Irish people and swearing

theCzar · 03-03-2005 05:04PM

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 · 03-03-2005 05:10PM

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 · 03-03-2005 05:25PM

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 · 03-03-2005 07:20PM

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 · 03-03-2005 07:32PM

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

Lord Nikon · 03-03-2005 07:41PM

MobileInfantry wrote:

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

Well, we are, aren't we?

JackKelly · 03-03-2005 08:45PM

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

the_syco · 03-03-2005 09:12PM

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 · 03-03-2005 10:27PM

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 · 03-03-2005 10:50PM

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 · 03-03-2005 10:51PM

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 · 03-03-2005 11:00PM

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 · 03-03-2005 11:05PM

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 · 03-03-2005 11:13PM

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 · 03-03-2005 11:35PM

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 · 03-03-2005 11:44PM

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 · 04-03-2005 01:04AM

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 · 04-03-2005 02:31AM

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 · 04-03-2005 02:35AM

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 · 04-03-2005 10:52AM

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.

Mossy Monk · 04-03-2005 11:08AM

its amazing how a 4 letter word can cause offence when it is not aimed at a particular group of people

Trojan · 04-03-2005 11:25AM

In the states, using "c*nt" is one of the worst possible things you can do in normal company. The reaction you'll get is akin to that if you had joked about terrorism in Manhatten.

ObHumour: "can't understand normal thinking".

As for cursing too much, Northern girl who answers her age: "I'm twenty-fcukin-seven".

theCzar · 04-03-2005 11:27AM

TimAy wrote:

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

then who do you f... nevermind, my moderator sense is tingling

luckat · 04-03-2005 11:32AM

I get the impression that the kind of swearing that's like a nervous tic is becoming unfashionable. It used to be that a journey on the bus was accompanied by conversations including swear words used as if they were a kind of linguistic particle necessary to carry the sense of a sentence. Now whole journeys pass without hearing any swear words. I get the feeling that, ahem, today's young people see swearing in that way as a little 1980s and The-Commitments-like; somehow quaint.

irlirishkev · 04-03-2005 11:48AM

I try not to swear the whole time, but I'm as guilty as the next man for effin' and blindin' down the pub with my mates..
One situation I'll try really hard not to swear is, when I'm in the company of a friend's parents. It's just respect. And as such, I would expect my own friends to watch their mouth when talking to my folks..
I think it has a lot to do with upbringing.. Swearing was a big no-no in my house growing up. My parents didn't swear around us kids, and they expected the same in return.

K.

englander · 04-03-2005 11:57AM

I have lived in ireland a good few years now and I still get shocked by listening to seemingly reasonable people just drop f*ck into a sentence for no real empahasis/anger reason - just dropped it in. It adds nothing to the sentence.

I have to sometimes listen more closely to a converstaion to make sure I heard it right.

I think more people swear and more often here than in England.

I find this very unusual and I immediately think less of someone if they use unneccesary swear words (wherever they are from). This may be unfair of me and judemental but that is my immediate reaction to it.

However, I do swear. Only when I am angry or annoyed, but very rarely and NEVER in front of children.

BTW - why when Irish people 'do' a posh accent they put on a lardy-daaa English accent. Isn't there a posh Irish accent ?

Also, are there any swear words in gaelic ? What are they ?

cp251 · 04-03-2005 12:18PM

Yes there are swear words on Gaelic, Englander. I remember an Irish teacher telling me a few. But I can't remember any of them.

Yes there is a 'posh' Irish accent. A kind of semi Anglo Irish sound like some actors use. Notably the drunken priest in Father Ted, Frank Kelly??. His real accent is very posh.

I don't swear much, well brought up was I. A lot of people do swear a lot. I remember starting a new job. While talking in the canteen, someone commented that I never effed and beed. Which he thought strange. On another occasion I notice what was apparently an argument going on in my section between an African and two Dublin guys. Moving in to break it up I asked what was going on. The African guy told me he objected to their constant use of bad language in normal conversation. I took him to one side and I admit with a bit of tongue in cheek. I told him that many Irish people used a lot of bad language. It was normal for them and perhaps he should respect the habits of the natives. He took my point but thought it was a bad reflection on Irish people.

Colin Farrell is an interesting example. He's a good little Middle class boy form Castleknock but he swears like a Northside hooligan, where admittedly his Father is from. I think it's all show to try and give him some street cred. Behind it all I think he's a big softie. But likes to give the opposite impression.

irlirishkev · 04-03-2005 12:19PM

englander wrote:

BTW - why when Irish people 'do' a posh accent they put on a lardy-daaa English accent. Isn't there a posh Irish accent ?

You sure you're not confusing it with a Dublin 4 accent? That's generally the posh accent people would take the p1ss out of..

Mohanned · 04-03-2005 12:19PM

I agree with ya totaly

People curse too much

yossarin · 04-03-2005 12:30PM

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

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.

You're not really comparing like with like mate.
Unless you were saying that Irish TV has more swearing ?

Irish people and swearing

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