You know you're really Irish when...

[Gossipyfishwife]

...you tell the barman to put the change in the poor box.

Lots of Irish Dadisms too..

"It's too cold for snow"
Swarfega is a solution for every problem.
And my absolute favourite from my Dad, describing a ferocious tackle in a GAA match, where two players nearly ended up dead….

“Shur twas only an aul Shamozzle.”

Or "The National" in Kilburn. What a place that was!

Dusty, we used to go to that Irish festival and I remember the flat caps as well!

Also remember going to the dinner dance or ceili at the local Irish centre and everyone standing up at the end of the night for the National anthem!

Yes to Mass cards as well.

Arf at Oliver Plunkett's head Encyclogirl that brought back memories

[I'm from E Midlands but my ma was Irish.]

I find myself telling off my dd saying "that was a little bit bold"

We still have the ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday and fish on Fridays!

I listen to John McCormack records when I've had too many

And I have a day-glo plastic Our Lady from Lourdes

doonhamer - that's not very surprising really, given that an awful lot of these sayings and phrases are originally from the Irish language, which shares a lot in common with Scots Gaelic, particularly the dialect spoken in SW scotland.

"Bockety" is one of my favorites, for something that's a bit broken/wobbly/about to fall apart

There you go Yonineedaminute , it's the MN version of everyone in Ireland knowing everyone else.

If half the people on this thread went to a meet-up, we'd probably discover our grandparents went to school together, or knew Michael Power in the chemist's shop.

Oooh, actually did any of you, when going 'home' for the summer, go to the Pattern on the August holiday? With all the floats going past, and music.
And that evening buying chips from the chipper van, and standing around the main street as dusk fell and Guinness fumes washed over you.

Always whole families, auld ones, and babies and everyone. No gangs of drunken scary types at all.

Those chips always had a most peculiar flavour.

I am roaring laughing at all of this.

My input:

1. You are as handy as a three legged stool - translation (sincerely) : you are making yourself very useful.
2. You will boil the arse off that pot (please turn off whatever is cooking).
3. She would talk the arse of a pot ( someone who talks too much).

Oh and:

A bad funderal is better than a good wedding

(explanation: no need for fancy clothes or preparation, no presents or keeping up with the jonses, just a family knees up where everyone supports each other).

Age 7, instead of going to the zoo on your school outing you're brought to see the wizened, decapitated head of St Oliver Plunkett.

There is a punch up at a wedding

Good old Oliver Plunkett. Isn't he looking well? (Always said at a funeral about the corpse).

Dunno if this Irish, but the nickname, “Follow the box”.

(Given to any aul wan or aul fella who went to every single funeral in a 25 mile radius.)

'My Nana had a ceramic tile with a picture of the pope standing in front of the Irish flag in her shower!'

Oooooh Tramore blaas, love them, so soft and floury.

jackeens and culchies
going to Dublin to buy the guna
All Ireland final at Croker, 15 players and 3 surnames per team
not bothering the doctor, Danny the Post/John Paddy Dan/Michael (Meehaul) Rua has the cure for shingles/fractures/psoriasis or 'exeema'

Newage Irish : Mucksavages v. Metrosexuals.

Means Munster v. Leisnter in rugby.
Munster people are rugged and possible uncouth v Leinster vain and well presented, but with an element of preening!

Another saying:
Is it 8.00 o'clock already and not a chick or a child in the house washed!!!!!

He is not backwards about coming forwards : Obnoxious/grabby.

Being 'forward' is very frowned upon.

squoosh Blaas are the best bread product ever produced in the world. Fact

August 15th and December 8th 'Countryman's day in town'

Also, the famous response when asked for directions:

"You don't want to start from here"

Did anyone want to be on the Rose of Tralee when they were younger? I always thought it looked so glam and the roses were so 'lovely'.

Cringe!

And the enormous hours long queues at the funeral removal place for everyone to file past the body and shake the hand of the family.

When we were there in the summer we saw people queuing round the block waiting!

And the having the body in your front room overnight before the removal and everyone saying all the rosaries etc. I met my English dh after my grandparents died, and when I told him about this tradition he was horrified!

"You’re never without an arse or an elbow."

Said to us if we complained of some ailment.

In the 80's, your uncle giving you a £20 note to run to the shop to buy him 20 Major and a box of matches and then telling you to keep the change!

Felt as wealthy as a sheikh.

Stopover to see St Oliver on the way to the beach at Bettystown!

Yoni, we moved back here 15 years ago. The first Removal we attended was, as is usual, an open coffin.

My English dh came into view of the coffin and put the brakes on. He started reversing out of the funeral parlour and I had to push him forward. He was completely traumatised! In hindsight I should have warned him, but I just assumed he knew that’s how it would be.

Anywhere outside of Dublin is 'down the country' even if you're heading North. Dubs have a terrible superiority complex!

"Skinny Malink Malogen, umbrella feet
Went to the pictures and couldn't get a seat
When the picture started
Skinny Malink FARTED
Skinny Malink Malogen, umbrella feet"

My granny's sister used to teach us this (god rest her) when we were kids (I'm 44 now). I've taught it to my own DD and nieces and nephews.

Burying the baldy fella = having a shag

The first bank machines were AIB and were called Banklinks, and immediately christened Drinklinks as main use was to get your money out when heading for a few after work.

Twinkle I heard this morning that there is a Copper's musical in the pipeline! Paul Howard (Ross O'Carroll Kelly books) is writing it to honour the place for the 50,000 Irish people who met their other halves there.

YY to working out who you have in common - I was on a training course 2 weeks ago and did that chat with the trainer - turned out I worked with (and trained) her husband 10 years ago. She delivers some training in the UK and that conversation never happens there.

Oh, I'm actually in D2 at the moment - it's not the posh place, that's D4 all the way!

Naming statues/public artworks
Molly Malone - the Tart with the Cart
Anna Livia fountain - Whore in the Sewer
Two women with shopping bags on a bench on Liffey St - Hags with the Bags
Millennium clock - digital clock under the surface of the Liffey - the Time in the Slime
The Spire - Stiletto in the Ghetto, Stiffey at the Liffey, Erection at the Intersection

Something hard to manage was like "minding mice at a crossroads"

I grew up in Ireland.....

I always say shite

Here's some more great ones....

"Ach hello there ya wee girl"

"It's a powerful day!"

"As sure as God's in heaven"

Haven't seen him in donkey's years. A middle-aged American asked me what that meant

And my favourite: Ach, he's away with the fairies

Knew this lovely old lady, she grew up in Donegal, in her kitchen she had a photo of the pope up and next to it Elvis Presley!