A guide to Irish racial slurs - from Cat-lick to Mackerel Snapper, the worst Irish insults

A cousin of mine (now dead) used to call every native Irishman, including his own fasther, a dankey. He seemed to think that his U.S. birth gave him intelligence far superior to that of his own Irish parents.

I have read that it was popular in the late 19th century in America to say that the wheelbarrow was the greatest of inventions-it taught the Irish to walk on their hind legs. Well, I say, God Bless the Irish-97%of them would not vote for Romney. Please pray for us in America that he does not win.

Racial Slurs are a Poor (Irish) Man`s means of espousing constructive Genetic Diversity ! Give All Ireland Back To The Irish ! ( God I. hate those guy`s but Greece`s Golden Dawn Party do make a Good Point on the Nature of Nationality @?..! )

Hayes is an idiot she incorrectly explains the origins(and meanings) of most of the slurs above.Most of her articles on IC are puerile and ill informed.

In the 19 century poorly educated and and plenty with none were treated as less than human usually by the British when they ruled most of the planet,they kept the Irish uneducated, the idea being that a little knowledge can be dangerous to their ambitions of lording it over them,they used a lot of racial slurs against people whose country's they ruled to make them think they are inferior,think of any country the British ruled and you will find a mountain of racial comment against the local population a lot of which survive to this day,the same goes for any country 'unfortunatethat

Must be a slow news day.I bet even a pea brain can do better than this.

Regarding "no Irish" need apply in Australia, I refer Cathy Hayes to Irish Central May 13,2012, article by Patrick Counihan.

Never heard of most of these 'slurs'. Very inventive though,I'll grant you that!

Irish Central's Persecution Complex of the Week... [YAWN!]

Whoohoo, another 50 slurs we can be outraged and offended at! Half of them sound made-up!

Cathy Hayes can pogue mo Irish thoin for having me waste precious time reading her claptrap.

Some of these I have heard before and others not. My grand-niece is a carrot-top and proud of it with blue green eyes and freckles and is near 5ft. 11 so she is tall. We called her carrot-top when she was little but not now. Her great-grandmother was a red head so the color skipped 2 generations. Her sister, on the other hand is auburn haired more or less, not brown haired or at least doesn't seem that way.

These are not racial slurs, they are ethnic slurs. Racism is when you say or act in a durragotory manner towards someone of a different race: ie, somebody white calling someone black a word that starts with N, or a black person calling an Asian a word that starts with a G. Irish is an ethnicity amongst caucasions, not a race. Are these terms prejudice? Most definitely. Racist? No. Just do your homeword and get it right.

This is terrible. Who started all these racial slurs? Americans of British descent? They seem to put everyone down that doesn't have an English last name. As far as religion goes I'm a Presbyterian and I don't call Catholics fenians. That is so freakin' racist. What is wrong with people? Where are their brains?

You forgot to include the two most common insults in current use Bollix and Gobshite as in you are a Bollix or You are a Gobshite take your pick...