Glossary: F

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Note to Americans: Like our colleagues in the UK, we Irish use this word to refer to the female genitals, not to the backside. You have been warned.

Americans wishing to spare themselves embarrassment are also directed to the entry for ride.

Farmer

The alleged backbone of Ireland, an ingenious machine for turning EU money into whines.

FÁS

The Irish word for "growth". Pronounced like... well, imagine someone with a JFK-type American accent saying "force" (FAWHSE! Say it, Frenchie!), and you've about got it. The name of the State organisation responsible for retraining the unemployed. One of the Irish government's many scams to reduce the unemployment figures is to force the long-term unemployed off the live register into FÁS schemes.

Feck

General-purpose Irish swear word popularised abroad by Father Ted. It has three meanings depending on the origin and age of the speaker:

As a verb, a handy substitute for "fuck" in situations where the stronger word would be frowned upon.
As a verb, to steal; this is old Dublin usage.
As a noun, the female genitals. This usage is more common in the country than in Dublin.

Fella

A person of the male sex. Usually qualified, e.g. "young fella", "oul' fella". "The young fella" refers to the speaker's boyfriend or son, while "the oul' fella" refers to her husband or his or her father.

Dubliners often use the definite article rather than a possessive, especially when talking about family members, e.g. "How's the Da? Is he out of the Gorman yet?"

See also one.

Fianna Fáil

Literally, `the Soldiers of Destiny', the largest party in Ireland. Left-centrist with a strong nationalistic slant, the party played a prominent role in the moulding of the modern Irish state. As a result, Fianna Fáilers tend to consider it their right to run the country, despite their regular demonstrations of their unfitness to do so. In the past thirty years, Fianna Fáil have been responsible for such merry pranks as: smuggling arms to terrorists in Northern Ireland, tapping journalists' phones, tapping each others' phones, double-voting, giving out Irish passports in exchange for money, and accepting large bags of cash from prominent businessmen. It's almost got to the stage where merely joining Fianna Fáil is signalling your availability to be bought should you ever hold high office. Nevertheless, a large segment of the Irish electorate continue to vote for these crooked swine on a depressingly regular basis.

Fine Gael

The second-largest party in Ireland, sort of centrist-right in outlook. Founded after the Civil War, Fine Gael started out a bit more right-wing than their present incarnation; in their early days they had a pseudo-militaristic wing modelled on Mussolini's Blackshirts, the Blueshirts. `Blueshirt' is still used as a term of abuse for members of Fine Gael. Fine Gael voters tend to be pillar-of- the-community types, big farmers and the like. Have only been caught occasionally doing crooked things.

Fine thing

An attractive man or woman. See ride, sense 3.

Flagon

Large 2-litre bottle, esp. of cider.

Fleckie

See scumbag. Allegedly, because scumbags continued to affect `Miami Vice' style flecked trousers long after they ceased to be fashionable.

Flootered

see drunk.

Fuck the begrudgers!

See begrudgery. A statement of defiance, often made to boost morale. "Let's get this site up and fuck the begruders!"