Top 80 Irish Slang Words: The Gift of the Gab

I'm definitely gonna need this if I wanna go to Ireland!

I said like alllllllllll of these to people I know and they were soooooooooo confused

My father, from Dublin, often says: Jaysus! It would make you jump up and never come down again!

is there a slang word for insult?

A great fun hub, really well put together, great stuff, well done, thanks for sharing, voted up, Lee

Suzanne, this was a real interesting read about the top Irish slang words and their meanings. Voted up!

Those words make no sense

Great fun!! Thank you for sharing those great Irish slang words with us :) Brilliant. Have a great week.

brill site ! and I went to Trinners !!!

Hahaha that was gas! :P Reall fun and great craic ;)

gwan oura dat ye bleedin' mad ting. ur aulfellas a durtburd for sayin i stroked ur scratcher out d gaf man. he can ask me bollix if he tinks im gettin into a barney wit him over it the poxbottle, sure ur aulwan kno's wot he's like n all inanyways dya kno worimean pal. nice wan yea, cyerafter.

You have no idea how much of this I recognised... and I've never been to Ireland! So much of this looks like Australian slang to me.

I hear things like "deadly", "donkey's years", "fella", "knackered", "we legged it outta there", "mortified", "we went to the pictures" and so on on an almost daily basis, just to name a few. Oh, and "it's bucketing down" comes up semi-regularly in winter (you know, when it actually rains).

And who said Strine was an Australian invention?

Wonderful. I lived in Britain for many years and when I first arrived, I couldn't understand a word they were saying, "You alright me duck?"

That said at speed, did not sound like English.

You have compiled a great list here.

I learned from it. So nice!

Great stuff! Voted Useful, Interesting, and Up.

It's funny, though: the thing that wrong-footed me when I first arrived in Ireland isn't on this list. Every time I went to buy something in a sandwich shop or get a bed at a hostel, the person behind the counter would ask me, "Are you okay?" For the first day or so, I thought I might be coming down with something. Then I ended up third in line and heard the woman behind the counter ask everyone if they were okay, and I realized that "Are you okay?" is just the Irish version of "How can I help you?"

Had a good laugh at myself. :)

Very funny. It's for a poem and I can just see the look on people's faces in the workshop. Although, it might be fun as a joke. Too bad April Fools' Day is past.

Definition of a farmer a man how is outstanding in his own field

Thanks so much. Will do.

Nelly

Great page! Looking for a slang or colloquial term for farmer. Can you help?

What does 'has the bant' mean?

Sentence: run down has the bant and gets it off him.

Ya see i'm in a play and i really need to know what to do....

man i loved this article, my family came from Swords in ireland, although i have never been, but it was amazing to read a lot of expressions that me and my brothers use are in your irish slang words..and the others....well we learned them from watching "Father Ted" bless him, he opened up ireland to the world. thanks for a great hub, voted up from me.

Glad I took a gander at this hub Suzie HQ :), I studied the words until I was completely knackered. Savage hub for reference, someday I'm makin it to the Pale for a pint of the Black stuff. I'm not slagging you, It's on the top of my list. Voted Up and Sharing, then I'm off to the Jacks!

Interesting! A few of these I actually wouldn't have even known were slang, because I have used/heard them so much (namely gawked, brutal and mortified). Then again I live in Massachusetts, and it sometimes seems we have as many Irish people as Ireland does :) Certainly interesting - esepcially how some of these phrases we also use, but for entirely different purpose. If someone told me they were shattered, I'd think they were drunk not tired!

This is fantastic!! I can't wait to use some of these ^_^

I'm voting and sharing this all over!!

Suzi -

And I thought the Irish spoke English! lol

My cousin does professional Irish dancing and has visited there every year. She is in love with the countryside and the people. I, unfortunately, have never been there, but would love to some day.

Still smiling over some of the expressions! Great Hub!

Great information Suzie HQ. Love the lists and entertaining hub. Now, if I can just figure out how to afford that trip to Ireland I long for. Voted up and across.

Funny reading that as I have taught Irish slang to students abroad :). Nice work :)

This is very interesting hub... I would have ever guessed the meaning of some of these words and phrases! I have never been to Ireland but if I am lucky enough to get the chance to visit, your hub here will come in quite useful! Voting up and useful..thank you for sharing :)

It's easy enough to see the words now, but to hear them - that's a whole different story. Lol.

I recently went to Newfoundland, and they have a lot of different slang words also. I spent a lot of time nodding and smiling, and then admitting I had no idea what they were talking about. Their accent didn't help one bit - especially after a few drinks.

I really LOVE this hub!! because I love the IRISH. Seriously...never met one that I didn't take to immediately! They're very funny and fun-loving.......I dated a pure Irishman for a couple of years.....laughed straight through all 2 years!!

I must have really absorbed your words and meanings because I scored 100% on the test! LOL..........

Thanks so much for this Suzie! UP+++

Loved this! Now if I can only save enough to go to Ireland so I can test out my nifty new words! Thanks for the fun hub!

What a gas :) Really enjoyed your hub. Have to bookmark it as I do plan on making it over to Ireland one of these years.

Yes! 100%! :^D What a fun hub. I may have to pepper my States language with these soon, especially "not the full shilling"! Voted up, funny, and awesome.

A great selection of slang words we use in our daily conversations here in Dublin. I enjoyed reading them.

Shared on Twitter and voted up

Voted up, funny and interesting. I'll have to re-read this to get the full effect of all the phrases! Some I know already so I guess they've been taken on as British or slid over the Irish Sea. This is a well-written, fun hub. Congrats. Looking forward to reading more.

Suzie, this was a hilarious hub! Now, you have sparked within me an interest and desire to go to Ireland! :) If only I could find some vacation time... :)

@ Susie Q . . .thank YOU for your kind comments as well. Kenneth

Dear Susie Q,

you are very welcome to hear the truth about your amazing writing from me any day. And FYI, my ancestors came from Old Ireland. Yes. Proud of that too, lassie! (no correlation to the collie, Lassie, on TV), just waited to say that word. I love it.

Your friend, Kenneth

@ Susie: Sorry I forgot. I Voted UP and all the way on this hub. Great, great job! LOVED IT.

Hello, Dear Susie,

Here are some words I want to leave you that tell you how I describe this hub: AMAZING; THRILLING; PROFESSIONALLY-WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED; DELIGHTFUL; HYPNOTIC and FUN TO READ. So glad that I found YOU on Hubs.

You are destined for success in writing. I can sense that.

Kenneth

It is amazing how many of these slang words we use daily here in Dublin lol. I did not realise it until I read your list. Great hub and I enjoyed reading it.

One you might want to include is Guards. We use it all the time but foreigners would not know it is the slang for our police

Shared on Twitter and voted awesome and useful

What a great hub! I had a wonderful laugh to begin my day with...thank you! One day I will get over there and look up my ancestors, the O'Dowds....greatly enjoyed this hub!

Voted up and funny. I loved this. Always have wanted to see Ireland now I can practice up on the slang. Thanks for sharing and passing this on.

A great idea to put together a hub on slangs. Very interesting and useful as well. Bookmarked it.

I wish more people write hubs with slangs used in their countries as well.

Voted up all the way. Shared it too.

Lovely hub. Should be framed and in a pub.

This is great!! I wish I'd had your list before we traveled to Ireland in 2010. We had a wonderful time and although we didn't always understand we had fun trying. Voted up and shared!

Very interesting and it's always nice to learn new words. This is also a good hub if you want to go to Ireland.

LMAO! A lot of it seems to be similar to Essex slang ... but, then I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing lol.

Shared, up and funny.

Very interesting. Had fun reading all the slang words, some familiar, some not so. And I made perfect score too. Thanks for sharing.

What about "to be sure, to be sure"? Or is that just a cliché?!

Wonderful! Love Ireland. My friend will be so proud of my new words when she comes over in August.

I love it! I love the Celtic heritage and studied much of the literature but there isn't much slang involved. Long as a donkey's years.. these are very interesting and I love learning about new cultures.

Hi Suzie! I got 100% right on your quiz. It seems that it´s a donkey years now that I have heard some of these words. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of my wonderful years in Ireland.

Loved it & saved this in favourites as well as we plan to spend some time in Ireland . I am Ciotóg !!

Great work, Suzie HQ! I loved it, thank you for the morning laugh. :)

Beejeezus Suzie HQ,

C'mere till a tell ya, tell me this n tell me na more. Ya da jist scribbled a savage yoke. D'ya know what a mean like. If a was na busy I'd take ya for a swalley, a few scoops ana drap o wet stuff. Me mucker's actin da maggot and am shtarvin. He's such a tool a tink a'll put the shades on im. Gotta leg it now, a'm go'in for a kip. A will ya share ya cos I dini do naadin like. Sound jobbie, ur a quare oul doll.

WOW Suzie HQ,

great hub, I'm still laughing me leg off. Voted up and up and all the usual suspects,

MJ.