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?

Well, inside the church, it would be very obvious whether it was Protestant or Catholic (or what strand of Protestantism), but in Ireland, you would generally be able to tell at a glance passing by. The vast majority of Catholic churches in Ireland date from the second half of the 19th c, after Catholic emancipation and the Synod of Thurles, and Paul Cullen’s campaign to enforce conformity to Rome and encouragement of Marian devotion, and look often very uniform. Previously, because of the suppression of Catholicism, most churches were just simple houses.

(Other big push in the mid-20thc — often those round basilica-type churches with a central altar).

Church of Ireland churches were being built in large numbers from the 1780s with funds from Parliament — so they’re often older, built for a smaller congregation, to a standard-ish pattern (nave, square bell tower with louvres), and often further away from centres of population.

It's easy to recognise the difference with the spire on the Catholic ones and square on the protestant ones. Also their location, the Catholic one is prominent in a small town and the protestant one is usually very small and tucked away a bit, unless of course you are in a protestant town in which case its the opposite. Obviously trickier in urban areas.

And what about duck loaf?

Oh yes my mam loves a nice duck loaf.

I agree with this…. But I forgot to click quote sure nobody knows what I’m agreeing too!

I think most of the words or phrases are pretty commonly used in Scotland too.

When you have a deep longing on you for something tasty, you say "I have a goo on me for a single of chips ..."

My grandmother loved her Duckloaf too @JaneJeffer and @Deadringer
From Tesco - Stafford's bakery.
We never have to buy it now since she died.

Northern Irish went to university in England, stuck around and eventually returned home. In general in was the SE/ Home counties that struggled with my Irishisms (and particularly like to take the Mick). Many already mentioned.
Only after
Foundered for chilled to the bone.
Hoke (rhymes with poke) out - to find something.
Heel of the bread - I am sure this can't be just Irish.
I would tend to put "but" at end of sentences.
Boke
Gutties
Shouck - ditch just isn't the same.

Since moving back I have noticed the use of lift. "Have the bins been lifted?", meaning have the bins been collected.

Shouck - ditch just isn't the same.
That's reminded me that we use ditch for a stone wall and tell people "stay between the ditches" when we want them to drive carefully!

I called the MIL'S dog a poor 'Craythur' which she thought was hilarious as 'it sounded like a hole in the ground'....Don't ask! I have always suspected that there may be a few Bats short of a full Belfry at times..

The FIL used to call me the 'little po-taaay-toe' when I first started to date DH. As in 'Oh! look it's our little po-taaay-toe'.😃 😕🙁 😡.

Picture Into the west, and the god awful Shannon (do you like me hat Shannon) and Joe-hoooo-sif (you're not wearing a hat joe-hoooo-sif) type attempt at the Irish accent. FIL did ask me once if I was offended by his remarks and I replied, tongue-in-cheek, 'Hey! What's a Famine between friends like'.🙁 To which he proceeded with what I can only describe as a deliberate attempted assassination of my shoulder blades, by vigorously patting me on the back while saying 'that's the spirit, all a bit of fun'.

On a morning break at one of my first jobs (and feeling homesick, didn't know a sinner, and thinking of going back home) , two young lads plonked themselves down beside me at the canteen table and in a Tallaght accent that could cut glass and a mouth full of chips, one of them announced to the table , 'I don't know about you girls but I could eat the arse off of a low flying pigeon'.

I never looked back - I had found my people - the nights out were legendary - But I digress.

@januaryjan 😂

Irish people never use "trod".

@WitchWithoutChips that pulmonic ingressive if definitely alive and well in Aberdeenshire! Always wondered what on earth it was, usually in context with mannies and sheddies ;)

@WitchWithoutChips so that's what it's called! Very common in Ireland, I would say, mostly in a indrawn "yeahyeahyeah" gasp. (Not to be confused with the ending a phonecall with bye-b-byebyebye")

And 'I'll let you go now'. As if you were straining at the leash , when in reality she just wants you to go so she can finish her shopping!

The reverse sexing of insults is something English ppl probably do as well ? Just with different insults. A 'desperate hoor' is a very dodgy / nasty man. Never a woman. Such women exist of course. But she'd be called ' a weapon'.

I never knew that's what it was called so checked it out on google. Yep it's very common particularly in Waterford or Vedrarfjord the first place the Vikings invaded.

Jesus @januaryjan your fil sounds like a racist pr*ck !!!

I am just thinking about the difference between ‘I’m after my dinner’ to the English and to the Irish. To the English this means I am actively following my dinner like a policeman running after an escaping thief. To the Irish I am coming after my dinner very calmly as night follows day.

You mean tread has no past tense or the Irish don’t say tread either?

As my Nan would say,' If ever there was a man, who only opened his mouth to change his foot...there he is'.

"I'm only after my dinner" is different again. I would take it to mean "I have just finished eating my dinner". [In the middle of the day. That's another bunfight but]

@WhatWouldJeevesDo tread isn't used either (unless you're W.B Yeats) except for tyres We would never say he trod on my foot we use stood.

Slightly off topic but as long as I live I don’t think I’ll ever laugh as hard as I did when my Dad, when discussing Chinese takeaways, pronounced hoisin duck pancakes as hosheen duck.

I laughed til I was in pain.

I once asked a friend what words he used for meals. He said his mother was Irish, the whole subject caused him enormous anxiety and they only ever had breakfast, dinner and dinner

@diddl @Abhannmor yes lots of ways to tell the difference between different houses of worship. DH is not a connoisseur of ecclesiastical architecture.