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?

I'm English but baffled that some of these phrases have actually been questioned in what sounds like a negative or disbelieving way? I've had various Irish friends / colleagues over the years and have always been able to figure out from the context what a turn of phrase means. Even if I couldn't I'd never have the gall to question it as if it's wrong.

Just to contribute, I'd never call the ground outside the floor, and it's Mother's Day, with Mothering Sunday being its religious origins. Pancake Day / Pancake Tuesday interchangeable, but I'd probably more likely say 'day'.

Grinds as in extra tuition. That caused some serious crossed wires in the UK!

We have a run out to various places, including the supermarket, it's definitely an English thing too. Maybe not the 'wee' bit ☺️

I'm from Liverpool and many of the Irish phrases or words are commonly used here

Jaysus.

Are you actually telling me, my family and my local region how we speak. Arrogant much?

Listen missus there is life in Ireland outside of Dublin - Have you read beyond the most 'obvious' Irish writers. Throwing Roddy or O'Casey in the frame doesn't make you an expert on the Irish dialect. You do realise these are works of fiction based on Dublin. Because Roddy doesn't say 'in all' doesn't mean the expression doesn't exist.

Just remembered another word.
Biddy!

Did anyone ever “go for a jant”? Go for a day out or a walk or a trip in the car

She has corrected numerous posters on this post and tried to tell me the word I meant to use. Crazy.

I hate "I seen" and "I done" as well as "needs washed" but they're very normal colloquially in some regions. Most people wouldn't use them formally.

Lol at "are you after your dinner"

If that was said to me I'd be confused / mortified that the person thinks I'm looking to be fed 😂

To me "what are you after?" means what are you up to?" and usually said with narrowed eyes

Ours was a ugly beige Toyota -you couldn't roll down the back windows all the way or they wouldn't go up again. Always breaking down. No such things as seat belts and all of us siblings piled in the back pushing and shoving to get the other to move over. I don't think half of the drivers on the road in Ireland actually sat a driving test in the 1970's wasn't there some type of Amnesty or something.

We survived in spite of our childhood.😆

The car had a 1970's tape deck and the tape that went into it was the size of a small video. I say 'tape' as we only had one - The Best Hits of ABBA - played on repeat for any journey long or short - from child to adulthood I can recite every song on the tape word perfect.

Embarrassed to admit that I had the obligatory meringue dress for my Debs, the Farrah Fawcett flicks, and the tan that rubbed off on everything.

Ireland in the good old days.

There is a company called Hairy Baby that make T shirts and mugs with irishisms on them. Lovely gift for an Irish person in UK. I have an umbrella that says 'feck, it's lashing' and got my sis in London a mug saying 'isn't there a grand stretch in the evening'. There are 100s of phrases, some I never heard of specific to certain areas. On hols in France I saw a man wearing one that said in a list form: where in the world, Glenroe, homework, bed. Loved it. It was the Sunday night TV schedule in 80s and early 90s that all Irish people watched, very much an in joke.

Do be doing.....drives a lot of Irish people crazy as well!!!

Are you from Munster?

Well, ‘What are you after?’ would be interpreted that way here too (that the person is looking for/wants something), but, say, ‘No, thanks, I won’t have anything, I’m only after my dinner’ or ‘Congratulate me — I’m just after passing my driving test!’ or ‘I won’t come and see the baby — I’m only just after a rotten cold’ are references to something that took place in the recent past. Direct translation from the Irish ‘Táim tar éis [rud éigin] a dhéanamh’.

Grinds as in extra tuition.

forgot this one!

Does anyone’s family overuse the word “Stunning”, you look “stunning”, your dress is “stunning”, your feathers (fascinator) is “stunning”, her voice is “stunning”.

I see that. There is always one. 😀

This thread is so interesting as I’d never realised how many common phrases are shared between Ireland and Scotland.

I say press for cupboard and messages for food shopping. I also say “I seen” and “needs washed”. “Needs washing” or “needs doing” don’t sound right to me, although they’re technically grammatically correct. It’s just very English and wouldn’t be a natural way for me to speak.

Ah I have thought of another one - 'youse' , instead of you (plural) . E.g. 'would youse like some sweets', said to group of chislers....

I was going to link Hairy Baby. Lots of their archive T-shirts especially date you to exactly your peers. DH has a motheaten ‘Who’s taking the horse to France?’ one. I have a ‘Who said Mass?’ one somewhere.

Some of them involve significant amounts of explanation to foreigners, like WOODEN SPOON SURVIVOR or ISN’T THERE A GRAND STRETCH IN THE EVENINGS. Or THE ORIGINAL J-LO over a photo of Johnny Logan.

https://www.hairybaby.com/t-shirts?page=2

'well to wear' when someone's got a new dress or jumper etc. English partner was flummoxed by that one.
So many words for drunk - locked, ossified, langered etc.
'Making strange' is definitely one that many English people don't get at all

The theme music to Glenroe was the death knell that the weekend freedom was over and it was back to school in the morning for nearly every school kid in Ireland at the time.

@januaryjan

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Are you actually telling me, my family and my local region how we speak. Arrogant much?

No. I'm not. As I've said numerous times.

That's how it is spoken. Pronounced. What you hear. And so on.

It is not short for 'in all' which was what the first poster I was responding to used an example of an Irish saying that wouldn't be understood in England: 'in all'.

I used Doyle and Casey as strong examples of writing where the Dublin vernacular is used so you can see exactly how the idiom is represented. Of course other writers exist; not so many as good examples of this particular way of speaking but consult who you wish.

The phrase 'in all' would make no sense.

I can't help your struggle with reading comprehension but there's no need at all to be so rude. (Except that it's MN where there always has to be such doses)

@Glittering1

She has corrected numerous posters on this post and tried to tell me the word I meant to use. Crazy.

'She' has clarified that the phrase 'in all' doesn't exist (what with making zero sense and all 😜) and that the spoken abbreviation of 'and all' = 'n' all which makes the sound you mention.

Not crazy.

And my point (3rd time explaining but 🤷🏻‍♀️) is that your list of phrases were not specifically Irish (or not all of them) in any case.

Believe what you wish!

Brilliant!

I see that. There is always one.

Or in you & Glittering case, two 😘

To quote another Dubliner - Mrs Brown

'That's Nice' (double meaning intended)