I missed being able to use ‘fierce’ as an all-purpose qualifier.

My English friends could her their heads around it being a ‘fierce hot day’ or someone being ‘fierce cross’, but they stalled at the library being ‘fierce quiet’.

It’s Mother’s Day in my corner of England. I’m pretty sure it’s the same in most of the country (at least, that’s what it tends to be called on adverts etc.). The only place I’ve ever heard it called Mothering Sunday was at church.

My lovely grandad was Irish and I’m reading along to see if it brings back any memories.

“Who all went”