Ireland · Hiberno-Englishbanjaxed
adjective · Informal · BAN-jakst
Broken, ruined, beyond fixing. Used of machines, plans and knees.
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Ireland · Hiberno-English
Irish Slang
Hiberno-English is not standard English with a few local words dropped in. Irish grammar came across with the speakers who switched languages, and much of it is still working: "I'm after eating" is the Irish immediate past built out of English parts, "he does be working late" is a habitual tense English otherwise lacks, and "giving out" is a word-for-word translation of an Irish idiom that has nothing to do with giving. None of this is felt as slang by the people using it, which is exactly why it catches visitors out — the vocabulary can be looked up, the grammar cannot.
The regional splits are real rather than decorative. Cork has langer and the sentence-final boy, the north has wee and melter through Ulster Scots, and Dublin supplies most of what the rest of the country hears on television. Two other things are worth saying plainly: the words tourists arrive expecting — begorrah, top o' the morning — are not spoken here by anyone, and several words that sound merely quaint in print are genuinely coarse in the mouth. The entries below say which is which.
50 terms, each with definitions and worked examples.
By topic
Each page below collects every Irish term we have on one subject, side by side.
Start with these
The terms below carry the most usage detail — register, origin and the situations where they go wrong. They are the ones worth reading in full before the rest.
All Irish slang A–Z
50 terms
Terms beginning with B
begorrah
interjection · Dated · buh-GOR-ah
By God — a nineteenth-century euphemistic oath that no living Irish person says sincerely. Listed because visitors arrive expecting it, usually attached to 'top o' the mornin'', which is equally unused.
bold
adjective · Colloquial · BOHLD
Naughty, badly behaved. Said of children constantly and of adults teasingly; it does not mean brave or daring in Irish usage.
bollix
noun, verb · Vulgar · BOL-iks
A despicable or annoying man. In Ireland it is a person far more often than an exclamation, which is the reverse of British usage.
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Use with care
boy
noun, interjection · Regional · BOY, often written 'bai' or 'buoy'
A tag attached to the end of an utterance in Cork and much of Munster, addressed to any male of any age. It marks familiarity and carries no sense of youth.
Terms beginning with C
cat
adjective · Colloquial · KAT
Awful, dreadful. Applies to weather, performances, food and moods, and has nothing to do with cats.
chancer
noun · Colloquial · CHAN-ser
Someone who tries it on — charges too much, promises what he can't deliver, pushes into a queue. Condemnation mixed with a certain grudging amusement.
chipper
noun · Colloquial · CHIP-er
A fish-and-chip shop, and by extension any late-night takeaway. 'Going to the chipper' is the default end to a night out.
craic
noun · Informal · KRAK
Enjoyment, atmosphere, good company — the quality of an occasion rather than any single thing in it. The craic was mighty.
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culchie
noun · Informal · KULL-chee
Someone from rural Ireland, as seen from a city. Between friends it is teasing and often self-applied; from a stranger in Dublin it is a sneer.
Use with care
cute hoor
noun · Colloquial · cute HOOR — 'hoor' rhymes with 'poor'
A sly operator who works the system and stays just inside the rules — classically a local politician, publican or developer. 'Cute' here means cunning, not adorable.
Use with care
Terms beginning with D
deadly
adjective · Informal · DED-lee
Excellent, brilliant. Strongest and most natural in Dublin, where it can stand alone as a one-word reaction.
does be
verb, phrase · Regional · duz BEE
Marks something as habitual rather than momentary: 'he does be working late' means he works late as a rule. 'He's working late' would mean tonight only.
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Terms beginning with E
Terms beginning with F
fair play to ya
phrase, interjection · Colloquial · fair PLAY ta ya
Well done; credit where it's due. Used for an effort that took nerve, decency or persistence rather than for talent.
feck
verb, interjection · Vulgar · FEK
A milder stand-in for the stronger f-word, used in the same grammar: feck off, fecking, for feck's sake.
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Use with care
Terms beginning with G
gargle
noun · Colloquial · GAR-gul
Alcoholic drink, taken collectively. 'The gargle' is drinking as an activity and, often, as a problem.
gas
adjective, noun · Informal · GASS
Funny, entertaining. Of a person it means they are good company and make you laugh; of a situation it means it was absurd.
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giving out
phrase, verb · Colloquial · GIV-in OUT
Complaining, or telling someone off at length. 'Giving out to' someone is scolding them; 'giving out about' something is grumbling.
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gobshite
noun · Vulgar · GOB-shite
A fool, specifically a loud one who talks confident nonsense. Stronger than eejit and genuinely rude, though common in ordinary adult speech and heard on national radio.
Use with care
gowl
noun · Vulgar · GOWL, rhymes with owl
A contemptible fool. Strong, and strongest in Limerick and the mid-west, where it is a standard insult between men.
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Use with care
graft
noun, verb · Colloquial · GRAHFT
Hard work, and the willingness to do it. 'He's a great grafter' is high praise on a building site and in an office alike.
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grand
adjective · Colloquial · GRAND
Fine, adequate, no problem. Almost the opposite of its standard English sense: grand is the lowest passing grade, not praise.
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Terms beginning with H
hames
noun · Colloquial · HAYMZ
A botched job. Almost always in 'to make a hames of', meaning to do something so badly it has to be undone.
how's she cuttin'?
phrase · Dated · howz shee KUT-in
How are things? A rural greeting, now used mostly by older men or knowingly by younger speakers for comic effect. The 'she' refers to nothing in particular.
howya
interjection · Informal · how-YA, one syllable-ish
Hello. A greeting, not a question — it takes 'howya' back, or a nod, and never a report on your health.
Terms beginning with L
langer
noun · Vulgar · LANG-er
An idiot or an obnoxious person. The definitive Cork insult, used constantly there and barely at all elsewhere.
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Use with care
like
adverb · Colloquial · LOIKE in Cork and Limerick
Sentence-final tag, heaviest in Cork, Limerick and the north: 'it was freezing, like'. It marks the statement as explanation or mild protest, and is a different word from the American mid-sentence 'like'.
locked
adjective · Informal · LOKT
Very drunk. One of a long list of Irish words for the same state, and among the most widely used.
Terms beginning with M
melter
noun · Regional · MEL-ter
Someone who wears you down — a pest, a drone, a person who will not stop talking. Northern, strongly associated with Derry and Belfast.
mot
noun · Dated · MOT, rhymes with 'not'
A girlfriend, in older Dublin speech: 'the mot', 'me mot'. Now largely the property of men over fifty and of anyone quoting them.
Terms beginning with N
naggin
noun · Informal · NAG-in
A 200ml bottle of spirits — the flat one that fits in a coat pocket or a sock. A unit of measurement in Irish social life, especially for teenagers and students.
notions
noun · Colloquial · NO-shunz
Pretensions above your station — ordering the wine, mentioning your holiday, using a word nobody asked for. Accusing someone of notions is Ireland's standard weapon against self-promotion.
Terms beginning with O
Terms beginning with P
Terms beginning with R
Terms beginning with S
scarlet
adjective · Informal · SKAR-let
Mortified with embarrassment. Used of yourself, and — this is the Irish part — of someone else on their behalf: 'I'm scarlet for ya'.
session
noun · Informal · SESH-un, often clipped to SESH
A long stretch of drinking, usually somewhere private and unplanned. 'A bit of a session' means the night got away from everyone.
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shift
verb, noun · Informal · SHIFT
To kiss someone at length, typically at a disco, a festival or a nightclub. Kissing only — despite the vagueness of the word, it stops there.
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so
adverb · Colloquial · SOH, unstressed at the end of the sentence
Sentence-final particle meaning 'in that case' or 'then'. 'I'll see you Tuesday so.' It closes an arrangement and signals the conversation is finished.
sound
adjective, interjection · Informal · SOWND
Of a person: decent, reliable, generous with no fuss. The highest ordinary compliment one Irish person pays another.
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spice bag
noun · Informal · SPICE bag
Chips, shredded chicken, peppers and onions tossed with salt-and-chilli seasoning in a paper bag. An Irish-Chinese takeaway invention and the country's genuine national late-night dish.
sure
adverb, interjection · Colloquial · SHUR, unstressed
A sentence opener that softens whatever follows into something obvious and agreed: 'sure it's grand', 'sure you may as well'. It is not agreement and does not mean 'certainly'.
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Terms beginning with T
the jacks
noun · Informal · the JAKS
The toilet, especially a public one in a pub. Always plural and always with 'the'.
to be after doing something
idiom, phrase · Colloquial · AF-ter
To have just done something. 'I'm after eating' means I have just eaten — present tense in form, recent past in meaning.
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Terms beginning with W
wagon
noun · Informal · WAG-on
A woman judged to be spiteful or difficult. Aimed at women only, and although it is often said lightly it is an insult about a woman's character with no male equivalent.
Use with care
wee
adjective · Regional · WEE
Small — but in the north of Ireland it is attached to almost any noun regardless of size, as a marker of friendliness. A wee bill, a wee minute, a wee lorry.
what's the story
phrase · Informal · wots the STOR-ee
What's happening; how are you. A greeting between people who already know each other, expecting 'not much' rather than actual news.
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Terms beginning with Y
yer man
noun, phrase · Colloquial · yer MAN
That man; the man we both know about but are not naming. The female form is 'yer wan'.
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yoke
noun · Colloquial · YOHK
A thing whose name you have forgotten, or cannot be bothered with. Covers machinery, gadgets, tools and objects of any size.
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Use with care