To celebrate the upcoming launch of Damo & Ivor’s brand new television show, JOE takes a look at some of the strange and wonderful phrases used on our Irish streets every day and tells you what basics you’ll need to get by.
You can spot a tourist in Ireland from a mile away and not just because of their funny clothes or the SLR camera hanging from their necks. You’ll know someone is a tourist if they ask you a question that doesn’t start with ‘C’mere a minute, love’ or ‘D’you have any idea where [insert place name here] is, d’ya?”
So to help out the visitors from overseas we’ve picked out five essential phrases that you’re likely to hear on an Irish street, whether it’s the middle of Dublin or the back arse of nowhere (aka. Leitrim).
“Ah Jaysus, that’s bleedin’ poxy”
TRANSLATION: ‘Dear God, that’s not good’… Usually heard on the north side of Dublin City, ‘poxy’ can be used to describe a variety of bad emotions ranging from slightly upsetting to downright devastating.
“We’re sucking diesel now, boyo”
TRANSLATION: ‘Suckin’ Diesel’ refers to something moving forward. Whether it’s a situation or a vehicle, if it’s moving smoothly or at great speed then ‘you’re suckin’ diesel, boyo’.
“Sunday’s game was pure cat malojan”
TRANSLATION: You’re more likely to hear this one in the Wesht of Ireland, but no matter the context, unless the person talking is referring to an actual ‘cat’ of course, the word ‘cat’ is a catch-all for words like ‘terrible’, ‘woeful’, ‘awful’, ‘useless’ and other such pessimistic adjectives.
“Would you ever go and dry up”
TRANSLATION: ‘Dry up’ basically means to ‘shut up’. It’s usually heard in the northern part of the country, but it’s not uncommon to hear it around other parts of the country too.
“Jaysus bai, you were clean rotten last night”.
TRANSLATION: ‘You were seriously drunk last night, man’. Clean rotten is a great Irish slang phrase that is used to describe a person’s drunkenness. It’s usually reserved for those who are so drunk they’ve forgotten where they live… or who they were shifting.
So there you have it folks. Five essential phrases from all over Ireland to help you and your tourist guests get by.
For more insights into Irish dialects, sort of, check out the new series of Damo and Ivor, on Monday nights on RTÉ Two.
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