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

I also think it fits very well with the Irish psyche and its tendency to be indirect plus its general mistrust of authority (thanks to centuries of colonisation, there). There's often the official story and then what really happened. Mar dhea is the indirect way of letting people know you might be mouthing the official version but of course it's not what really went on.

Hit the nail on the head! I know what it means, it's just hard to translate it into one English word or phrase as it means so many things! That's the beauty of Gaeilge. It has our very history embroiled in every word and expression.

Beanaseireann came on recently to say she started the first one, Fiona. I joined in during last summer.

Bualadh bos, Bean.
Buíochas, Fuzzy.

'I'll let you go a mhichín'. If you ever overhear that, you'll know that you're talking to my father on the phone to me lol.

As for the the concerns about my health? Sure I'm grand. But I'll tell you all about it at the same time. Teshts? Did any of ye have to ever go to the hoshpital for teshts? Well I'll tell yis all about mine now if you don't hurry up the conversation onto what Bridie next door is doing with the new double glazing and where she got the bloody money for it!

Loving the discussions on our language. You can imagine my surprise when I started to study German and discovered that kaput was actually a German word meaning that something was kaput!

Another one I learned studying Spanish was Arriba! which means hurry up. I'm not sure if any of you remember Speedy Gonzalez the cartoon? Again, I didn't know that it was a Spanish word. I thought it was just a sound the speedy mouse made!

Bockity. I still use that over here! Oh goodness knows how I'm understood half the time over here. I do have my Mrs Bucket voice for colleagues and the phone. It's so international over here that you all have to over enunciate everything as there are so many international accents.

My favourite colleague was a Hungarian lady who shared a house with Italians so that's how she learned English. I was baffled for weeks as to where she was from until she told me. She had learned an Italian accented English Not in a million years, if my life depended on it would I have placed her accent.

What I can't get away with over here is saying 'For Fuck's sake'. You get told 'if you continue to swear at me, I'll have to terminate the call'. 'I'm not fucking swearing at you! I'm just swearing!'. 'Ok, I'm terminating this call now'. This has happened me many times on the phone to Sky or my various broadband providers over the years. As for saying 'Christ'. Well holy God said Miley! You may take yourself into the church of the seventh day adventists and plead for the Lord's forgiveness or something.

Well, the thread has moved on pages overnight, had ye no beds to go to!!!

Sorry to hear you've not been well, @Therewereroses - I hope you've been drinking plenty of flat 7-up to aid in your recovery!

I am a confused creature in that I have cupboards in the kitchen but a hot press upstairs.

I still say 'I'll let you go' instead of saying that I have to go. It's our polite way of saying that I know that I'm imposing on your time and don't want to keep you, so I shall let YOU go really I need to pee

My mother's way of ending a call is 'Well that's it now, I've no more news'. Usually before the 9 o'clock news comes on.

My longest time of being misunderstood here was asking for water.

I asked for water. Pardon?
Water? A bottle of water? Sorry, I don't understand
Water and motioned a drinking motion. I don't understand.
WATER? A perplexed shaking of the head
Water. No, we don't have that
Finally saw the fridge and pointed at the water. Still a look of comprehension.
In complete desperation and for shame on me, I gave in and said, could I have 'woe-tah' please? Oh yes!!! Of course

When I was later ruminating on this on the way home, I realised that what English hear when I pronounce water is 'wawter' with a bit of a lisp in the middle.

I don't know who was more frustrated, me or the woman behind the counter.

I was shopping for a card in Asda.
I asked a lad did he know where the cards were in the store.
He brought me to the carrots.

I'm English living in Ireland born to Irish parents and get misunderstood and confused looks all the time 😊
I say kitchen cupboards then have to revert to press( should know this really from the parents!!) I say half term, break up and school mums just look and don't answer me.
I get misunderstood in shops/doctors because of my accent , find it very strange when my kids say pants for trousers makes me laugh because pants in the uk are your underwear!! Although my kids are used to me and use many English words themselves.

@Joolsin

Well, the thread has moved on pages overnight, had ye no beds to go to!!!

Sorry to hear you've not been well, @Therewereroses - I hope you've been drinking plenty of flat 7-up to aid in your recovery!

I am a confused creature in that I have cupboards in the kitchen but a hot press upstairs.

Oh, you're fancy with your hotpress! Cupboards? my mother would look qware at me if I went home talking about cupboards.
We not only had a hotpress but we had a coatpress too. Now that, I've never heard of before or since, but we had one (it's where the wellies, coats and 4 stone sack of spuds lived, halfway down the hall).
The hotpress was an uninsulated boiler surrounded by slatted shelves for airing laundry just in off the line. It was walk-in and was a request of my mother's when the house was being built. It also served a time brewing wine until one big vat of red wine exploded and we were all individually blamed for having put the immersion on at some time the preceeding week. The immersion had not in fact been left on, but it got the blame in any case. No more wine was brewed in our hotpress. When I grew up and got big and had my own houses, I was rather disappointed to discover that our boilers were always insulated and the hotpresses were not walk in.
I've nowhere to store sheets and duvet covers now! They're in the top of the wardrobes!

@Therewereroses de-lurking to say - yes! water is one I've had terrible trouble with, but in the States. I remember having to pronounce it 'wadder' in order for people to understand me :) it's the soft Irish 't'

I love the Irish expression "I'll do it now in a minute". The confusion it always causes is class - are you doing it now? In a minute? When, woman??

And then of course you never do it and baffle them even more.

My goodness this thread has been busy!! I won't even try to comment on all the posts since yesterday but welcome to @Therewereroses (I love that song about the two friends from opposite sides of the divide both killed )

I honestly do believe lots of people had covid at the very end of 2019 and early 2020 but didn't know. Long covid sounds awful.

Bloody cold here again today, don't let any sunshine fool you! I'm not looking forward to having to get teen DS out of bed and off to school in the morning. Pray for me!!!

@kissmelittleass

I'm English living in Ireland born to Irish parents and get misunderstood and confused looks all the time 😊 I say kitchen cupboards then have to revert to press( should know this really from the parents!!) I say half term, break up and school mums just look and don't answer me. I get misunderstood in shops/doctors because of my accent , find it very strange when my kids say pants for trousers makes me laugh because pants in the uk are your underwear!! Although my kids are used to me and use many English words themselves.

Surely pants are your trousers? In america they call trousers pants though. Maybe you have American friends? In Ireland I've only ever heard of underpants (childrens) and trousers. Maybe language has evolved there now and we've become more global!

I hope you're liking being in Ireland. What part? I really hope you're being welcomed. I hate when people say that they're not welcomed in Ireland (especially since you're Irish - but the English twang can make people suspicious sometimes). I feel so ashamed of myself actually, when people don't find Ireland to be a nice place to be. Particularly since I'm so fond of emigrating myself!

And céad míle fáilte daoibh! Ar ais arís!

Good luck with the return to school tomorrow!
Same here with two teenagers to dispatch at 8.10am.
They were the longest Christmas holidays ever!!

Love the story about brewing wine in the hotpress especially with the shocking use of the immersion heater ha ha!

When DH and I moved to England I was most put out to find we didn't have a hotpress. We had a combi boiler in the kitchen so didn't have any water tank at all! But I still couldn't understand where we were supposed to put our towels and bedding surely that's what the hotpress is for?! (and wine making!!)

And also to say on blaspheming, my DH and his family are CoI and they never 'take the lords name in vain'. And it was YEARS before I copped on. In fact, I only really noticed it when we had kids - my MIL would correct the Dgrandchildren telling them to say 'oh my goodness' etc.

What must they think of me? I'm always saying, 'Jesus!' 'Jesus Christ!' 'Oh my god', 'oh holy god', I even say 'jesus, mary and joseph!' if something really bad happens

We say Jesus Mary and The Carpenter - now THAT'S disrespectful

(also "pants" have always been underwear in my family)

What annoys me is this:

The person on here, who was annoyed about , "Micheál Martin's " name being pronounced wrong, was watching British news.

The person who was annoyed about "Gaelic" being said wrong, lives in the UK! Why not watch Irish news, and live in Ireland? If you are going to get offended by "the Brits" so. much?

It reminds me of people in Ireland saying "I fucking hate all the Brits, all the Brits are bastards", while

• watching British TV

- using British websites

• Supporting British football teams

-Going to work in England.

How does it make any sense?

I just really can't the level of hatred in Ireland, to mainly the British, but to generally anyone that isn't Irish also. I was chatting to a Pakistani doctor in Waterford last year, and he said the first thing he did when he arrived in Ireland was to take a boat trip. He told me the whole way over the river and back, the Irish man on the boat, only talked to him about "how he hated all the fucking Brits, he would murder every one of them, they are all fucking cunts". The doctor told me that he just wanted to enjoy his boat trip, but he couldn't. Similiarly my English cousin (with Irish parents) came to live in Ireland for a year, and was told that all the Brits are murdering bastards etc etc.

I think that the level of hatred in Ireland towards the British is disgusting, and it needs to improve.

I have worked in other countries in Europe, I have never seen any hatred, anywhere, as much as I have seen in Ireland towards the English. And all of those European counries were invaded 100 years ago, the same as we were. It makes me a bit ashamed of Ireland to be honest.

[quote SwimmingOnEggshells]@Therewereroses de-lurking to say - yes! water is one I've had terrible trouble with, but in the States. I remember having to pronounce it 'wadder' in order for people to understand me :) it's the soft Irish 't'[/quote]
Yes, it's the soft t. It nearly choked me to pronounce it the English way but I was parched. The girl wasn't English and had probably never her of warsher in her life.

@Sarahtrue11

What annoys me is this:

The person on here, who was annoyed about , "Micheál Martin's " name being pronounced wrong, was watching British news.

The person who was annoyed about "Gaelic" being said wrong, lives in the UK! Why not watch Irish news, and live in Ireland? If you are going to get offended by "the Brits" so. much?

It reminds me of people in Ireland saying "I fucking hate all the Brits, all the Brits are bastards", while

• watching British TV

- using British websites

• Supporting British football teams

-Going to work in England.

How does it make any sense?

I just really can't the level of hatred in Ireland, to mainly the British, but to generally anyone that isn't Irish also. I was chatting to a Pakistani doctor in Waterford last year, and he said the first thing he did when he arrived in Ireland was to take a boat trip. He told me the whole way over the river and back, the Irish man on the boat, only talked to him about "how he hated all the fucking Brits, he would murder every one of them, they are all fucking cunts". The doctor told me that he just wanted to enjoy his boat trip, but he couldn't. Similiarly my English cousin (with Irish parents) came to live in Ireland for a year, and was told that all the Brits are murdering bastards etc etc.

I think that the level of hatred in Ireland towards the British is disgusting, and it needs to improve.

I have worked in other countries in Europe, I have never seen any hatred, anywhere, as much as I have seen in Ireland towards the English. And all of those European counries were invaded 100 years ago, the same as we were. It makes me a bit ashamed of Ireland to be honest.

It's a bit like how you come onto a thread among Irish people and criticise them?

@IsFuzzyBeagMise

Good luck with the return to school tomorrow! Same here with two teenagers to dispatch at 8.10am. They were the longest Christmas holidays ever!!

I actually chuckled at that. Never again will a teacher be criticised (unless they try to strike and leave the little darlings with us any longer).

This reminds me of a family trip to Dublin in late 80s/early 90s and we went for something to eat. My dad tried to order minerals for us kids, and the Aussie staff member brought bottled water. Well holy GOD you wouldn't be right, paying for water. Much confusion until one of us piped up asking if they had Fanta