Sure you can fake the Irish accent,
but if you don’t mix in a few of these words into your sentence structure your will sound like any GobShite
Every country, every neighborhood has it slang and unique cuss words. But Ireland has a unique way of saying things, that I hope you Enjoy.
Acting the Maggot – Fooling and messing around.
An Lár – (Irish – ‘On Larr’) – City Centre (An Lar is written on the front of Dublin buses to confuse tourists!)
Áras an Uachtaráin – (Irish – ‘Arr Iss On Ook TarAwn’) – Home of the President i.e. Located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin
Bad dose – Severe illness
Bags (To make a bags of something) – a botched job
Bang on – Correct. Accurate
Banjaxed – Broken
Batch Bread – Thick bread, sometimes sliced already
Biteen – Little bit
Black Stuff – Guinness
Bogball – Gaelic Football
Bogger – A person from the countryside
Bowsie – A useless good for nothing usually a male
Boyo – Male juvenile delinquent
Bazzer -A haircut (Cork)
Brutal – Terrible or awful
Bucketing down – Raining
Bulmers – Legendary Irish cider, called ‘Magners’ abroad
Bunk Off – To skip school
Chancer – Someone who’d try anything i.e. ‘chance their arm’
Chiseler – A child (Dublin slang)
Ciotóg- A left handed preson (irish- Kithogue)
Cod/Codding ya – To pull someone’s leg
College – University
Craic – Fun; gossip i.e. “What’s/How’s the craic?” means “tell me your news/gossip”
Crack on -Continue on
Crocked – Broken
Croker – Croke Park in Dublin (main GAA stadium)
Culchie – A person from the countryside (i.e. outside Dublin) from agricultural
Cute hoor – A sly person, someone who quietly engineers things to his own advantage.
Dekko- Look at or inspect
Delira and Excira – ‘Delighted and Excited’ (Dublin slang)
Dub – A Dubliner. A ‘True Blue Dub’ is praise.
Dubes – Short for Dubarry (A brand of shoe favoured by Rugger Buggers)
Dublin 4 / D4 – A Dublin postcode, but usually refers to a posh person (even if they’re from another Dublin postcode)
Deadly – Fantastic, Wonderful
Dense – stupid or thick
Desperate – terrible (isn’t she/he so/just so Desperate) awful (Irish Roscommon etc slang)
Donkey’s years – For a very very long time
Dosser – Someone who is not working at their job
Eat the head off – To give out to someone
Eejit – Complete fool
Earwiging- Listening in to a private conversation
Effin’ and blindin’ – Swearing, cursing
Eff off – polite swear word
Fair play! – Well done
Feck Off – Go away.
Fella – A guy. Particularly as in ‘Me Fella’ or ‘My boyfriend / husband / partner’ (Dublin slang)
Fierce – Very
Fine thing – Good looking man or woman
Floozie – Woman of dubious moral attributes
Fluthered – Very drunk
Fool eegit – Idiot (Cork slang)
Fooster – fiddling about
Football – Soccer
GAA – Gaelic Athletics Association (Organisation responsible for Hurling and Gaelic Football). Sometimes referred to as ‘Gah’ instead of the G.A.A.
Gaa – same as the GAA pronounced as as a single syllable GAH
Gaff – Home. ‘To have a free gaff’ means you’re home alone
Gammy – crooked or funny looking; as in “he has a gammy leg”
Gander – A quick glance
Garrison Game – Football / soccer
Gas – Funny or amusing
Gawk – To stare rudely
Gaybo Famous Irish T.V and Radio personality Gay Byrne
Get Outta That Garden – affectionate phrase generally thrown into a conversation to encourage laughter, example: “ah would ya get outta that garden!”
Give out – To have a go / chew someone out e.g. I gave out to him
Glass (A Glass of ) a half pint Beer/Cider/Guinness
Gobshite – Socially inept person and / or complete fool
Gouger – aggressive male
Guff – excuses and lies
Gurrier – Hooligan
Hames/Haymes- Complete mess e.g. to make a complete haymes of something
Hardchaw – Tough Guy
Harpic – as in “a pint of harpic”, reference to Harp, a former brand of lager beer
Hockeyed – Heavily defeated
Holy Joe – Self righteous person
Holy show – Disgrace
How’s she cutting? – ‘Hi’
Howya – ‘Hi’ or a person from a rough area of Dublin
Hurl – To play hurling. A hurley stick. To vomit. Or to throw.
Jackeen – A rural person’s name for a Dubliner and it’s not nice.
Jacks – toilet
Jo Maxi – Taxi. Shortened to simply ‘Joer’ (pronounced: jo-er)
Joy (The) – Mountjoy Prison in Dublin
Kip – a dump. e.g.: “The hotel was a complete kip.” Or to have a sleep.
Knacker Drinking – To drink outside illegaly
Knackered – Very tired or broken beyond repair
Langer – A cork name for an unliked person (male)
Langers- Very drunk
Lash – To rain. e.g.: “It lashed out of the heavens the whole time.” Also verb : ‘give it a lash – to make an attempt at something or ‘to go on the lash’ – to out drinking
Leg it – To run away quickly
Locked – Very drunk
Manky – Filthy dirty or disgusting
Mi Daza (Cork) Means excellent, brilliant, fantastic. Pronounced (mee-dah-za)
Mineral- a soft drink
Mitch – To skip school
Moran – A fool
Mortified (or morto, e.g. I was morto!) – Highly embarrassed
Mot – Girlfriend (Dublin slang). From ‘maith’, Gaelic for ‘good’.
Murder – Very difficult. e.g.: “Trying to find a taxi was murder.” Or else to really want to do something e.g. ‘I could murder a pint.’
Naggin – A small bottle of alcohol, particularly vodka
Nip (in the) – nude
Nixer – job done for cash to avoid tax
Norn Iron – Northern Ireland
Not the full shilling – not fully sane
Now your sucking diesel You have solved or understand a problem
On the tear – To go out drinking
Ossified – Very drunk
Oul Fella – Your Father (Dublin slang)
Oul Dear / Oul Wan – Your Mother (Dublin slang)
Oul Doll – Girlfriend (Pronounced: Owl-Doll)
Paralytic – Very drunk
Pictures – To go to the movies i.e. I went to the pictures last night
Plain – Guinness, as in Flann O’Brien’s “a pint of plain is your only man”, or similar black stout
Plastered – Very drunk
Puss (To have a puss on you) – Sulky face
Rugger Bugger – Person who’s posh loud and likes rugby (usually from Dublin)
Rugger Hugger – Girl who’s posh and goes out with rugby players (usually from Dublin). Can also be called a ‘Rugger Bugger’.
Savage – brilliant, great e.g I went to see a savage match yesterday
Scarlet – To be very embarrassed e.g. ‘I was scarlet’
School – Primary or Secondary School / Elementary, Junior High or Senior High School
Senior Cup – Major schools rugby trophy played for by schools mainly in Dublin.
Shattered – Very tired
Sheila – a pet name for a promiscuous girl.
Shinner – Someone who supports Sinn Fein
Shite – something that’s bad quality, as in “the car was a pile of shite”
Shower of savages – Ignorant group of people
Slag – To make fun of someone in a nice way ,nb to be used as a verb, if not has the same meaning as elsewhere ie ‘a common prostitute’.
Sleeveen – Devious and sly person, usually referring to someone from outside Dublin
Sliced Pan – Bread bought already cut into thinnish slices
Sorry- means Sorry, also used instead of excuse me or pardon me. If you want to get to the bar say Sorry !
Story? (What’s the) – ‘Hi’
Suckin’ diesel (Now you’re) – Now you’re talking. Now you’re doing well
Tánaiste – (Irish – ‘Tawn Ish Teh’) – Deputy Prime Minister
Taoiseach – (Irish – ‘Tee Shock’) – Prime Minister
Tayto – Legendary Irish brand of crisps (US ‘chips’)
The Pale – Anywhere inside the Dublin region
Thick – Extremely stupid
Throw shapes – To show off, sometimes aggressively
Touched – Someone who hasn’t their full mental capacities i.e. He’s touched
Town – City Centre or even the local town!
Tricolour – Irish flag
Trinners – Trinity College Dublin
Uachtarán na hÉireann – (Irish – ‘Ook Tar Awn Na Hair In’) – President (Of Ireland)
Weak as a kitten – Very tired
Waster – Someone who’s completely useless i.e. ‘Yer man’s an awful waster altogether’
Work away – Continue what you are doing
Yoke – An object or thing i.e. ‘That’s a strange looking yoke, what is it?’
Young Fella (male) or Young One (female) – Young man or Young woman (Dublin slang)
Your Man (male) or Your Woman (female) – referring to someone you are talking about (not boy or girl friend/wife etc.)
Your only man – Something that you can rely on e.g. If you’re hungry, a burger’s your only man (a burger will alleviate your hunger), see Plain above
