A classic Irish saying at this stage…
When living abroad, it’s the little things you can miss about home. The Barry’s (or Lyons) tea. The McDonnells Curry Sauce. The packets of Tayto.
If you’ve ever lived abroad with a bunch of Irish, at some stage in front of a group of people, you will begin to speak Irish to one another while pretending you know exactly what the hell the other person is saying to you.
Or failing that, once people realise that Irish is actually a language, they will inevitably ask you to speak some of it to them.
The go-to line? Probably, “Ciúnas bóthar cailín bainne.” But after that, your next up is probably, “An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas?”
Now if you’re a fella chatting up a girl, you’ve probably told her that means you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, rather than the reality.
Jenny from Wexford has been living over in Australia for the last couple of years, and this has been her standard line when people ask. But they’ve been asking so often, she decided on a rather more permanent solution.
She was at home in Wexford recently and called into BePierced, who duly inked her arm in the famous phrase.
We think her primary school teacher will firmly approve of this.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
