Understanding the Irish brogue - a guide to Ireland’s colourful language

Curtiba: The accent is closer to the English accent, because the Irish copy everything from the old colonial power (England), as they perceive it to be better, more fashionable, more sophisticated. However they are still great begrudgers, that (unfortunate) trait they have kept. It is something the English do not have.

Not only are Yank tourists confused by some of the expressions in reland, they are also puzzled by usage of the English in that language's homeland. In June of 89 I attempted to enter a travel agent's office in Derby - English Midlands- but I couldn't open the door. Then I noticed a sign that said: "If office closed, plesde ring." I looked for the door beel to ring but there was none. Then I realized that "ring" to the English means make a phone call.

The article refers twice to "the clip" but there is no clip.

Well, you made "a pig's mickey" (to use another Irish expression) of this attempt at a dictionary. It is badly written, sometimes confusing, and plain wrong in some instances. And the word "crack" (not "craic"), meaning entertaining conversation, is an English word, not an Irish one, from the fifteenth century. Go look it up in the Oxford Dictionary.

Compared to how my grandparents dspoke, with loads of Gaeilge (can't write Gaelic,as I'll have the spelling mafia on my back, even though everyone called it Gaelic in those days) interjections, its shocking how indistinguishable from my London English all the expressions are among the young generation of Irish. Even the accent of the young Irish is far more English than it was a generation or two ago. My personal favourite word is "ye" for plural "you". As you (ye) may know, many words and sentences were transliterated intact from the original Irish, giving the English they spoke a certain clarity and poeticsm that it would not have had if they had spoken Standard British English.