Why Irish people should not be worried about being told they’ve ‘notions’

We've all heard it...

'Notions' is a word that gets thrown around a lot in Ireland and it often has dismissive and negative connotations. To say someone has 'notions' is interpreted as a put-down, plain and simple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNxaRR2Il3A "Such notions" and "he's notions, that fella" are phrases you may hear being thrown about, usually when discussing someone behind their back. But why should we be ashamed of having notions? Well, we shouldn't be ashamed at all is the answer. Or at least it is according to spoken word artist Natalya O’Flaherty, who was this week's guest on Ireland Unfiltered with Dion Fanning. On the show, Natalya explained why notions is such a good word and why it's a great thing to say about someone.

Natalya: I absolutely love when people tell me that I have notions, I think it's the best thing you can say to me because I do! We all do and I'm trying to, not in a very active way but just in my day-to-day, I'm trying to reclaim that word because it's such a good word.

It means, 'notions', anyone Irish will know exactly what it means, but I think it's an absolutely brilliant thing to have notions. You can have mad notions, you can have brilliant notions and they're still notions, you know what I mean? I think

Dion: But it's not used pejoratively?

Natalya: Yeah, no if someone is trying to dismiss me by saying you, 'Oh sure she's full of notions', I'm like 'Too right I am, do you wanna hear some of them? I'm going to put them in a poem for you, and I'll tell you them'.

Ireland Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with Carlsberg Unfiltered, will be available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Tuesday.