You know you're really Irish when...

[Gossipyfishwife]

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

My mother keeps a 2 litre Coke bottle full of holy water in the garden shed.

For topping up the fonts, squoosh?

Irish Dad who passed away a long time ago but this thread has reminded me of so many things I took for granted in my English childhood:

Bleedin eejits, screaming banshees, biddies, skinny malinki big banana feet (what is that all about??), away with the fairies, acting the goat, queer fellas, sending me to the shops for his fags and swan vestas when I was 8 genuinely thinking I would be served if I said it was for my dad, and being taken to funerals of random people from the pub.

"Butsies on your apple" = " may i have the rest of your apple when you're finished with it"?

oh and spotty Muldoon?

There' a font inside the front door which is usually bone dry so not sure what the 2 litres are for. I have my suspicions she christened my niece over the kitchen sink when no one was looking.

AndTwoBits We said "Buts on ya" for the remains of an apple!

And if you accidentally dropped said apple, or any other bit of food, once you blessed it it was fine to eat lol

I work in my Dublin office q often and have met your actual Father Brian D'Arcy (your actual Father Brian Trendy aka the basis of Father Ted) when he's popped in a few times. starstruck
That, and one of the boys in the office's brothers was the most "capped" escort at the Rose of Tralee which makes him a total celebrity in my book.

SlapperFace Cocks the musical for you Twinkle!

Talking about who you know, I was in school with Paul Howard (couple of years below me)

Worked out last year that me and another MNer grew up about 50 yards from each other (she referred to a particular bus route) but we don't know each other in person.

Jameses St! Defo a "swear" word from the older generation, I remember my grannies saying it.

Anyone remember that water park in Annamoe (not Clara Laragh) beside the trout farm? We brought a crowd of kids there for a charity day out, didn't have a huge amt of cash, and basically told them that if they saw an empty boat/canoe to hop in and act innocent...

DD has been to Clara Laragh and Bounceworld. Too old for Tayto park though. We've done Glenroe farm LOADs of times (nieces and nephews starting to go there as well). It has pictures of the stars on the walls of an old farm building - Gabriel Byrne looking VERY young. There's always pigs in the building next door so the smell is...interesting.

Brittas Bay in the summer - traffic queueing on the N11 for HOURS, if you needed a pee it was such a long trek back to the loos you were told to go in the water and hunker down . Sandwiches with actual sand in them out of Tupperware, and orange squash the only drink allowed.

Sitting outside the pub (Jack Whites) on the way home with a Club Orange and a pack of Tayto or King crisps while the parents had a pint.

Learning to drive in Sandyford Industrial Estate on a Sunday as everywhere was closed and there were huge empty car parks, great places to do your bunny hops without hitting anything.

Brownie/Girl Guide trips to Rathdrum/Avondale House (actually a beautiful place as there are so many rare trees and a lovely river walk there)

Girl Guide walks to the Ballycorus lead mines up the back of Shankill/Bray - campfires where we were allowed to toast marshmallows fecking liquid lava that burnt our tongues

Did anyone else do the baked bananas in foil in the embers of the fire? You made a slit in the skin and slipped in a load of chocolate buttons, which all melted through the hot banana?

Jaysis I still live here and am getting homesick!

I saw a dad giving his kid a lift on the crossbar of his bike the other day and it reminded me of giving " backers and crossers" and how it was an acceptable way to travel in the pre cycle helmet era.

Likewise me and a mate used to cycle out to Dublin airport to watch the planes, a round trip of about 12 miles and as long as were back for dinner, timed by the angelus, nobody batted an eyelid.

The use of euphemisms, like WW2 being called 'the Emergency', the 'Northern Ireland thing..'.the Troubles', an enormous hurricane in the 19th century, was called 'the Big Wind'. There are more but that's all I can think of now.

When you get the hang of something 'Now your suckin' diesel'

OnTheBottom I love Avondale, we used to go there all the time for a picnic and a bit of a walk.

When your Dad says your newborn is
"Fat like budder"

When you know what
"There'll be two moons in the sky and one in the dunkel" means.

Of course

Such a great thread brings it all back.And i still live here as well.

"Keep her lit "!

Twink, Wanderley Wagon, Bosco "ta se uafasach", Biddy & Miley (and dirty Dick), Mike Murphy, Gaybo, Dicky Rock and housewife's fave Joe Dolan (RIP)

TV was truly shite til we got Channel 4

Joe Dolan is dead
Last time we were back we went to the Dublin Museum on Stephens Green, and there was a tiny model of the Wanderley wagon in one of the rooms, just sitting there on the mantelpiece if I'd had bigger pockets...

Didn't someone put Joe Dolan's hip on Ebay a few years ago?

When the snow was thick on the ground and there was talk of a snow day, my Mam didnt ring the school or use her own judgement...Oh No...she would say "Wait till 9 oclock and we will see what Gay says"

Lots of things happened or didnt happen in our house depending on Gay Byrne's say so!!!

Gaybo the oracle!

I got to go in the real Wanderley Wagon at RTE . It was disappointingly small inside , which obviously makes sense now but then as I child I couldn't work out how they all fitted inside .

My Mum still won't hear a word against Gay. "you don't understand she says, he pushed back a lot of boundaries".

Well, compared to Boc and Tubs he probably was god-like.

No one in England believes me about the time at the age of 11 that we were taken on a school tour to.... (drumroll) a cheese factory. In the midlands. Which we drove two hours to get to. In a heatwave. It stank, it was SO boring, and we all had to wear plastic head to toe including hair showercap things.

It wasn't even a fancy cheese factory - I remember them showing us the two big vats for white cheese and "here's where we put in the red colouring for the red cheese!"