An Irish filmmaker has produced a series of hit videos of Irish people speaking English, but with their own colloquial slang terms.
However, these phrases are a step beyond the universally recognised Irish terms such as enjoying the ‘craic’ and that things are ‘grand’.
For example, if someone said to you that “she nearly had a canary” or “the head on him and the price of turnips”, would you really know the appropriate response?
For people outside of Ireland the video has subtitles explaining what the various phrases mean.
‘Story Bud’ is the first of a series of videos by Jenny Keogh called ‘How the Irish Speak English’. It features Irish people using everyday slang terms that would naturally fall into any Irish conversation.
Keogh wrote on her YouTube channel: “The series celebrates the Hiberno-English language – from, slang to phrases to old sayings (many of which are dying out). The aim of the series is to both educate & entertain, whilst documenting & preserving our unique language for future generations.”
Story Bud is edited and produced superbly well, so much so in fact that upon its release in 2013, it was broadcast to 20,000 people in Trafalgar Square as part of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Since then, it has featured at numerous film festivals and comedy events in cities such as Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, London, Boston and Chicago. Keogh even got to meet Irish pop superstar Imelda May after Story Bud was used as part of the crowd warm-up entertainment before one of her concerts.
Keogh followed up the success of Story Bud with two more videos in the series How the Irish Speak English.
How About Ye? features Irish people from eight different counties; Armagh, Louth, Tipperary, Sligo, Donegal, Meath, Cork and Dublin. The range gives a great overview of the variation in language across Ireland. This video features some more hostile and aggressive Irish phrases, such as: “Do you like hospital food?” and “Would you take grave as quick? Not if you were in it!”
The third video in the series is ‘Are Ye Startin?’ This one includes more positive terms like: “Coola boola roola noola!”
Watch and enjoy the videos below.
Story Bud
How About Ye?
Are Ye Startin?
