A Wee Bit of Irish Slang from BIG GIRL, SMALL TOWN

“An immensely lovable debut novel . . . It’s the kind of magic you’ll feel lucky to find.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Author Michelle Gallen breaks down some of the slang found in her debut novel, BIG GIRL, SMALL TOWN.

[josephkaselow]

Majella blinked, listening to the gulders of the weans [loud shouts of the children] playing on the grass outside.

[josephkaselow]

Majella’s ma said he went to America to escape internment after his involvement with something he called Civil Resistance, which, from what Majella understood, wasn’t the Rah but something that led down the road to the Rah. What is a Rah?

[josephkaselow]

Regarding oxter: Then she paused to have a sniff of her oxters before wiping herself with a roll-on deodorant. The product description always irritated Majella, for deodorants didn’t actually de-odorize her armpits: they just made them smell different. Majella much preferred the natural tang of her pits to the fake ming of the deodorant, but she’d learned the hard way in school that Other People preferred perfumes and deodorants to their own smells and that anyone who smelt like their own self was in for a rough ride.

[josephkaselow]

This was marriage. Majella wasn’t too sure why anyone bothered with it. She particularly didn’t understand Marty and Philomena, who didn’t seem to have any craic at all.

[josephkaselow]

She knew it wouldn’t feel right wearing something she got stocious in, but she didn’t really have a choice. Stocious?