In Wexford, the ice-cream van is The Honkey Man!
On yesterday’s show, listeners got very heated over whether a scone was pronounced s-cone or s-con. It got very intense; people became divided and upset and religion was even brought into it. They were joking... I think.
For such a small country, we really do have such a huge range of accents and dialects. I was on Instagram recently, talking about hair and I referred to my hair-tie as my ‘go-go’ and I was laughed out of it. A pencil topper is the correct word for topping or “sharpening” your pencil (although that remains a contentious issue over on social media at the moment)
One listener got in touch and mentioned that his wife from Finglas finds it so funny that down in Wexford, they call the Ice-Cream man ‘The Honkey Man’. THE HONKEY MAN!! My friend from Wexford calls a fork a sprong. A sprong!
- “Paula, don't forget in Wexford we have toppers in our pencil cases instead of sharpeners!” - Linda
- “It’s a pearer for the topper for pencils!” - Orla
- “Hi Paula, a conversation I heard once between two Meath men over whether someone resigned or was fired. I heard he was shown gate, given gate. I heard he wanted gate, asked for gate, took gate. Roots in Irish Language.” - Ger in Trim.
- “Sharpener? In Kerry, we call it a pointer!” - Seamus
- “Bulb meaning to look alike... as in, he is the bulb off his father!”- Mark
- “In Ireland a ‘yoke’ is literally any object that has no known name or that someone can’t remember the name of”.
- “Hi Paula, fun fair in Cork is called the Merries!” - Tony
- “Morning SweetPea, in Cork, a lasher is a rather attractive looking lady, but it is also that cow who kicks you every single time you go to milk her! Cheers!” - Conor
- “Paula – don’t forget the ‘ting-a-me-jig’ and ‘yoke-a-me-bob’ if you can’t remember the name of something ... Johnny in Clare
- “Hi Paula went to college in limerick, one of the girls I lived with asked me to pass her tackies?! She wanted her runners!”
- “Moth is a girlfriend in Dublin, Paula”
- “Paula, just to clarify in Dublin the term of endearment ‘moth’ actually comes from the Irish MAITH an cailín!” - Jason
- “Hey Paula, growing up in co down we called trainers... gutties!” - KB in Betttstown
- “Hi Paula. In Tipperary it is called a topper and not anything else. When I lived in Cork the girlfriend was called the auld doll.”
- “In Waterford the girlfriend is the lack”
- “How can it be a topper when it's the bottom end of the pencil you're sharpening with a parer?!”
- “Hi Paula, in Cavan the young boys are called cubs , girls are lassies , and in Donegal they’re weans!”
