An American’s Guide to Irish Slang

A simple Google search will bring up dozens of articles cataloguing Irish slang, but these are the words and phrases I’ve heard (and been confused by) here, on the ground, in Dublin.

Starting with my favorite…

-“Yer man”

This is used in conversation as an ordinary pronoun to refer to someone whose identity is known to both speakers.

Example 1: The other day, the plumber had to come to my new apartment to fix the shower, and I stayed home to let him in. Later, my roommate asked me, “How’d it go with yer man today?”

Example 2: I was touring a castle yesterday, and after explaining a bit about the castle’s original inhabitants, the guide pointed and said, “That’s yer man’s crest there above the fireplace.”

As an American, I have to constantly fight the impulse to explain that this person isn’t my man, but that’s not the implication at all. He’s just yer man. Supposedly ‘yer woman’, can also be used, but I haven’t heard it yet.

-“It’ll be grand”

Americans don’t use the word ‘grand’ very often, but if we do, it’s probably to describe something lavish, costly, and perhaps theatrical or stately in nature. So when I hear people answering, “Oh I’m grand,” to “How are you?” or “Don’t worry, it’ll be grand,” to a problem, I tend to think that everything is pretty darn stellar here in Ireland. In actuality, ‘grand’ just means ‘fine’ or ‘ok’.

Example: When I went to my first set dancing group, I was expressing concern to one of the other participants about how I had no idea what was going on. “Oh don’t worry,” she replied. “It’ll be grand.”

-“What’s the craic?”

It’s commonly known that ‘craic’ is Irish for ‘fun.’ The tourist industry has capitalized on this, with bars and hostels named things like Craic House, and slogans like ‘best craic in town!” emblazoned on t-shirts. But, what I didn’t realize before I came was that it can also be used in other ways, such as the oh-so-common, “What’s the craic?” meaning “How’s it going?” or “What’s up?”

-“How’s tricks?”

This one is simple, although every time I hear it I think of Trix cereal. Similar to “what’s the craic?” this simply means “How are you?” or “How are things?”

-“Savage”

I seem to remember a middle school phase of describing awesome things as ‘nasty’, and this is in much the same vein.

Example: “I have an article published in a competition in inTravel Magazine, you should vote for it!”  “Whoa, savage!”

And sometimes, things are just completely unintelligible. Once on a tour when the guide was pointing out the Department of Justice, she described a time when she and her husband had seen lots of police cars outside. Apparently he had mentioned that something important must be going on inside, and she replied, “Nah, I bet they’re all just queuing at the chipper.” Said quickly with an accent, it took me a solid 30 seconds to realize that this meant the officers were probably just lining up at the fish and chips shop across the street.