Tag Archives: Irishisms

ross

Ross Martin

Office worker Ross Martin is an Englishman living and working in Ireland.

Now.

So he is.

Ross writes:

One thing that has always struck me about Irish people is their incessant need to continually fill the air with mindless chitter-chatter.

Now this would be fine if I could understand what everyone was saying but a lot of the time some of the sayings and phrases have me scratching my head. So ‘comere till I tell ya’ my take on some of the best ones I have picked up

As I’m writing this article ‘It is after getting very cold in the office’. Why put ‘after’ in front of a sentence? It makes no sense to me.

Well apparently (after some long winded research and advice) this has something to do with the formation of a peculiar vestige of Gaelic Irish and English so I suppose I better keep quiet about that one…Blame the British!

Saying ‘Now’ after every little thing you do. What the hell is that about? Makes himself a cup of tea, sits down at desk and drinks said cup of tea….’Now’. In the office I hear about 50 of these a day.!

Just drink your tea in silence will ya for ‘Jaysus’ sake (a constant reminder of the great one is also an inevitable anecdotal expression you hear on a daily basis)

Terms of endearment for people you may or may not know are plentiful and getting to grips with some of these is a bit of a challenge. Without prior research this is what I came up with:

‘Yer Wan’ – The girl over there or the girl I am talking about.

‘Yer Man’ – The man over there or any male I have ever had any contact with.

‘Oul Wan’ – Your mother or any old woman I’m talking about.

‘Oulfella’ – Your Father or any old man I’m talking about

These are all fairly easy to remember but the one that always gets me is ‘You see yer wan there now, she has notions’. Now god only knows what that means but my rough translation would be: Irish people should always remain humble and never think or behave above their station.

Half way through writing the article and an urgent query comes in, I ask Stephanie to have a look for me and she says she’ll do it ‘Now in a second’.

So now I am sitting here perplexed as to when she will do it. Will it be now or will it be in a second? ‘Jaysus’ only knows. I’ll just sit here and hope for the best, ‘You know that kinda way?’

Anyway, I had a good old laugh to myself writing this ‘So I did’ but the research and all the ‘Messages’ in between has left me ‘banjaxed’ which is ‘Gas craic’ for all involved.

I’ve been told I speak with an Irish twang when I go back to London to visit family and they think I will lose my cockney accent but ‘I will in me hole’ as I must remember my roots.

If you enjoyed reading the article can I get a ‘Yeah yeah yeah yeah (sucks in breath)’ from any of you? ‘Good man/woman yourself’ for reading. I’m off to watch the Snapper for further inspiration.

Thanks Amy