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?

Yes 'well got' is used here @JaneJeffer . 'Some woman for one woman' is another I heard recently.

The phrase ‘mid-term break’ always reminds me of the heartbreaking Heaney poem.

Dunnes were selling mugs with "Some woman for one woman" on them. The Helen James Considered range.
I gave them as gifts to the women in my life who deserved them.

@AinsleyHayes

I was in Ireland last week and heard a phrase several times I’ve not heard for ages in response to how are you? Or how’s your Dad etc.

there’s not a loss on me/not a loss on him

I’ve heard English people more than once think they were being insulted by these! I remember a friend in tears at some wedding because someone had said she was some woman for one woman and she thought it meant fat…

There were a few terms in 'Love/Hate' I didn't get. What's "ponty"? And when they say "gow", is that a Dublin pronunciation of "gowl", or another word?

Well in the north, 'aitch or haitch is supposedly a dead giveaway for what "side" you're on 😅

I say both! Sometimes I think NO I'LL stay true to my roots and say Haitch, and then other times I forget and say aitch (after 14 years in London)

I was talking to my brother yesterday and I noticed he has the same accent as Bill Badbody. He actually says sawft instead of soft and cawf instead of cough! we grew up in the same town, went to the same school and have different accents. I feel like Irish accents are like that, less predictable.

Luckily I am DONE with status anxiety now.

Can I ask a food related question please about mashed potatoes, scallions and butter generally known as champ in the UK? A regular dish in our household growing up but my Roscommon Mum called it cally.

Ive found reference to this online and it appears to be regional. It was always cally in our house. However, my mum had yet another name for it. She occasionally referred to it as puck. I texted my cousin in Roscommon to ask about the puck name and she confirmed they call it cally but also called it puck in childhood. I can’t find reference to puck anywhere online.

I’m wondering if anyone else calls it puck or if it was just a silly name in our family 😊

(I think I need to get out more!)

Mayo mother, cally, particularly when made with freshly dug new potatoes, mashed, mounded up, and a well in the middle filled with warm milk and melted butter into which forkfuls of spud from the outer edges are dipped before eating.

mmmmmmmm

Mayo but only about 5 miles from the Roscommon border btw.

Yum 😋

Champ isn't really a thing in much of England (ditto colcannon).

Poor old The English.

I’ve never heard champ called ‘puck’, but it’s also called ‘poundies’ in some places, and I know some older people who say colcannon for the same dish, even though technically champ has scallions and colcannon has cabbage…?

I’ve not heard poundies but that makes sense. My Mum used to say pound the potatoes rather than mash them. I wonder what’s the origin of the word cally and weirder still why some of the older generation in my family called it puck in my childhood days.

Always cally here, never heard of puck. My grandmother used to bruise the potatoes not mash them!

This thread is making me hungry!

Yes, who is WFH and considering going to investigate the presence of spuds and scallions in the kitchen…?

I made cally last night for the grandkids and I’m out of scallions. I do have spuds left.

Boxty anyone?

Brúite means battered doesn't it? Makes sense. Also means stressed out or worried I think?

And bruscar means crumbs or fragments as well although it's mainly used for rubbish these days.

Still yes with every wedding! Someone was even on the radio saying the good weather was because the Child was out (two actually!) the night before 😆I love these bat shit traditions

A four foot box, a foot for every year

That poem kills me...