26 July 2026
By Valerie Ryan
valerie@TheCork.ie
If you know what it means to be ‘all Gillette’ or to give someone a ‘backer’, congratulations – you’re fluent in one of the most colourful, inventive, and downright hilarious dialects in the English-speaking world. If you haven’t a clue, then this book is exactly what you need.
Cork slang carries the wit, the warmth, the sarcasm, and yes, the prejudices of generations – and this edition documents that history honestly. Whether you’re a native Corkonian, a proud blow-in, or a visitor trying to decode what on earth the man on the 208 bus just said to you, Langers and Lashes is your essential guide to the greatest slang in Ireland – and, as any Corkonian will tell you, that means the greatest in the world.
LANGERS AND LASHES
A COMPENDIUM OF CORK SLANG
By Desmond MacHale
Langers and Lashes is the most comprehensive collection of Cork slang ever assembled – the words, phrases, and expressions that make Cork speech like nowhere else on earth. Crude and clever, affectionate and savage, ancient and freshly minted: this is the living language of a city that has always done things its own way.
ISBN: 978-1-80690-027-5
Format: Paperback
Prices: €12.99 RRP, £11.99 RRP, US$15.99 RRP
BIC: WHL – Slang & dialect humour
BISAC: HUM019000 – HUMOR / Topic / Language
From: 01 July 2026
Publisher: Mercier Press
Audience: General / adult
https://www.mercierpress.ie/books/langers-and-lashes-a-compendium-of-cork-slang/