Irish people really do speak their own language, according to the author of a book of Irishisms.
Denise Deegan says the idea to keep track of them came to her in the US, when she was staying with a friend.
The author of 'The Little Book of Irishisms' told Newstalk Breakfast she never really thought about it before.
"I was over in the States at a children's books conference, I was staying with a friend of mine who's American.
"When you're with your pals, you're just completely relaxed - you're not worried about what you're saying.
"You're speaking the same language - or so you think - and then I said something to Molly, which was 'Oh here, give me that yolk'.
"She just looked at me, and there was this moment... it just really made me realise we are actually speaking two different languages here.
"I just started taking down - for my own entertainment - Irishisms and what we say.
"And every time I heard new one, I'd just take it down".
Denise says some of these expressions stem from Irish words.
"I love things like 'bacady' - nobody knows what you're talking about if you say it in the States or something like that.
"It really just describes the word as well... bacady, you can just hear the word.
"It actually also comes from an Irish word as well, and I love that too. It comes from bacach, which means 'lame'".
And she says the Irish language has a lot more insults than compliments.
"Some of them, though, are also terms of endearment: like 'eejit' - 'You big eejit' or ' you chancer'.
"That's our word - chancing your arm, it's such an Irish thing to do.
"And we admire it, whereas other nations mightn't admire that so much but we do".
