Why do Irish people say sorry so much?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Now, there was a very funny piece in yesterday's Irish Times by our very own Seán Moncrieff on why Irish people say sorry dozens of times a day, but they never mean it. This is just one of many examples of Irishisms. And joining us now to discuss a few more and why we use them is Denise Deegan, screenwriter and author of The Little Book of Irishisms. And she's with us in studio. Good evening to you, Denise. I have to say, when I read Seán Moncrieff's thing, he started off by describing the News Talk Kitchen.

And when there's a few people in there at the same time, everyone is saying sorry. And I was actually in the News Talk Kitchen with Seán Moncrieff and various other people last week. And we were all apologizing to each other. And he's quite right. We don't mean it. So why do the Irish say sorry all the time?

Denise Deegan (0:56)

Well, I think first of all, I think it's out before we can even realize we've said it. It's like just it's just out and you're kind of going, oh, OK. And usually you probably don't even realize you've said it. But the odd time you're kind of going, why did I say that? Because literally the person hasn't responded the way you expected. You know, you've been you've been deferential and you've actually tried to, I think, feels like excuse your own existence. And I don't know what the answer is, but I have a whole theory about our history and the fact that, you know, there was a day when you would not come out and say a hard no.

And I don't know. It just seems to be that sorry is just something that we use it as a greeting.

Ciara Kelly (1:38)

Sorry. Can I, you know, we use it as excuse me. Yeah, we obviously do say sorry sometimes, but but we use it, you know, and also we use it as a reaction if we're not sorry, if we don't like it. We have there must be 50 different types of sorry that we use.

Denise Deegan (1:54)

Yeah, totally. Like sorry. What did you say? Like as in I am not a bit sorry and I'm furious with you.

And it's like we can say I often say excuse me. Well, sorry, instead of excuse me. But sometimes I'll double whammy it and go like, excuse me. Sorry. You know what I mean? I just keep going.

Ciara Kelly (2:13)

But but I like obviously the English don't don't say sorry when they are meeting each other all the time the way we do. So it is definitely an Irishism. But we do have lots of them. And you were saying things like grand.

Grand means something very different to an English person to what it means to us.

Denise Deegan (2:28)

It totally does. And we have so many meanings for grand like we have. So the one I love is also kind of a little bit like the sorry vibe. It's kind of like when somebody asks you something and you want to say no, and you're not giving them a hard no, you're giving them an ah, you're grand.

Ciara Kelly (2:45)

You're grand.

Denise Deegan (2:45)

You're grand. It's like, why not just say no?

Ciara Kelly (2:48)

Grand here is like meh. It's like fair. How was it? I was grand. Like we don't mean, oh, it was grand. It was splendid. We mean it's a bit meh. It's a bit like it's OK. It's fine.

Denise Deegan (2:59)

Unless we say grand out or grand altogether. And that's a completely different story.

Ciara Kelly (3:05)

That means it's much better.

Denise Deegan (3:07)

Nearly need a dictionary.

Ciara Kelly (3:08)

Irishisms. Do you have favorite ones? You've written a whole book.

Denise Deegan (3:11)

I do. I'll tell you one I love, Adote.

Ciara Kelly (3:14)

Ah, yeah.

Denise Deegan (3:15)

Like if you say someone's a dote, there's no way you're making that up. It's kind of like gorgeous.

You're never going to describe someone as gorgeous if you don't mean it. And I love dote. It's kind of like just a lovely person that you want to be around.

Ciara Kelly (3:28)

Yeah.

Denise Deegan (3:28)

I love that one.

Ciara Kelly (3:29)

I remember being a child and you'd be called a dote sometimes. And you would, I don't think it's happened since. And you'd love it and be like, you'd want to lean into a huge amount.

Denise Deegan (3:41)

It's like they love you.