Unlocking Ireland - thread uimhir a seacht!

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

A shiny new thread for us all to talk pure shite whilst we wait for lockdown to end

Morning all! Welcome Therewereroses - I think I had Covid in March 2020, by the time testing was up and running properly I got a neg result, but GP reckons I had it. If it wasn't Covid, fuck knows what I had, but I was in tatters for weeks. No long term symptoms though, thank God, long Covid is a nasty business.

I grew up in Donegal but didn't have a native Donegal teacher until 6th class. Hadn't a notion what was going on in Irish by that stage!.

Don't talk about Irish pronunciation in this house, DH is has Munster Irish, mine is Connaught. Anytime either one of us says anything there are dark mutterings about how that's not the right way to say it! DD ignores both of us and goes by what she's taught in school.

I think the multiple ways of using "grand" are some of the best Hiberno-English meanings.

I love that chart, so true.

@TheLongRider

Don't talk about Irish pronunciation in this house, DH is has Munster Irish, mine is Connaught. Anytime either one of us says anything there are dark mutterings about how that's not the right way to say it! DD ignores both of us and goes by what she's taught in school.

I think the multiple ways of using "grand" are some of the best Hiberno-English meanings.

We moved home with a London born 9 year old, and it was very amusing to watch him work out that ‘Grand’ could mean anything from ‘Lovely’ to ‘Utterly shite.’

Gaelic has always been widely used in Northern Ireland as the name of the language, calling it Irish Language is much more recent. Mil in Belfast is horrified that my children had to learn Gaelic!
Mil is Catholic, her father was in the old IRA. But learning Gaelic is beyond the Pale!
Dd1 did Gaeltacht stints in Cape Clear, my other kids refused.

Oh, re the cost, someone told me much later, that some trade unions and local GAA and the like have partial scholarships. I have no idea if that's true but worth looking into, it costs a fortune.

Ha!! The "in five minutes" thing is funny. I married into a family that don't like to be late to be early (all of them, it's weird verging on disturbing and definitely annoying) but even so, their "there in five" is 25.

Can I wade in on the "mar dhea" thing - I love the phrase, and it was often used in our house, growing up (Munster).
I copped MarDhea as a username years ago, and JaneJeffer...love both.

Anyone else know "plamás"?

Good old I will yeah and the almighty confusion it causes for non-Irish people.

In a previous job in a multinational IT company, I was like a bloody interpreter with that one.

"No, he didn't mean he would do that task for you just now when he said I will yeah. No, really he didn't."

Plámás is a great word for oily insincerity, full of empty praise and promises to get their own way.

I also like flaithiúlach and use it a lot - anyone else?

Plamás - Dad uses that one a lot. "Sweet talk" or "cajole" would be the best interpretation.

One of my favourite words is "lug" it applies to big eejity bullocks and big eejit young fellas. It's not as damning as calling someone a Gom.

My brother was called a gossún/gossan by his aunty.

Yes, of course. 'Plámás' to mean flattery or false praise.
Also 'raméis'; complete fabrication, untruths.
My father used 'mar dhea' too, but he used it more like a noun to indicate something that was pretend or made up, 'it's just mar dhea'. I thought it was spelled 'marry-ya' when I was a child as that was what I heard!

My mother always said Mar Dhea when I was younger - took years before I saw it written down as a real word but we knew what it meant! And we are Leinster with no Irish language background.
You know if you are being plámásed that it’s bullshit

"Flaithiúlach"..... oh god, yes.

"You were a bit flaithiúlach there with the expensive truffle oil, Fiona".

@FionaMacCool

Can I wade in on the "mar dhea" thing - I love the phrase, and it was often used in our house, growing up (Munster). I copped MarDhea as a username years ago, and JaneJeffer...love both.

Anyone else know "plamás"?

As in buttering someone up for your own ends? Plamas-ing someone?

Yes, Cliff exactly.

@TheLongRider

Plamás - Dad uses that one a lot. "Sweet talk" or "cajole" would be the best interpretation.

One of my favourite words is "lug" it applies to big eejity bullocks and big eejit young fellas. It's not as damning as calling someone a Gom.

My brother was called a gossún/gossan by his aunty.

I'd hear plamás as more "buttering someone up"... it'd be insincere.

And around us (Munster), its "garsún" and would be a toddler/ small boy.

Piseogs is another one that I havent heard for a while?

Cross post Cliffs

Snap :)

Colm O'Regan Wants a Word on Easter Monday dealt with Hiberno- English. It's a good listen.

www.rte.ie/radio/utils/share/radio1/11295875

Glad it worked halfpast eleven.
I love the chart TheLongRider

I did wonder if Gaelic might be more widely used as a word in English in the north, eggandonion. Makes sense that it is/was, as that's how it's pronounced in Irish in Ulster. Thanks eggandonion.

Certainly know plámás and flaithiúlach and piseog too. My friends describe a man who's mad for the women as being 'a bit flaithiúlach with his flute'!! (I think that one was first used by Podge and Rodge years ago.)

My mother was always trying to form 'meitheal's' to get big jobs done at home. That was her favourite one .

Love the way words mutate too...as well as mar dhea I've known people to say what sounds like mocky-ah, which I'm sure is derived from the former. I used the word 'bockity' for years (usually to describe the poor trolley I ended up with in the supermarket) without realising that it probably comes from 'bacadh', which means lame in Irish.

If I forgot something (like my shopping list going out, or, more recently forgetting my mask in the car, as I nip in for milk), I'd call myself an amadán.

But, a bit like Therewereroses I'd adapt my use of language to the setting; and I wouldn't use "plamás" with someone a bit grand.

Thanks for the link TheLongRider. Sounds good, must have a listen.

Definitely, Lizzie. I remember 'mocky-ah' from my childhood; I had forgotten about it.

Yes, the 'bockity' trolley. That's a good one and I love 'flaithiúlach with his flute'. Very Podge and Rodge :)

I love this thread- it's a bit like the long-running Royal Style ones, which I also lurk over.

The odd snipe-and-run-away poster, but generally, just a good natter.
I cant remember who started the first one last spring?