25 Irish Phrases Explained

If you are heading to Ireland, you should read this list before you go. This will help you understand the locals better. So grab a cuppa, and have a wee read ….

1. Cuppa - A cup of tea. “Let’s have another cuppa”

2. Craic - “We had great craic” - We had great fun

3. Got on like a House on fire - get along very well together.

4. That’s Dear - that’s expensive.

5. A fry - An Ulster Fry typically has back bacon, black pudding, sausages, fried soda bread & potato bread with fried eggs. Optional extras are tomatoes and mushrooms.

6. Soda or Wheaten Farl - A quarter of soda or wheaten bread

7. Wee - Small. “Look at the wee child”

8.Nosy - Have a look around.

9. Fortnight - 2 weeks

10. Quar - very. “we had a quar laugh”

11. Bang on - that’s correct

12. Black stuff - Guinness

13. Deadly - fantastic or great

14. Eejit - idiot or fool

15. Gander - look around

16. Howya - Hi or hello

17. Knackered - tired

18. Manky - dirty or grungy

19. On the tear - going drinking

20. Off my head - drunk

21. Jammy - lucky

22. Will I, yea - I defiantly won’t do that

23. Yer man - describes a man …someone you don’t like or someone you can’t remember their name

24. He can talk the hind legs off a donkey - very chatty

25. You could skin a cat out there - it’s very cold outside