# A very Irish way of speaking.



## ali (2 May 2014)

Recently, I got a visit from a Garda who was following up on complaints from local businesses regarding anti social behaviour from local teenagers and some damage to property.

When I said I hadn't had any trouble and that I wondered whether the trouble was racially motivated (two of the businesses were run by indian / pakastani men, he replied with a rueful expression: Sure those lads don't give a ****e who they target, it could just as well be anyone. 

This was a Garda in the course of his duty speaking as he would to his friend and rather than being offended, I found it rather charming in a weird way. He was lovely, professional (in all other ways) and was not being course or vulgar. It's just the way we tend to talk. - I do know others will disagree and consider it very inappropriate. 

Then on the lunchtime segment on Newstalk, I heard Jonathan finish off an item (I think it was the Gerry Adams thing) with Shane Coleman by thanking him for bringing the listeners that update as he knew Shane was buzzing around "like the proverbial blue arsed fly" with all the political stuff on the boil that day.

Again, I thought if Mrs. Wyckham from Tunbridge Wells for example had heard that on the BBC she would have been scandalised and there would have been thousands of complaints but we Irish don't seem to get hot under the collar about this stuff.

What do you think?


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## Vanilla (2 May 2014)

There can be a shared intimacy in colloquialisms/slang that draws you into the speaker when done correctly, but I don't think it's just an Irish thing.


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## Purple (2 May 2014)

Vanilla said:


> There can be a shared intimacy in colloquialisms/slang that draws you into the speaker when done correctly, but I don't think it's just an Irish thing.



Very well put.


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## Betsy Og (2 May 2014)

Careful now, shared intimacy has this country ruined, down with this sort of thing !!

Totally agree, I often find myself hamming it up a bit if I discover who I'm talking to shares similar interests i.e. cluchie/GAA/shared acquaintences or areas known. 

Tis all about the personal connection!  (I know there's a touch of social chameleon in the above, but I don't think its really 'fake' as long as you're not blatantly mis-leading someone).


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## ali (2 May 2014)

I was actually more thinking of our more relaxed attitude to "bad language" during normal day to day conversations between people who sometimes aren't friends or even known to each other. 

I worked for some time with the public in the UK and they would be much more formal in their address e.g. Mrs so and so rather than Mary or Betty as we are here. We are much more casual and informal in our speech here, I think.


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## Marion (4 May 2014)

http://public.oed.com/appeals/blue-arsed-fly/

I must say it's a phrase that I often use. 

Marion


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## mathepac (6 May 2014)

As a young man who had lead a rather sheltered life in Dublin, I was taken aback by the frequency with which anatomical  references appeared in everyday speech in otherwise polite London society. Phrases like "fannying about", "This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language-over-tit" etc. had me beetroot in mixed company.


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## Betsy Og (6 May 2014)

mathepac said:


> had me beetroot in mixed company.



Ah bless!


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## Purple (7 May 2014)

mathepac said:


> had me beetroot in mixed company.


beating your root in mixed company, indeed any company, is frowned upon. Particularly in the UK.


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