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?

This is so interesting...for me, growing up people didn't say they were doing messages, rather 'seeing a man about a dog'.
And people were sometimes described as 'thick as two short planks'.

Also in Belfast takeaway = carry out. But can also mean booze from the off licence.

'Face cloth' was what my parents called it at home (England). Never 'flannel' or 'wash cloth'.

I have always thought (and was taught), that’s what it should be (born and raised in England), apart from a forest floor.

I shout at the TV every time I watch TV shows following police (Interceptors, Traffic Cops etc), when someone’s resisting and the copper’s trying to get them on the ground and tell them to get on the floor.

In German the formal second person singular and plural are the same (Sie), but the informal singular and plural are different (du/ihr). This means you sometimes need to address a group twice, if (say) there are both unfamiliar adults and children in it.

Can't stand it when (generally English) English speakers on here get snobby about plural 'you's, be that ye, yous, y'all. Baffling to declare something that actually allows a greater complexity and precision of speech to be 'common' (and I have seen that said on here, in pretty much those words).

Also from NE England and spent many a weekend going out for a run in the car. It didn’t seem to be as popular a pastime when I moved to the SE!

One of the funniest two I’ve heard (I’m Irish and have distant English relatives). On one occasion my granny went to my cousins pub in England and said to my cousin ‘well any craic’ and he said ‘oh no auntie X it’s not that kind of pub’ 😂

on the same trip my granny asked another cousin ‘well are you working away’ and he said no I work here 🤣

It is definitely "and all" shortened to " n all"

It is funny on some fb groups when you get die hard dubs saying 'anal' for 'an'all lol

According to Manchán Magan’s book, there’s a term as Gaeilge for having your period, ‘bláthscaoileadh’, meaning ‘flower release’, that might have given rise to being ‘on your flowers’. 😀

Being 'flathúil with something.

Remember my mother saying, 'don't be flathúil with the milk (if running short) (bread, butter, anything) or don't be flathúil with your money -buying drinks etc.

Oh yes! This is so Irish!

A Scottish colleague often used the word ‘outwith’ which I genuinely didn’t understand. I think it means ‘besides which’ or ‘apart from’??

Here's a few that I heard growing up in Cork. Some are definitely Irish, some are probably originated from Cork and some might be used elsewhere as well but most I haven't heard since I was a teenager.

flah - good looking guy
flahed-out - exhausted
funt - a kick
langer - idiot
shift - kiss/get off with someone (every teenager's goal at the Saturday night disco!)
culchie - derogatory word for someone who lives rurally
mot - girlfriend (derived from "maith" the Irish word for good)
houl yer whisht - my grandfather used to say this when he wanted us to shut up
runners - trainers
wagon - unpleasant woman
locked/langers/twisted - drunk
jointed - packed (place was jointed)
drive on - keep going (not necessarily driving)
how's she cutting - how are you
cute hoor - sly/clever person
jacks - toilet
to make a haymes of something - mess something up
away with the fairies - not in touch with reality
taspy - my grandfather used to say we were full of taspy as kids so I think it means spirited
grá - love. My grandfather used to say someone had great grá for someone else.
meas - respect (another old Irish word used by my grandfather) to have meas on someone is to have respect for them.
lifting - travelling very fast (car was lifting)
ciotóg - left handed person
a rake of something - a lot of it
sconce - take a sconce at something = to take a look
gom - idiot

Yoke, rake, a ball of money, it is so, 'tis a queen you are, can I leave it home? (asked in class about taking home a project), his both legs, gobshite.

These are all expressions I learned whilst living in Ireland and some of them I still use. They puzzle my neighbours on England.

Just thinking about all the descriptive nouns we use in work and the rising scale of them: a wagon is a horrible woman, but a weapon is an even more horrible woman! A tulip is a stupid man, but a plank is a complete eejit of a fella. I also use "lads" for groups of either/both sexes. However, warning, "his lad" means something else altogether - see Aisling Bea on Jonathan Ross!!

Post office is pronounced differently. We run the two words together but in England post is emphasised. Postoffice in Ireland vs^^ post office in England.

I think Mrs Doyle educated everyone about "his lad" @Joolsin

Ah, you're right there, @JaneJeffer , how could I forget about the sainted Mrs Doyle 😂

Don't be acting the gom!

(Addressed to nobody in particular. Just wanted to put it out there!)

'Outwith' = outside of. Like the old meaning of 'without'. Great word that I wish would spread outwith Scotland.

I’d forgotten about ‘rake’

‘Fierce cold’ but also ‘quare cowl’ if you’re from Wexford .

"The cut" can mean different things:
Look at the cut of yer man if someone is looking disheveled or she's the cut of her mother for people who look alike.

Great thread. Dub here. Apologies if some of these have been done.

Press for iron. Do you need anything pressed?

Scratcher for bed. It's late, get into the scratcher. Would also be used for someone on the dole. I lost me job so I'm on scratcher.

Jars meaning drinks of the alcoholic variety. I'm going for a few jars.

Scald for tea. I'd love a cup a scald.

She's the 'spit of' you meaning she's looks very like you.

'Sleiveen' meaning not a nice person.

Garda barracks = police station

She gave out to him = she et him. She et the face off him.