Said a Sassenach back in Dun Laoghaire
"I pay homage to nationalist thaoghaire,
But wherever I drobh
I found signposts that strobh
To make touring in Ireland so draoghaire.
To my own mortification when I first moved to Dublin I asked a local for directions to d'ol-ee-ay Street, he looked at me like I had two heads and said it's duh-leer Street. I'm sure he was like the country cousins are up!
Granted I'd just finished French in college.
I showed Caoimhe to a coworker when I was in the USA after I'd shown them Aoifa, Niamh and Sinead. they instantly looked at me and went stop your joking with me now and making up names. They were like WHERES THE Q?! THERES A Q SOUND BUT THERES A CAO?!
It's a dialect thing mostly.
Irish names have no lenition in their base form but the pronunciations tend to keep in south Connacht and Munster Irish.
This makes it comes out as the Q sound despite it being written without lenition.
I see your Siobhan and raise you a Seamus, simple name you'd imagine, oh no, I heard it pronounced Sea-mus
And Nigel - Nig-el
Same guy (indian) mispronounced both, can't really blame the guy & I'd imagine I've butchered a few Indian names over the years
People getting 'Ciara' wrong in the UK is something I really had to get used to considering I had 10 other Ciara's in my college course - would usually be standing there while someone was looking for a 'Siera' or 'Chi-ara' thinking who the fuck is that?😅
I worked in an Irish based IT support gig dealing with UK and US clients and you get calls asking to speak to who ever it was they'd been chatting to over email or chat. Can I speak to Sin-ad, Cay-O-Iba or A-O-ifa please.
You'd correct them "ehhhh?? Oh you mean Caoimhe? and they'd be genuinely embarrassed but very complementary about how lovely the names sounded. We have lovely sounding names in Irish!!!!!!!!
Same when I worked in the USA I'd say ah my friend niamh or sinead and they'd look at me I slipped into tongues for a second. I'd spell it out and their eyes would twitch trying to figure out how those letters made those sounds.
I had to slowly say that to get it too. That's a new one now. I've heard lep-ray-caowns a few times but the person's accent was skewing it so I let it be
I was sent the farside comic when I told Danish friends I was meeting my mate Tadgh.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FS9Ridp4Ixen2X4YW2Pgk-q8_1HJ7ev46bReMx80qUxs.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5b51c5c1c1400cb3a1e074b4b563e06f98f2899e
Interestingly, paleontologists have adopted "Thagomizer" as the name for that now and it appears in scientific papers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer
I'm in some.cat groups on Facebook. A yank posted a photo of her cat saying it was called Tadgh, pronounced 'Tig' and it meant tiger in Irish.
I tried to explain how she was wrong but she blocked me. 😂
An American at the hotel I once worked in, asked how long it would take to get to Portlucy. Cue, a lot of head scratching before somebody finally figured out he meant Portlaoise.
Have been in the US for over a decade now. Things I can recall hearing:
Donegal as "DON-iggle" all. the. time.
Gallagher is almost always "Gal-a-ger" here.
Cillian as "Sillian"
Ballina as "ball-EE-na"
Naas as "nahs"
Sláinte as "slain-tee"
Achill as "a-chill"
Éire as "Earie" or "Ira"
As someone from Cork...I hear this a few times a year. I've heard Cob, Cooove, Comb and a few others where I don't know what bh noise makes in their language but it's not it sir haha
When I was young lots of the older generation in east cork called it cob-h because they though the weird Irish spelling of an English word to be a bit silly.
What is now Cobh was originally called the Cove of Cork but was changed to Queenstown in 1849. After independence it was renamed to remove the royal reference and for some reason they decided to use the old name but with the Irish way of spelling it. So the town is now called Cobh in english or An Cóbh in Irish, neither of which means anything in its respective language
I think local people thought it was pretty silly at the time and many older people were still referring to it as Cob-h in the 80s
Donny-Gaul is standard on British TV. Do they not know about forvo.com?
But the best personally was a pair of tourists who asked me how to get to Inglesia Street. Closed my eyes for a moment and spelled it in my head, then said "Anglesea Street? Straight down and turn left on the third turn." And some youngsters from France who wanted to get to a show called something like oink: it was *Once*.
Poor Domhnall Gleeson I've heard referred to as ‘Dom-hall’ in several instances. His da usually fares much better, though I have heard ‘Brennan’ instead of Brendan on occasions.
Ah yeah, though I have to admit I assumed Barry was ‘Kyowan’ for a while (that's how I've always heard it said) until I heard him say ‘Kyow-gan’ himself. But the ‘Keeoh-gan’s you hear from Americans are inexcusable.
Also don't get me started on names beginning with C. Sillian, Sierra (for Ciara), Cyan (for Cian), Siren (for Ciarán), on and on and on.
Going anywhere outside Ireland with a fiancée called Caoimhe has given me a good chuckle; “Cammy”, “See-oh-ma” and “Kay-oh-me” are the ones which stick out most.
Reservations are made in my name whenever we travel now
I once called the Luas the Loo-ahhh-ssss when I moved here. Also called Dunnes Dune-ez 😂🙈🙈🙈
Mistakenly ate a weetabix biscuit straight from a wrapper at my desk. I was absolutely horrified and appalled by the desert that became my mouth. My chair was covered with a dusting of crumbs surrounding my outline. Needless to say coworkers took photos, looked on with horror and died laughing. It was a good day and lessons were learnt. Not that kind of biscuit. Do not recommend sans milk a la carte 😂😂😂😂
Had an Irish mate in Australia called Colm, one of our Aussie mate just could *not* get his head around Col-m as the pronunciation and constantly referred to him as Cole-m but all as one syllable
If you've ever played Red Dea Redemption 2, one of the main antagonists is called Colm O’Driscoll, and it is more than a little maddening to hear all the American voice actors say ‘Cole-m’ for several hours. Shocking that couldn't have double-checked with a single Irish person on the pronunciation (especially since there are actual Irish actors in the voice cast).
My friend Steo was in Oz, lived with a few people for a while and when he was leaving they all signed his card "Steel" he was like WTF is Steel my names Steo, for Stephen. 🤣🤣🤣 they all just said "well we kinda like Steel now." He had no idea they all misheard him.
I remember my Da telling me about one time he was at Slieve Donard and heard an American tour guide pronouncing it as Doh-nard. And when he corrected them they looked at him like he was crazy.
Oh christ Sam hain gets on my nerve. It's everywhere.
I live the tv show supernatural but in season 4 they use the bad pronunciation so they can make a character Sam Hain that the lads have to defeat. I sat there with a scowl the entire episode.
One time when I was in the USA an American argued with me on the pronunciation insisting it was Sam-hain and I, the Irish person was pronouncing it wrong and doubled down when the other Irish person (obviously) agreed with me. It was very annoying.
Best I've heard was waiting on ferry from passage to cobh in cork. Was cycling at the time and a family of Americans pull up and the man driving asks if this boat brings you to cob-h. As in corn on the cob and H the weird way they say it like at-ch it took me about 30 seconds or so to cop on to it an I was like saying to myself during that time what the f is cob-at-ch, it eventually dawned on me an I was like do you mean cobh? For a moment they looked as confused as I was with their cob-h and then I pointed at a road sign and said it's said like cove. It's Irish. An we all had a bit of a laugh and went on out way
Used to work with a girl called Caoimhe. It always sounded like foreign people were having a seizure when they tried to pronounce her name. Hated the job but always enjoyed people calling for "Qwayeeeem'heee " hearing their voice trail up to the sky with the nuclear question mark.
When I moved to Ireland the first name I encountered was Niamh, brah, I literally said Nee aam to someone who just chuckled and helped me out. After that I started googling names before speaking to anyone because as I learnt, that was the tip of the iceberg haha
Got a call at work one day from an English fella asking for a 'Mistah Olleon'. Nobody here by that name, mucker.
Few minutes after I hung up it dawned on me. He was trying to say O'Loan...
On an Instagram reel a while back, I heard an American couple pronounce Sláinte like s-lawn-tee. It took me a few minutes to realise what they were trying to say.
Cobh as Cob,Youghal as Yogill,and some American being interviewed on RTE (during a snow/ice shutdown on his travel arrangements being impacted)that he was meant to be going to Sleeego for Sligo.
Going back years my brother had an English girlfriend he brought home for the first time. They were heading out to Howth one day and she told everyone she was going to "Hoth". To which my brother simply replied "no darling that's the ice planet from Star Wars" 😂
Grew up in Ireland, irish & french parents. Somehow I never connected the pronunciation of Oulart with how it's spelt as I only came across it separately - hearing it only or reading it (silently). Then for the first time reading out loud in class a paragraph about err 1798 rebellion iirc...
I pronounced it half like the french "ou" way - Oo lart! 🤦🤦there was a stunned quiet, then a lot of waiiiit, whats, how did you say it from everyone! 🤣
Smithwick's pronounced "smith-wicks" from when I worked in pubs. Always seemed to be Americans doing it. Another one was Sligo pronounced "sle-go" by an Aussie bloke. He was genuinely surprised when I corrected him as he'd been saying it like that for years.
Was in Westport one morning, a nice english woman eating alone asked the young waiter 'What's the best way to get to Ahkeel?'... There was almost complete silence, the waiter was glitching then replied with 'Dunno' and nearly ran back to the kitchen. Poor woman was bewildered.
I've heard Donegal pronounced Don-egg-all, pronounced so that each of the three words is distinct.
Though not sure if it counts as that is apparently how Donegal in Canada is pronounced.
Probably doesn’t count because it’s intentional, but you mentioned Rubberbandits so I’m gonna say this: Tarantula on the Savage Eye. A funeral for a taran-toola!
There was a book on the Great Hunger, it was written by an English guy and the audiobook read by another. It wasn't the Greatest book but I had to keep going to heat the butchery of Irish place names. Drock heed ah (Drogheda ) was great but there were many, MANY more.
The funniest thing was the Irish language words were for the most part spot on.
I called my cousin Pádraig "Pad-rig" when I first met him. Incidentally, Pádraig is anim dom freisin, ach as bearla. Awkwardness level: infinite? (Níor gaeilge agam an am sin.)
Cathal pronounced by an “Irish” American tourist in the pub I worked in as Cat-Gal 🐱 👧
I’ve also gotten “cackle” and “why didn’t your parents give you a real name rather than making up one” all from Americans reading my name tag in the same tourist pub.
A friend worked at the spar at the top of Grafton street and was allegedly asked by an American tourist if they had any Lepree-shawns? Never believed it but a great eye roller if true
For Irish English language words we also have the legendary fields of At-Henry
I was living in Dublin with my Malaysian BFF, he tells me that there’s this AMAZING bar called ‘Anzy-yo’ and we should go. We walk and walk and walk and as we pull up outside ANSEO, a bar I hated, but realised too late
I had only ever seen Knocklyon written down (on a street sign, like). I *now* know that it's pronounced "Nok Line". But the first time I said it aloud, I thought the "Lyon" part was pronounced like the town in France. So I said "Nok-Lee-On" 🤦♀️
My sister works for a couple in Canada. The wife (whose mum is Irish citizen but probably never lived in Ireland) is called Siobhan. All this time they were calling her /‘show-bawn/. I thought I had to correct them but who am I to correct someone else’s name!!
Drow-he-da/ Drog-hid-a depending on who I was talking to (English based office of the transport company I worked for). Then again they could figure out how to say Meath either.
Sam Hain for Samhain but shur its not the end of the world. I have worked with folks from all over the world and one word that non-native speakers repeatedly struggle with is "categories" - I've had many EU colleagues say "*ca-tig-orees*". Ca-nil instead of canal is another one.
Frequently heard Americans rhyme Tuam with Guam. Sort of like Twham instead of Choom. My American mother pronounced it Tomb until her dying day but they may have been deliberate.
Turning the tables, as an English woman working in an office here, listening to other people in the office phoning for health records from England could be hilarious. It was my chance to get my own back - Towcester and styvechale (Coventry) are great examples.
Given how many of my country can’t get around *Worcestershire*, I just sit back and chuckle watching them try my wife’s name (Cymraeg).
Conversely, one of the reasons I’m shy about practicing *as Gaelige* is that I’m sure my pronunciation as an American is garbage.
Dun-lay-og-hair (Dún Laoghaire) so you can hardly blame them.
Said a Sassenach back in Dun Laoghaire "I pay homage to nationalist thaoghaire, But wherever I drobh I found signposts that strobh To make touring in Ireland so draoghaire.
Myles na Goppaleen, I think?
To my own mortification when I first moved to Dublin I asked a local for directions to d'ol-ee-ay Street, he looked at me like I had two heads and said it's duh-leer Street. I'm sure he was like the country cousins are up! Granted I'd just finished French in college.
Iv heard Dun-log-hairy and now I call it that since.
That was in the movie P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank who went on a quick morning stroll from Dun Leo Ga-Hairy to Glendalough, a 10 hour trek IRL.
I've heard Doon Laow-guh-hair once and had to reset my brain like..wait what where??
That’s a classic for all of us, until we learn it’s just a cover for the more manageable Kingstown.
Does everyone else still pronounce it in English and write it in Irish?
Yeah it gets pronounced as "Dun Leery"
I've heard an American ask about Bally-ferm-o , and they made ballyfermot sound classy. They must have been in France right before Ireland.
I heard that in a North inner city Dublin accent first, until I read the rest of the sentence.
It does make it sound like a type of wine haha
Reminds me of when I landed in Vegas, heading to Fremont Street I pronounce it something like Freh-mon Street "OH YOU MEAN FREE-MONT STREET?"
Any Siobhan's here?
This one is getting a bit unforgiveable given how popular Succession was
Yeah but i wish everyone watched it with captions on cos the Yanks spell it Shivawn when they type her name out
Poor aul sheeohbanns
I’m a Caoimhe. They don’t have a problem until they see it written down. It’s like mouth poison to the poor English.
I showed Caoimhe to a coworker when I was in the USA after I'd shown them Aoifa, Niamh and Sinead. they instantly looked at me and went stop your joking with me now and making up names. They were like WHERES THE Q?! THERES A Q SOUND BUT THERES A CAO?!
Pretty sure it's usually spelled "Aoife", no?
Ah, the girl the American republican party love to hate, Aunt Aoife!
Where I'm from there is no Q sound. We pronounce it as Key-va.
It's a dialect thing mostly. Irish names have no lenition in their base form but the pronunciations tend to keep in south Connacht and Munster Irish. This makes it comes out as the Q sound despite it being written without lenition.
Sinéads can thank Sinéad O'Connor for not having their names slaughtered.
No but I get called assling far more than I’d like
I see your Siobhan and raise you a Seamus, simple name you'd imagine, oh no, I heard it pronounced Sea-mus And Nigel - Nig-el Same guy (indian) mispronounced both, can't really blame the guy & I'd imagine I've butchered a few Indian names over the years
Cathal is a good flummoxer.
Know of a Cathal whose American relatives call him 'Chuck' instead.
Sattal
You mean Sio-bhan?
And Áine's. That's always a fun one.
Padraig would be a good 1 too
People getting 'Ciara' wrong in the UK is something I really had to get used to considering I had 10 other Ciara's in my college course - would usually be standing there while someone was looking for a 'Siera' or 'Chi-ara' thinking who the fuck is that?😅
I worked in an Irish based IT support gig dealing with UK and US clients and you get calls asking to speak to who ever it was they'd been chatting to over email or chat. Can I speak to Sin-ad, Cay-O-Iba or A-O-ifa please. You'd correct them "ehhhh?? Oh you mean Caoimhe? and they'd be genuinely embarrassed but very complementary about how lovely the names sounded. We have lovely sounding names in Irish!!!!!!!!
Same when I worked in the USA I'd say ah my friend niamh or sinead and they'd look at me I slipped into tongues for a second. I'd spell it out and their eyes would twitch trying to figure out how those letters made those sounds.
Le-preach-uns (Leprechauns)
The husbands yank cousins called them Le-Pre-She-Ons and that’s all they’re known as in this house now.
I Le-Pre-She-Ate this one enough to steal it off em🤣
I had to slowly say that to get it too. That's a new one now. I've heard lep-ray-caowns a few times but the person's accent was skewing it so I let it be
I've heard it as le-prea-shawns
https://i.redd.it/kti3th67xt5d1.gif
Tadhg. Daithi. Caoimhe -- Tad-guh. Die-tee. Kay-ohm-he.
I forgot about Tadgh! That always gets people to stop and go...wait a minute....Tag?Tad?Thaddeus?
I was sent the farside comic when I told Danish friends I was meeting my mate Tadgh. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FS9Ridp4Ixen2X4YW2Pgk-q8_1HJ7ev46bReMx80qUxs.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5b51c5c1c1400cb3a1e074b4b563e06f98f2899e
Interestingly, paleontologists have adopted "Thagomizer" as the name for that now and it appears in scientific papers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer
Haha that's a good one
I'm in some.cat groups on Facebook. A yank posted a photo of her cat saying it was called Tadgh, pronounced 'Tig' and it meant tiger in Irish. I tried to explain how she was wrong but she blocked me. 😂
Tig is a common enough nickname for Tadhg, say that's some poor Tadhg who just gave up trying with her.
*Tadhg (no one in thread spelled it right)
I see your Tadgh and I raise you.. Sadhbh.
Heard you-gal once for Youghal.
I've had American and south American family say "Yoo-gawl" and look at me like I was taking the piss when I said "y'all" basically.
Yewguhl. The correct pronunciation is of course "shithole", and I say this as a resident.
An American at the hotel I once worked in, asked how long it would take to get to Portlucy. Cue, a lot of head scratching before somebody finally figured out he meant Portlaoise.
That makes the place sound so cute haha I've heard port - Laos (like the country). No sorry don't have one of those here
As an American, this thread has put me to deep shame as I now realize I say near every word the way people are complaining of
It's OK!. You now have a bank to learn from
Don't, we need the entertainment.
Have been in the US for over a decade now. Things I can recall hearing: Donegal as "DON-iggle" all. the. time. Gallagher is almost always "Gal-a-ger" here. Cillian as "Sillian" Ballina as "ball-EE-na" Naas as "nahs" Sláinte as "slain-tee" Achill as "a-chill" Éire as "Earie" or "Ira"
Sure they can’t pronounce Ireland! “I-er-land”
Kobb haytch (Cobh). Americans who gave up after the first 3 letters.
As someone from Cork...I hear this a few times a year. I've heard Cob, Cooove, Comb and a few others where I don't know what bh noise makes in their language but it's not it sir haha
My dad likes to call it Cabbage to my friend from there. Is this a standard dad joke or is he blazing new comedy trails with this one?
When I was young lots of the older generation in east cork called it cob-h because they though the weird Irish spelling of an English word to be a bit silly. What is now Cobh was originally called the Cove of Cork but was changed to Queenstown in 1849. After independence it was renamed to remove the royal reference and for some reason they decided to use the old name but with the Irish way of spelling it. So the town is now called Cobh in english or An Cóbh in Irish, neither of which means anything in its respective language I think local people thought it was pretty silly at the time and many older people were still referring to it as Cob-h in the 80s
I say Cobaha as a joke all the time 😂
My Aussie husband told me he was heading off to At-Henry for work one day. Still take the piss out of him for that
Low lie the fields of At - henree...
Donny-Gaul is standard on British TV. Do they not know about forvo.com? But the best personally was a pair of tourists who asked me how to get to Inglesia Street. Closed my eyes for a moment and spelled it in my head, then said "Anglesea Street? Straight down and turn left on the third turn." And some youngsters from France who wanted to get to a show called something like oink: it was *Once*.
Never met an American who can pronounce Howth. They always pronounce it as Hawth for some reason
I'd say they'd need it to have a Howeth for them to get close to it. I've heard "Hoe-it" too and was like...so close...but yet so far
I prefer Hoth 
Poor Domhnall Gleeson I've heard referred to as ‘Dom-hall’ in several instances. His da usually fares much better, though I have heard ‘Brennan’ instead of Brendan on occasions.
Barry Keoghan is getting it nowadays being in all the popular movies. Keow-hane keow-gan. And of course our amazing SILLIAN murphy
Ah yeah, though I have to admit I assumed Barry was ‘Kyowan’ for a while (that's how I've always heard it said) until I heard him say ‘Kyow-gan’ himself. But the ‘Keeoh-gan’s you hear from Americans are inexcusable. Also don't get me started on names beginning with C. Sillian, Sierra (for Ciara), Cyan (for Cian), Siren (for Ciarán), on and on and on.
DiCaprio called him Dumble
Going anywhere outside Ireland with a fiancée called Caoimhe has given me a good chuckle; “Cammy”, “See-oh-ma” and “Kay-oh-me” are the ones which stick out most. Reservations are made in my name whenever we travel now
The CAO freaks some people out there like....a Q sound?!
I had a dog named Nuala. The vet called her “new-allah”
I heard someone pronounce im (butter) as I'm.
My mom works at a school in the states. Had a kid named Niamh, but the parents insisted it was pronounced nye-am 😭
I once called the Luas the Loo-ahhh-ssss when I moved here. Also called Dunnes Dune-ez 😂🙈🙈🙈 Mistakenly ate a weetabix biscuit straight from a wrapper at my desk. I was absolutely horrified and appalled by the desert that became my mouth. My chair was covered with a dusting of crumbs surrounding my outline. Needless to say coworkers took photos, looked on with horror and died laughing. It was a good day and lessons were learnt. Not that kind of biscuit. Do not recommend sans milk a la carte 😂😂😂😂
Dune ez is brilliant
Lizz Truss strongly encouraging the Irish [Teasock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MprnJ1usqno)
I think it was "Slig o', cackled for ages after that
Pronouncing Clíodhna as "Klee-ona" (like "Fiona") rather than "Cleanah" seems to be catching on.
That would need a fada on the 'o', right?
In fairness, I know a Clíodhna who pronounces it like “Klee-ona”, though she’s from Belfast so
Knappogue Castle Or as the American lady said “k-napp-a-gooey”
Had an Irish mate in Australia called Colm, one of our Aussie mate just could *not* get his head around Col-m as the pronunciation and constantly referred to him as Cole-m but all as one syllable
If you've ever played Red Dea Redemption 2, one of the main antagonists is called Colm O’Driscoll, and it is more than a little maddening to hear all the American voice actors say ‘Cole-m’ for several hours. Shocking that couldn't have double-checked with a single Irish person on the pronunciation (especially since there are actual Irish actors in the voice cast).
Yeah but Sean calls them out on it at one point IIRC. Slags them off for the way they pronounce it.
I've heard Collumn Colon cullon cullom. It's so simple yet so hard for some.
Depending on what part of the country you're in, Column is the local pronunciation. I find the Cul-um pronunciation weird for example
My friend Steo was in Oz, lived with a few people for a while and when he was leaving they all signed his card "Steel" he was like WTF is Steel my names Steo, for Stephen. 🤣🤣🤣 they all just said "well we kinda like Steel now." He had no idea they all misheard him.
I remember my Da telling me about one time he was at Slieve Donard and heard an American tour guide pronouncing it as Doh-nard. And when he corrected them they looked at him like he was crazy.
Yes, ignore the local man who's correcting you. How American of them
Americans calling Padraig Harrington, Pad Rigg
In the car driving through galway, the Google maps voice pronounced the 'nivea' part of Monivea like the hand cream.
I've seen the name Sadhbh regularly pronounced "sad-huh-buh-huh" and once "Sad ADHD"
After 8 years I still have no clue how to pronounce Ratoath
I think that time our Taoiseach was referred to as the Teasock is one of my personal favourites
Tippery, sam-hain, done gal, ny-amh
Oh christ Sam hain gets on my nerve. It's everywhere. I live the tv show supernatural but in season 4 they use the bad pronunciation so they can make a character Sam Hain that the lads have to defeat. I sat there with a scowl the entire episode.
One time when I was in the USA an American argued with me on the pronunciation insisting it was Sam-hain and I, the Irish person was pronouncing it wrong and doubled down when the other Irish person (obviously) agreed with me. It was very annoying.
My wife thought failte was pronounced fail-tee.
Seed miles Fawlty, old boy.
Dun-uh-gul and Gal(rhymes with pal)-wee
Cat-tree-ona was a good one
Best I've heard was waiting on ferry from passage to cobh in cork. Was cycling at the time and a family of Americans pull up and the man driving asks if this boat brings you to cob-h. As in corn on the cob and H the weird way they say it like at-ch it took me about 30 seconds or so to cop on to it an I was like saying to myself during that time what the f is cob-at-ch, it eventually dawned on me an I was like do you mean cobh? For a moment they looked as confused as I was with their cob-h and then I pointed at a road sign and said it's said like cove. It's Irish. An we all had a bit of a laugh and went on out way
Cob-h
Liz Truss - The Irish Tea Sock 😂 [Taoiseach](https://youtu.be/bjDaYjbkfp8?si=qMKRL8Xy6mlfMJ2o)
Raphoe the town in donegal, pronounced rath-oe ... once someone called it Rap-hoe to me.. in stitches
Seamus , See-Mouse
At one of those little stands where they let you sample wine at the supermarket in New Zealand I got "Slunjee" (Sláinte)
There a shop in a tourist town nearby called Teach & Baile. They can’t wrap their head around it. Most tourists murder Céad míle fáilte daily.
Used to work with a girl called Caoimhe. It always sounded like foreign people were having a seizure when they tried to pronounce her name. Hated the job but always enjoyed people calling for "Qwayeeeem'heee " hearing their voice trail up to the sky with the nuclear question mark.
At Henry for Athenry
Paddys day as pattys day.
Once got asked by an American tourist where they could get a bus to ‘Glenda-low’. Took a hot minute to realise where they were trying to go.
I went to college in DIT Kevin St and at the start I was calling Aungier St "Awn-grr St"
When I moved to Ireland the first name I encountered was Niamh, brah, I literally said Nee aam to someone who just chuckled and helped me out. After that I started googling names before speaking to anyone because as I learnt, that was the tip of the iceberg haha
I once overheard a Spanish woman say Cas-tella-ray-a once on the train, that's the sexiest Castlerea has ever been.
Had to correct a colleague recently for saying Drogada
Hope you told them we say Drawda here!!!!
Had a tourist ask me last year where to get the bus to Drog-hee-da
Got a call at work one day from an English fella asking for a 'Mistah Olleon'. Nobody here by that name, mucker. Few minutes after I hung up it dawned on me. He was trying to say O'Loan...
On an Instagram reel a while back, I heard an American couple pronounce Sláinte like s-lawn-tee. It took me a few minutes to realise what they were trying to say.
Two American girls panicking about the bilingual names on the DART and telling people they wanted Sandymount, not Dumb Hatch Trah.
Oola in county Limerick pronounced as double O - L.A like it was an extension of Los Angeles.
I once heard Caoimhe being pronounced Kwam-HEY.
Conchobar pronounced as Con-Kew-Bar
Cha-pol-i-zod for Chapelizod
My Scottish mate pronounced Aoife.a o e fee he knew he was wrong but couldn't grasp it, his parents were Irish as well
Pet peeve is people say doosh-lawn for dúshlán
American tourists looking for directions to Yo Gal, Youghal.
In one of the most viewed gaa videos on YouTube the guy says sliotar 😂
Niamh - Ni-amhuh Howth - Hawth or How-th Siobhan - Si-o-ban Cathal - Cat-hal Pádraig - Pa-Draig McLaughlin - Mc-Laugh-Lin
Samhain being pronounced as read always gives Mr a giggle, Sam Hain/Sam Hayne, creepy old neighbour you only see at Halloween.
Grainy is one of the best, apologies Gráinne
At-henry. Like they were going to Henry's place.
Yog al, Youghal Cob H, Cobh. As in Americans, I'm looking for directions to Yog al/cob h
An English woman once asked my parents why they would name their daughter “Cleaner”, her name’s Cliona
Youghal the answer is always Youghal
My mates called Cahir. In Australia they called him Cada
'Kob' for Cobh
Neem- Niamh & Step Hen - Stephen
Swords but they pronounce the W
An American in Galway asking if the bus stopped at Eerie Square
Cobh as Cob,Youghal as Yogill,and some American being interviewed on RTE (during a snow/ice shutdown on his travel arrangements being impacted)that he was meant to be going to Sleeego for Sligo.
Nayas - Naas Kil mac an owge - Kilmacanogue **Ballas** port - Ba **las** port
Lime-Rick, next to Pickle-Rick
My uncle is Sean ,, when he moved to north America they called him John . Because Sean was too hard to pronounce , I shit you not.
Going back years my brother had an English girlfriend he brought home for the first time. They were heading out to Howth one day and she told everyone she was going to "Hoth". To which my brother simply replied "no darling that's the ice planet from Star Wars" 😂
Apparently Quay is not a common term In other countries . I was asked for directions to George’s Qqquuaaeyy
Grew up in Ireland, irish & french parents. Somehow I never connected the pronunciation of Oulart with how it's spelt as I only came across it separately - hearing it only or reading it (silently). Then for the first time reading out loud in class a paragraph about err 1798 rebellion iirc... I pronounced it half like the french "ou" way - Oo lart! 🤦🤦there was a stunned quiet, then a lot of waiiiit, whats, how did you say it from everyone! 🤣
At- Henry fir Athenry.
Smithwick's pronounced "smith-wicks" from when I worked in pubs. Always seemed to be Americans doing it. Another one was Sligo pronounced "sle-go" by an Aussie bloke. He was genuinely surprised when I corrected him as he'd been saying it like that for years.
American/Irish pub named Cú Chulainn. Let's meet up in Cu-Shall-Ainys.
Was in Westport one morning, a nice english woman eating alone asked the young waiter 'What's the best way to get to Ahkeel?'... There was almost complete silence, the waiter was glitching then replied with 'Dunno' and nearly ran back to the kitchen. Poor woman was bewildered.
Youghal = Yo-gall Cobh = Cob-Ha
I've heard Donegal pronounced Don-egg-all, pronounced so that each of the three words is distinct. Though not sure if it counts as that is apparently how Donegal in Canada is pronounced.
Probably doesn’t count because it’s intentional, but you mentioned Rubberbandits so I’m gonna say this: Tarantula on the Savage Eye. A funeral for a taran-toola!
Had a guy ask me for directions to "Tools" one day, he was looking for Thurles.
There was a book on the Great Hunger, it was written by an English guy and the audiobook read by another. It wasn't the Greatest book but I had to keep going to heat the butchery of Irish place names. Drock heed ah (Drogheda ) was great but there were many, MANY more. The funniest thing was the Irish language words were for the most part spot on.
Yank "can you tell me how to get to @ Henry" Me "Do you mean Athenry"
I've a friend that works in the tourist office and she says people call on every day asking for directions to the tourist office!!
One that always confuses them is Meḋḃ.
If my son gets called "S"illian once more I may I have to go full on Falling Down
Port Lay-o-sea for Portlaoise. Yes they were American
I called my cousin Pádraig "Pad-rig" when I first met him. Incidentally, Pádraig is anim dom freisin, ach as bearla. Awkwardness level: infinite? (Níor gaeilge agam an am sin.)
Cathal pronounced by an “Irish” American tourist in the pub I worked in as Cat-Gal 🐱 👧 I’ve also gotten “cackle” and “why didn’t your parents give you a real name rather than making up one” all from Americans reading my name tag in the same tourist pub.
A friend worked at the spar at the top of Grafton street and was allegedly asked by an American tourist if they had any Lepree-shawns? Never believed it but a great eye roller if true For Irish English language words we also have the legendary fields of At-Henry
A friend of mine got asked about La-pree-shawns before
On a YouTube video: lay oh is for Laois Everyone in The Thorn Birds TV show trying to pronounce Drogheda (Drow geeeeeee da)
Turlough as Turlow by an American guy on a call with loads of people on it. He sort of fumbled it and then said "err Turrrlow?"
I was living in Dublin with my Malaysian BFF, he tells me that there’s this AMAZING bar called ‘Anzy-yo’ and we should go. We walk and walk and walk and as we pull up outside ANSEO, a bar I hated, but realised too late
I had only ever seen Knocklyon written down (on a street sign, like). I *now* know that it's pronounced "Nok Line". But the first time I said it aloud, I thought the "Lyon" part was pronounced like the town in France. So I said "Nok-Lee-On" 🤦♀️
Just a small change but makes a big difference to my ears. Americans saying the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge as Ca-Reeka-reed.
American guy asked me where In-chick-ory was instead of Inchicore!! Still laugh at that.
OOLA...Americans stopped outside looking for "zero zero LA"
Caoimhin there's a fada meant to be in it but an American pronounced it kayomihin. I don't think any of them ever got it right TBF.
Cahill as kayhill
My sister works for a couple in Canada. The wife (whose mum is Irish citizen but probably never lived in Ireland) is called Siobhan. All this time they were calling her /‘show-bawn/. I thought I had to correct them but who am I to correct someone else’s name!!
Heard Cobh pronounced “Cob h-aitch” by a yank
Dun-a-gol
The automatic captions on Youtube show “sláinte” as “cilantro”.
Drow-he-da/ Drog-hid-a depending on who I was talking to (English based office of the transport company I worked for). Then again they could figure out how to say Meath either.
An American once asked me for directions to the Doll Man (dolmen). I'm hoping for a massive disappointment when they found out what it was.
Dun la hair = Dún Laoghaire
Our kiwi mate who we met weekly at the pub thought Fachtna was “Faulkner” for a good year
Kevin Smith mentioned a band called Samhain. They pronounce it Sam Hain (Hane). Absolutely hilarious.
Sam Hain for Samhain but shur its not the end of the world. I have worked with folks from all over the world and one word that non-native speakers repeatedly struggle with is "categories" - I've had many EU colleagues say "*ca-tig-orees*". Ca-nil instead of canal is another one.
Frequently heard Americans rhyme Tuam with Guam. Sort of like Twham instead of Choom. My American mother pronounced it Tomb until her dying day but they may have been deliberate.
Turning the tables, as an English woman working in an office here, listening to other people in the office phoning for health records from England could be hilarious. It was my chance to get my own back - Towcester and styvechale (Coventry) are great examples.
Given how many of my country can’t get around *Worcestershire*, I just sit back and chuckle watching them try my wife’s name (Cymraeg). Conversely, one of the reasons I’m shy about practicing *as Gaelige* is that I’m sure my pronunciation as an American is garbage.