HOLY F*** Our expletives aren’t rude – just a sign of passionate intensity
A SINGLE utterance of the word ‘f***’ a few hours into the broadcast of Live Aid by a fiery Bob Geldof galvanised a global TV audience into flooding phone lines with donations.
Almost 36 years on from the star-studded charity concert, the Dubliner has revealed the extraordinary and instantaneous impact his infamous profanity had in a new RTÉ documentary on Ireland’s penchant for swearing.
The documentary, called Holy F***, is presented by comedian and Father Ted star Ardal
‘We swear casually and with great relish’
O’Hanlon. During the film, the man who brought Fr Dougal to life examines salty language that pickles the vernacular across Ireland.
He has conversations with household names such as fellow comedian Tommy Tiernan, who loves throwing curse words into his stand-up routine, to Dublin’s lord mayor Hazel Chu, who muses over the difference between banter and divisive slurs.
For Geldof, his very Irish use of expletives during Live Aid when he uttered the f-word to emphasise his point – twice – during the Live Aid broadcast might have had BBC producers squirming. But he said it had the desired effect on audiences at home in 1985.
‘[Status] Quo came on and it kicked off, it was all going on,’ the former Boomtown Rats frontman recalls.
‘Now the next part, once the gig was actually on, was trying to get as much money and remind people what all these giants of the culture were doing it for, for free.
‘And that wasn’t happening. And I went to the broadcast booth, and this DJ was crapping on about envelopes and address and posting it, and I said “f*** the envelopes – call up now and do it”.’
Nearly four decades on, he said the four-letter word had shocked people into action.
He adds: ‘The swear word had the effect of slapping someone across the face and saying, “Wake up – you’ve got to join in”. And that’s the point where, quite literally, phone lines collapsed.’
The activist and rock star believes the use of colourful language indicates the love of language, contrary to popular belief.
‘Countless studies have said you’re more likely to swear if you’ve got a large vocabulary, and I think that goes to why perhaps the Irish swear more,’ he says.
O’Hanlon has his own theories as to why we, as a people, sprinkle our conversation liberally with curse words.
‘We curse a lot in this country. We swear casually and fluently and with great relish. We love it. “Ye
b ******* ” is a term of affection.
‘Oscar Wilde thought it [Irish cursing] lacked imagination and visitors to Ireland are often shocked by our salty language. We tend to exaggerate everything is what I think. And so we exaggerate our passions, and we exaggerate our frustration.’
Tommy Tiernan, meanwhile, reckons Irish people’s irreverent use of language is a product of our colonial past.
‘I guess maybe it was partly due to the fact that the physical reality that we had for so long was so oppressive and down, that I was the only way we could fly was probably just through language and dancing and amplifying things that couldn’t be controlled by the oppressor,’ he tells O’Hanlon.
Linguist Frankie Gaffney, who studied in Trinity College, said he was surprised at the backlash
writer Roddy Doyle received when his depictions of working-class Dublin were full of colourful language.
‘I think that criticism was really wrong because it’s very obviously affectionate,’ he said, adding that our capital has a very particular way of using swear words. ‘“By stuttering Christ,” is one that I used to hear around Dublin. It’s very strange, I don’t know the etymology of that.’ Gaffney notes that slur words for the Travelling community are still in use in Ireland.
‘It’s interesting, the k-word is much more socially acceptable than the n-word in Ireland, so there isn’t a realisation, yet, of how stigmatised and oppressed Travellers are.’
Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, who has had to deal with well-documented racist abuse on social media, sees her own use of salty language as part of her identity.
‘I’ll have people questioning whether I’m Irish or not, but I always laugh and say the perfect proof of how I’m Irish is my potty mouth more than anything else,’ she says.
But she adds that there’s a stark difference between banter and slurs: ‘With people who come out with racial slurs or slurs based on gender or sexuality or religion, even in a banter environment, maybe they don’t mean it. But then instead of just saying, “Well, you’re a terrible person for saying that”, you call them out and explain why.
‘With a racial slur, it goes deeprooted, it actually causes division.
‘So someone calling me something like a C **** or anything to do with my skin colour is a massive difference than calling me a gobs **** .’
The Father Ted actor has the last word on the national habit for using expletives.
‘We’re just a little bit histrionic by nature, we exaggerate a lot, magnify our grievances. We have a lot to say. In fact, I’m surprised we don’t swear a lot more.’
news@mailonsunday.ie n Holy F*** airs tonight at 9.30pm on RTÉ One.
‘Proof of how I’m Irish is my potty mouth’