Irish people and swearing

magpie

It struck me as I was wandering around the city centre at lunchtime the unbelievably high incidence of swearing you hear from the average punter on the street. All I heard was 'sure he a f ucking c unt' and 'yez are all f uckers' and 'f uck that' left, right and centre.

Given that our 'superior knowledge' of the english language is one of these fallacies that Irish people like to bandy about, especially as a means of annoying the brits, surely we should have a better means of expressing ourselves?

And this is the poeple in suits I'm talking about, not just the builders.

KlodaX

f'uck off



... just kiddin. Do you propose a swearing ban?

kasintahan

F**k Off!

Spalk0

What the F*ck are you on about?

magpie

just kiddin. Do you propose a swearing ban?

Nope, just for people to try and sound less like drunken tinkers in the queue for their sandwiches

dearg_doom

sure it's part of our ****ing culture!

Bottle_of_Smoke

I think the word Fúck gives great emphasis at times, also Kunt, and lots more. We need them.

koneko

If you think Irish people swear a lot, you haven't met any Scandis yet! :eek:
Man they swear like troopers.

[Jackass]

Are you trying to say builders don't have a superior knowledge of the English language? Just because they have a thick country accent, dosen't mean they're thick (or should that be tick accent?)
If you listen closely, they're actually discussing dickens up there on the scaffhold.

Sponge Bob

Ya must be some stupid cúnt if it took ya until this stage of yer life ta fúcking notice that

TerrorFirmer

Part of our culture? Thats a very smart thing to say, is that the international image you want for the "Irish Culture", that we are a bunch of ignorant and offensive foul-mouthed morons?

I think its actually pretty vulgar if you ask me sure I curse sometimes but not to the extent of using fuc'k in every since sentence!

ixoy

I was wondering how long it would take someone to reply with the likes of "f*ck off" as a reply. Not all that long...

I agree with Magpie on this. I generally don't swear that much because, personally, it means that when I do swear it generally means something. Carelessly, and constantly, flinging it about as a handy adjective/adverb/verb/noun for every sentence wears down its impact.

Even worse, it's generally just redundant phrasing - "bastard" gets the same idea across about someone as an "effing bastard" would.

It'd be nice to see people try it a bit less, to give it that bit more "oomph" when used and, as a substitute, try one of the myriad of other words that we have access to.

[Jackass]

MobileInfantry wrote:

sure I curse sometimes but not to the extent of using fuc'k in every since sentence!

Yes, your grasp of the English language is flawless.

Gilgamesh

DubGuy22 wrote:

they're actually discussing dickens up there on the scaffhold.

would that be dicken's Cider? Mwahaha

(say it fast and you'll know what I mean, for the high lag people out there)

azezil

I agree, the social mass is most repugnant, filthy buggers should given a royal trashing, what-oh, lets have at them! *perry, strife, twist and thrust!*

magpie

I agree, the social mass is most repugnant, filthy buggers should given a royal trashing, what-oh, lets have at them! *perry, strife, twist and thrust!*

You clearly think expecting people not to use absolutely filthy language when there are, for instance, children, or old ladies, or for that matter anyone who might get offended is some sort of redundant Victorian idyll. I just think its good manners, which clearly you don't attach any meaning or significance to.

Shabadu

It's much more creative and witty to insult someone without swearing anyway. Still a big massive string of profanities is just the ticket when you step on a plug.

TerrorFirmer

You clearly think expecting people not to use absolutely filthy language when there are, for instance, children, or old ladies, or for that matter anyone who might get offended is some sort of redundant Victorian idyll. I just think its good manners, which clearly you don't attach any meaning or significance to.

Agreed. Having manners is hardly old fashioned now is it? There is a time and a place for swearing - and thats not in everyday conversation when its in most cases not even needed - people just throw it in anyway!

thafitz

magpie wrote:

Nope, just for people to try and sound less like drunken tinkers in the queue for their sandwiches

sometimes a good swear word is needed to emphasize (sp?) your point. for example: if someone is annoying you and you tell them to buzz off it doesnt have the same effect as the old classic **** off.

Sponge Bob

The Irish have a high tolerance of bad language by International standards, the Spanish are pretty bad too .

The English are schizoid, the upper and lower classes are as bad as anyone including us while the middle classes frown on bad language .

In Ireland it is quite classless .

the_syco

koneko wrote:

If you think Irish people swear a lot, you haven't met any Scandis yet! :eek:
Man they swear like troopers.

What the funk are Scandis?

=-=

2000AD. Every swear word is there, but its "disguised". Class, tho.

=-=

I'm gonna funk all you muthafunkers, and there's funk all you can do about it!

Different word, but the same meaning. Words mean little. Its how you use them that has the impact factor.

azezil

magpie wrote:

You clearly think expecting people not to use absolutely filthy language when there are, for instance, children, or old ladies, or for that matter anyone who might get offended is some sort of redundant Victorian idyll. I just think its good manners, which clearly you don't attach any meaning or significance to.

My dear boy I was but agreeing with you and suggesting a course of action to deal with this menace by removing these rapskallions from our presance.

*Smiles and bows low*

koneko

the_syco wrote:

What the funk are Scandis?

Scandinavians (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Finns). They admit it themselves, they have total pottymouths.

magpie

I understand there's a time and a place for swearing. I'm quite good at it actually. What gets me is people who are incapable of discussing with a friend what brand of crisps to buy without saying f uck about 15 times.

"What about the fuc kin' whatchacallem, hunky dories?"
"Nah, fuc kin, they're crinkly and fuc kin jus don't taste right"
"What about fuc kin tayto?"
"Fuc kin tayto are ok, king are fuc kin ****e" etc etc.

This is almost verbatim what I had to listen to from a couple of apparently educated office workers behind me in the queue today. There's just no need for it.

seamus

There are no verbal substitutes that can adequately express your emotion in the same precise way as "Arsehole", "shitehawk" and "buggerin' bollox".

Swearwords help add colour to a language.

[Jackass]

lol, this thread reminds me of Homer and the swear jar....when he puts a nail through his hand "Oh fidle-dee-dee, that will require stitches"

*Ahem* Sorry, back on topic...swearing bad...manners good.....

the_syco

I have a habit of swearing about every 5th word, at least. The only time I don't do this is between 7pm & 9pm on Saturdays.

Mossy Monk

i speak to english folks all day at my work and they swear the whole time

simu

The Irish do not speak English better than the British - that's a total myth. They're about the same.

Swearing is appropriate at certain times but I don't like when people use it needlessly.

Spalk0

MobileInfantry wrote:

Part of our culture? Thats a very smart thing to say, is that the international image you want for the "Irish Culture", that we are a bunch of ignorant and offensive foul-mouthed morons?

I think its actually pretty vulgar if you ask me sure I curse sometimes but not to the extent of using fuc'k in every since sentence!

I think Colin Farrell has allready added substance to that!

upmeath

well it depends on tone more than anything. you're right, you hear it everywhere:
ya stewpah fooker
you silly focker
ya dumb kunt
it has to be said that geordies, cockneys, yanks have pretty colourful abusive terms compared to our own f's, k's and w's

theCzar

I heard the best conversation ever while in the toilets in Doyles about a month back, between a Jamaican and 2 of Dublin's finest, discussing paedophilia, as you do.

Jamaican: I'm naht defendin' it, i think they should be taken out back and shot, i'm jus' saying it's nothing new, in the ancient world, it was very common. The roman's did it.

Dub 1:Yeah but the fukin romans were all a bunch of fukin homos

Dub 2: Yeah, yer man Da Vinci was fukin queer

game set and match to the Dubs methinks. behold the power of cursing

dearg_doom

MobileInfantry wrote:

Part of our culture? Thats a very smart thing to say, is that the international image you want for the "Irish Culture", that we are a bunch of ignorant and offensive foul-mouthed morons?

I think its actually pretty vulgar if you ask me sure I curse sometimes but not to the extent of using fuc'k in every since sentence!

WTF are you on about???

That comment was a joke. Clearly a joke!

It also happens to be almost the truth.

I don't project 'the Irish Image', I am judged by it though, being Irish.

It's not MY fault we have that image, it's not anyone's fault,

In fairness there are far worse things 'the Irish' are 'known' for apart than our ****ing propensity for swearing!:rollseyes:

Headleylamarr

I wouldn't have thought we were known for our 'mouth' at all, in fact I've never heard that. Traditional Irish swearing imho was decidedly tame - feck et al - I would say we're traditionally blasphemers - 'Jaesus' etc.

Cursing is just laziness, and many of the office types curse so much in public because its just like that kitkat ad with the shouting in the library - they have to consciously hold back during office hours.

I find Colin Farrell quite endearing - until he curses, he can be winning you over with obvious intelligence, and all of a sudden, blam, 'ho ho shure amn't I the man by sayin a rudie...'

I probably shouldn't admit to working for a communications company, but as such over the last years I've basically stopped cursing because in these surrounds it means weakness...

Here's an interesting one...

'burk' - From the rhyming slang 'Berkshire Hunt'.... and you thought it was tame...

idontknowmyname

I was in the states on a J1 last year and I do tend to say **** quite a lot, i was told by a friend over that that the way i say it makes it sound really casual and that its part of the sentance. Do you know anyone Irish who doesn't swear??!

Blisterman

I don't swear in conversations. Well not the f or c words, and I'm Irish.

Lord Nikon

MobileInfantry wrote:

that we are a bunch of ignorant and offensive foul-mouthed morons?

Well, we are, aren't we?

JackKelly

i don't mind fuk but im not too keen on kunt.

the_syco

simu wrote:

The Irish do not speak English better than the British - that's a total myth. They're about the same.

Its how they pronounce it. Ask an english man to say 3. You get some odd results.

StupidLikeAFox

In all fairness who gives a flying ****?

Like people are polite when they have to be, bosses, in interviews, when dealing with customers, a lot to their parents etc etc. So what if they swear when they are free to? When ya think about it, those guys ya heard were having a private conversation, nobody was getting offended. Im sure they would have been a lot more offended if they knew some asshole was eavesdropping.....:):)

OfflerCrocGod

simu wrote:

The Irish do not speak English better than the British - that's a total myth. They're about the same.

Not really, I find from watching TV shows and news from Italy and the UK that the average person on the street in Ireland speaks like crap, the British are better and the Italians speak beautifully. I kid you not.

BlitzKrieg

damnit i swear lot...i'll gladly admit it.

but not calling someone gay or a homo, thats just not on.

but f*ck sh*t and all the like are very casual with me, its when i get creative with my offences that you know i am slighly annoyed at your actions. it always seems more effective.

but i do notice studying here in cambridge (cambridgeshire :rolleyes:) a huge gap between the profanity that come out of the mouths of me and the other irish people here and then english. (course the scots are as bad as us)


dont see how it makes me anymore ignorant though?

Pink Bunny

I think the difference that I've noticed when I've visited Ireland has been the casualness with which f*ck and c*nt are used in a sentence. In the states you might here f*ck used when someone is angry or whatever but not usually as part of a regular conversation. And it doesn't seem like the word c*nt is used much at all, at least not that I've heard. I think it's used way more in Ireland and England from what I've seen anyway.

Flukey

I'm with Magpie on this. It is not just people in a temper cursing and swearing, but people doing it in ordinary conversation. You will hear people who can't go through a sentence without cursing in it. It is not even that they are adding emphasis to things, it is just their normal way of speaking. That is the sad part about it. As has been said, there is no need for it, certainly not in regular conversation.

Evilution

magpie wrote:

Given that our 'superior knowledge' of the english language is one of these fallacies that Irish people like to bandy about, especially as a means of annoying the brits, surely we should have a better means of expressing ourselves?

If people need to swear to articulate themselves then let them. A well-placed f*ck can deliver results.

thafitz

sometimes i find myself using curses as sort of spacer between words. for example:
normal talk - "i dont know eh....(big pause).... i might go".
my way - "i dont know **** eh i might go".
im not sure if im being clear here. it sort of keeps the sentence flowing.

popinfresh

Every country curses a lot. It's just you don't see people cursing on da telly and you think OMG, we IRish have foul mouths . I think swearing should be allowed on the TV, I mean children aren't going to start cursing because they saw it on the TV, they're probably all ready using bad language. And seriously, what's the problem. A word such as f'uck has so many possible contexts that it requires more brain power to understand a sentence with **** than it would with any regular word. In short swearing is f'ucking great :)

dearg_doom

I agree with popinfresh, when I was a kid I could never understand why the likes of Optimus Prime and Matt Tracker NEVER swore, yet EVERY older male I knew did.

Damn censorship

EDITED: due to our Irish lack of expressing ourselves properly

embee

I think that the amount people swear in Ireland varies from region to region. Where I am from, people swear a ridiculous amount, and general everyday conversations are liberally peppered with "fuk that", "jaysus, he's some fukker", "god its fukking freezing" etc. And the "kunt" word is used a lot up here and its not necessarily considered that offensive. I remember being in college and finding that I swore a hell of a lot more than my classmates from Wexford, Kilkenny etc.

Ray777

Pardon me if I'm repeating something somebody already said, but I don't have time to read all the posts in this thread (I'm a very busy man).

I honestly don't understand why people have such a problem with swearing. What is so offensive about the word 'fuck'? It is just a word - a series of letters, nothing more. How can any rational person possibly find 'fuck' offensive?

Even with more extreme swearwords, such as 'cunt', it's nothing more than a word - it can do no harm to anybody (although it is somewhat awkward for those with a cleft palate to say).

There are more serious things in this world than a few harmless words

magpie

OK, they're all good Anglo Saxon words etc, and yes they can be useful for registering anger/annoyance.

What gets me is the way f uck is used as a catch-all adjective, which to me is just a sign of laziness and/or ignorance.