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?

Needs washed 🤣 I've been living in England for 18 years now and I only stopped saying this in the last few years- people thought i just had really bad grammar so I slowly weaned myself off saying it!

Another one: "so it is"

The nomenclature is a minefield so don't beat yourself up about it @Cattenberg !

The Republic is sometimes called the Free State by older people in N Ireland for example. British people often call it the South, though Donegal is further north than anywhere else on the island.

People here in Cork use the North as shorthand for N. Ireland too which is just as bad of course. I have a Protestant friend from Antrim who just says ' the Six ' hoping to not offend anyone.

I did have one Dub friend who use Aye. She was addicted to Corrie mind you. Lass is unheard of outside Ulster. Women round here will actually address a group as Lads , rather as Americans use Guys to mean both sexes.

The nomenclature is a minefield

You're not wrong😆 I'm from Belfast and grew up in a Protestant area. My parents were mixed and not very politically minded. The first time I used the term Northern Ireland in front of DP's Catholic nationalist parents, there was a very awkward silence. They prefer the north of Ireland.

Aye is pretty popular around these parts. 'Aye, dead on'🤣

People here in Cork use the North as shorthand for N. Ireland too which is just as bad of course.

That's partly because not everyone in NI likes the term Northern Ireland. You try to stay neutral especially if you don't know who you're talking to.

Six counties is used where I am too, though more so when I was young I think. Don't hear it as much now.

I worked in a civil service adjacent job in Dublin in the late 80s and early 90s, and we were not allowed to use the term 'Northern Ireland' when posting stuff to eg Newry - had to just use the county (or in the case of Belfast, just 'Belfast'). The post room would return your item to be re-addressed.

"Needs washed" is Scottish too, I was taken aback by this when studying in Scotland after being at school in the English midlands.

'Needs washed' is a regional thing in Ireland - not necessarily Northern Ireland, but in my experience not a common usage in Munster, Leinster or Connacht

I'm quite surprised at that tbh. For some reason I imagined the upper echelons at least to be more ' let's join the Commonwealth ' types. Shoneens as my mother used to call them. Every day a school day on MN !

Does anyone use the word latchyco? My Mum and aunt used it a lot. It was a derogatory term along the lines of a cute hoor but a bit milder😆

Yes, my Dublin father disapproved of Latchycos.

This. I’ve literally only ever heard it on Mn.

I’d think very poorly of the boss’s IQ if he didn’t understand that an employee who’s been summoned to a one-one-one boardroom meeting and is visibly apprehensive and asking if she’s done something wrong, isn’t likely to be asking him to have sex with her publicly rather than saving it for the boardroom.

(I’ve never heard ‘give out” used for sex in 30 years in England, only the US version, to ‘put out’, which is strongly gendered (women ‘put out’, not men) — how is it used?)

I remember my Dad using it.

Also Gobdaw

Where do they stand on geidimín?

I don’t think I’ve heard that one. What does it mean?

A flighty creature @Jitterybugs

Thanks JaneJeffer. No, definitely not heard that one but I’m now thinking the latchyco that lived near my aunt might have been associating with one 😆

Would she be a bit of a 'streel ' @JaneJeffer ?

If she is fond of lads she could be ' away with the hardys' round these parts. Presumably the same lads would be ' Hardy bucks'.
They might even be 'ould bowseys' if they are ' fond of the cratur'.

Ah @Abhannmor it's a while since I've heard streel.
We'd always be told to brush/tie back our hair as it was very streelish looking 😁 Meant in the sense of untidy, not groomed looking.
Buck eejit is another you've reminded me of.

I haven't heard streel in a while.

Great thread. Nothing Irish to contribute but the thread is making me reflect on the variety of regional expressions.

My parents moved to an East Anglian village in the 50s, having been brought up in the Black Country. Neighbours would look into my brother’s pram and say “Ain’t he a lovely little old boy”. My Mum wasn’t sure at first that this was a compliment.

In East Anglia when you travel by a complicated route or diversion to get somewhere you go “All round Will’s Mother’s”, in the Midlands you go “All around The Wrekin”. I actually don’t know who Will and his Mum are but The Wrekin is a real place.

In the Midlands they say Mom not Mum, it still surprises me when I see Mom on a card.

I think my grandmother made sayings up or got them from some other place in her heritage. I’ve never heard anyone else say “Over the wall, with a little red hat on” for when someone has gone a bit doolaly.

Theres an expression they use in the Midlands. If the place called Lower Gornal (I thought this sounded like a part of the body when I was a child) is mentioned, my relatives say “where they put the pig on the wall to watch the band go by”.

Sorry for the slight thread highjack/diversion.

Teanglann.ie gives Sraoill , a ragged untidy person , a slattern.

Great site and app. Lots of audio too.

That gave me a chuckle @Librarybooker ! My ex from Stafford used to say ' all around the Wrekin'.

I’m having a moment with téarma.ie at the moment — the new coinages of the Coiste Téarmaíochta. Recent additions include polltóir (piercer), mórmheáin (mainstream media) and cáca steall-liomóide (lemon drizzle cake).

I also discovered the Irish for sun salutation.

I love Irish. I spent a conversation class recently throwing around weather idioms. Tá sé ag caitheamh sceana gréasaí inniu anseo!