I was having a drink many moons ago in the IFI social club in Lamberton, Arklow and a man came in enquiring if his friend was on the premises. The barman told him that he was gone, and our man asked if he was long gone. The barman’s response is still stored in my memory bank. Well, he said Johnny was nearly gone when he came in, but he went home before he was fully gone. That was his way of saying that Johnny was fairly drunk or ‘ar meisce’ when he arrived but left before he was fully polluted or lán ólta nó ar meisce.
Isn’t it absolutely amazing how many ways you can say that a person was drunk like maith go leor or he was stocious or legless or footless, langers, out of his/her skull, fluthered, or just locked. In answer to questions about what state people were in after a few bevvies. People could say s/he was three sheets in the wind, twisted, staggering, in the staggers, all over the place or legless.
These were moderate terms for peoples whose alcohol infused brains had upset their equilibrium a bit but then you can go up the scale and describe people as twisted, jarred, pissed, half cut, polluted, scuttered, ossified. Then you can go into the upper stratosphere of drink and stages of intoxification terminology when you say a person was paralytic, shit faced, rat arsed, bollixed.
Agus cúpla ceann ceann eile from The Listowel Connection
ag stealladh na ngrást….so drunk that you are pouring out compliments all round.
caoch ar meisce…literally blind drunk
Bhí an hata ar a leathcheann aige…his hat was skeoways on his head .
Bhí an dá thaobh den bhóthar aige…He was from side to side on the road, literally, he had the two sides of the road.
I heard a lot of these terms as I grew from boy to man. There was a certain bravado in our immature years in saying you were drunk, buckled, locked, plastered, or whatever other endearing term was used for being ‘maith go leor’ and that you didn’t remember anything from the night before. Little did we know what damage we were doing to our brains and general body health. There wasn’t the same awareness of health and the damaging relationship with alcohol. It was the rite of passage to go out for a night and get polluted.
Nowadays there is a much greater awareness of fitness and health and healthy living which is improving the quality of lives and living standards. Younger people are more attracted to gyms, sports arenas and the café culture preferring the skinny latte to the pint of beer.
The pub culture is no longer as popular as it was. I was listening to the radio today and they were speaking about the staggering fact that nearly 2000 pubs had closed in the past 20 years. They also referred to the statistic that alcohol consumption was at its lowest level in Ireland for 35 years. We have also changed our drinking habits and drink more wine at home than we used to. This is being increasingly bought in off licences and supermarkets where prices are cheaper. There is also a far greater acceptance of zero alcohol drinks and drink driving is frowned upon. Worryingly there is an increase in the use of social drugs.
We are known all over the world for our love of the jar, and our pub culture but it sure seems to be changing. Young people are demanding more social activities from their local “boozers”. Everything is getting more expensive from groceries, cars and fuel. Saving to get the deposit for a house is soaking up a lot of young peoples’ disposable income.. All these are putting pressure on people’s wallets and an increasing number of people are putting the demon drink well down their priority on the shopping list. We will be a better off, healthier people because of this change in culture and lifestyle. Let’s hope it continues.
PS My thanks to Mary Cogan of Listowel Connection for 20 words for being inebriated which inspired this piece. If you have any more please share them in the comment section. Cheers
Mick O Callaghan
02/09/2024
Cheers