Dublinese: Know What I Mean?

by Bernard Share

The English say Dubliners speak the best English. Filmmaker Jim Sheridan insists they don't, but that they speak the most entertaining English. Naming a piece of public sculpture or commenting on the hardness of life, Dubliner's have a flair for waxing lyrical. So, to fully appreciate them, one must learn Dublinese.

120 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2007

About the author

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Bernard Share has taught English Literature in Australia and edited Books Ireland and CARA, the inflight magazine of Aer Lingus. He has written extensively on language and Irish social history and the third edition of his dictionary of slang and colloquial English in Ireland, Slanguage, was published recently. He lives in Co. Kildare.

Reviews

[Dorian · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the title I expected this book to be about English as she is spoke in Dublin...and it sort of is. It's also, inevitably but rather haphazardly, about the history of Dublin.

It's in no way an in-depth examination of either, however; more of a light skimming-over of the surface of the subject(s), listing our linguistic oddities with some historical background, but as often as not leaving the reader to work out the meaning of unfamiliar terms from context. There's no index, either.

Not a work likely to be of much use to anyone not already familiar with the Dublin dialect, and a bit disappointing to a reader who is, but would like more background.