Among the inhabitants of Northern Ireland, and especially Protestant learners of Irish, there exists an interest in the kind of Irish that used to be spoken in those parts when there still were traditional speakers there. This file has been compiled from the available crumbs - mainly found in Athchló Uladh (edited by Gearóid Stockman and Gearóid Mac Giolla Domhnaigh) and Contributions to a Comparative Study of Ulster Irish and Scottish Gaelic (by Colm Ó Baoill, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast 1978). As this is for the general learner, I have tried to standardise the spellings, but much of East Ulster Irish simply hasn't got a standard spelling, so I have had to resort to Scottish spellings or my own awkward attempts to negotiate a compromise between the two Gaelics.
I think this list might come in handy for a writer who wants to give his or her Irish an East Ulster flavour. However, before you start using them, do take the trouble of learning some western Ulster dialect thoroughly - it is especially recommended to read Seán Bán Mac Meanman, but the Rosses writers won't hurt, either. If you try to adopt East Ulster elements into a Munster dialect, you will just be a making an ula mhagaidh of yourself.
Update 2002-04-17: I checked in An Dara Mám and found out that tochaird/tochard really means "to wind" [= tochrais/tochras] and not "to itch" [= tochais/tochas] in Central Donegal. However, it MIGHT be the other way round in East Ulster. I must check the literature.
Update 2003-12.19: I decided to add here some words in Ciarán Ó Duibhin's East Ulster word list with commentary.
abaist: is abaist liom = is gnách liom, is nós liom, tá sé de nós agam. Ciarán: ábhaist "usual". Probably Ciarán's spelling is more appropriate.
acht a b'é mo shúile = "were it not for my eyes" (Ciarán). However, achab é, ach go b'é for the more Southern Irish murach is, in my opinion, more generally Ulster Irish.
adhlacadh "burial": Ciarán says it is pronounced "ulcú", which suggests "iodhlacadh" would be a more accurate reflection of the pronunciation. Final /-adh/ becoming [u] is a markedly Ulster thing anyway. Ciarán gives also the forms iolc, iolcaim for adhlaic, adhlacaim, both sensible reflections of the phonetic realisation.
áite (general East Ulster) = áit
allt (Antrim) stream, brook, (Lowland Scots:) burn
an tráth seo (Rathlin) = anois, cf. Scottish Gaelic an-dràsda
aoilbheog (Antrim) live coal. Aibhleog is the Donegal form I would use myself; aoibheall is another East Ulster form, that used in Oirialla. Sméaróid is used in Munster (and seems to be attestable in Connacht, too - at least I have recently found it in Seanchas Thomáis Laighléis, which is Claregalway Irish).
ardánach (Oirialla) proud
ar díth (Rathlin) missing, wanting, lacking (ar iarraidh, ar lár, de dhíobháil, d'fheidhm)
ar los + verbal noun construction (Rathlin) in order to: Tháinig sé suas liom ar los mo ghabháil (= le mé a ghabháil). Éirigh ar los coirce a bhualadh (= Éirigh agus bí ag bualadh coirce).
arsaigh/arsaí (Antrim) to tell (a story). A form of aithris also found in Donegal in the collocation ag arsaí téamaí (attested in Séamus Ó Grianna's Cora Cinniúna) = "spinning yarns".
chan fheil athrach agam air = níl neart agam air
báda (general East Ulster) = bád
bannach (Rathlin) = bonnóg aráin
bastallach (Antrim) = feiceálach
bathlach (Rathlin) = stócach
beacht (NOUN!) opinion, idea. Scotticism.
beartach wealthy, rich. (According to Dwelly, in Scottish Gaelic duine beartach means "a man of deeds, one rich in works" and, by implication, "a rich man". A man of deeds, thus a rich man? Sounds rather American to me, doesn't it?)
bhá (Antrim, Rathlin) = bhí, was. Mostly spelt bha as in Scotland, but bhádar = bhíodar is attested in Kilkenny Irish (the diary of Humphrey O'Sullivan).
bruach (Antrim) in the meaning "slope"
brosnaigh (Oirialla) = brostaigh, broslaigh
buachaile (Antrim) = buachaill
cailleach oíche (general East Ulster) owl. The standard word is ulchabhán, but cailleach oíche might be the name of a certain species.
casadach, ag casadaigh (Oirialla, Antrim) coughing. This is just a typical East Ulster development of casachtach, because ch was much weakened in East Ulster dialect (local scribes used, for example, teat for teacht)
céilíocht (general East Ulster) used in the meaning of night-visiting (= airneál, airneán, scoraíocht in other dialects)
có (Rathlin, Antrim) "who, what, where". Another Scotticism, but cá for cé is very typical of some Donegal speech, too (Seán Bán Mac Meanman: cá háit for "cén áit", for example)
coin(fh)eascar = clapsholas, luí gréine
coire (Antrim) kettle
coltach (Rathlin) = cosúil. Scotticism, but attested only as a strengthening complement to cosúil: coltach cosúil
cruach siolláin (Antrim) beehive
cuideacht (Rathlin) also, too, as well. Scotticism.
cuidheal (Antrim) wheel - a very old English loan-word
cumáilt (Rathlin) = coinneáil. Scotticism.
dar, d'uair (general East Ulster) when (standard nuair)
de dheachair (Tyrone) = de dhíth
diosc (Omeath) improvement of weather: an bhfuil diosc ann? = an bhfuil an aimsir ag dul i bhfeabhas?
dorlach de bhlianaibh ó shin (Antrim) = dornán de bhlianta ó sin
dóthail (Antrim) dóthain, sáith, enough: Bhá an sionnach ag teilgean na scadán amach as an charr sleamhnáin go bhfuair sé a dhóthail amuigh aige.
dragh a chur ort = stró, strus, saothar a ghlacadh ort
dubhradh (Antrim) shade: i ndubhradh an tsléibhe
dubhragán, dúrgán (Omeath) cloud (scamall, néal)
duircín (Antrim) piglet, a young pig
an Éiphte (Oirialla) Egypt (remember Úirchill an Chreagáin!)
éireacht (Antrim) = éirí; the é is to be pronounced as í, as most Ulster Irish speakers do in this particular word
fadaíocht, faidíocht, fadacht (general East Ulster) longing
ar falbh (Antrim) = ar shiúl, imithe. Scotticism.
fallas (Antrim) = allas, sweat
fánas (Oirialla) gap, opportunity, opening
fán cheartuair (Rathlin) in the present time
far a bhfuil sé (Antrim) = an áit a bhfuil sé, mar a bhfuil sé
féamfaidh mé = caithfidh mé, I must. Scotticism. Related to feidhm.
feil for fuil in chan fheil, go bhfeil, nach bhfeil. Scotticism.
fidheall, fíodhall (Antrim) fiddle (fidil, veidhlín in standard Irish)
fóst =fós. I do not recommend to use this, as it can be confused with fosta, which is the Donegal (and, consequently, "standard Ulster Irish") word for "too, also" (freisin in Connemara, as you should know).
fuathasach = uafásach, creathnach, iontach + adjective: "terribly". Thá é fuathasach fuar = tá sé creathnach fuar
gaol (Rathlin) love: thit sé i ngaol léithi. As the word has another sense in most Irish dialects, I would not recommend to use it in this particular meaning.
geannaire (Oirialla) hammer
glé- (Antrim, Rathlin) very; glé-mhaith = an-mhaith, iontach maith. Typical Scotticism.
iarp (Antrim) try, attempt, test, ScG oidhirp. Nuair a ruig [= shroich] sé an fang [= cró], cad é an rud a chonaic sé ach meirleach ag fuireacháil [= fuireach, fanúint] i measc na gcaorach chun iarp a thabhairt ar an t-aon [= ar an cheann] ab fhearr acu.
idir, igir (Antrim) at all; another Scotticism. Remember that the standard word idir = "between" is eadar in Ulster.
imirt de na cártaí play cards
in ionnsuidhe + GEN = ionsar, towards. In m'ionnsuidhe = ionsorm.
iomorra (in Athchló Uladh spelt amarra): "indeed, moreover; (continuing narrative:) now, then", says Ó Donaill, and he tells us it is a literary archaism only found in Early Modern Irish. It is attested in Seán Bán's An Chéad Mhám, but there it can indeed [sic!] be a literary archaism (An Chéad Mhám is cluttered with rather clumsy loan-goods from Classical Irish, which does not really combine very well with Seán Bán's deeply dialectal, even somewhat vulgar Mid-Donegal Irish). However, in Athchló Uladh it is found in this context: Drúisleach [= drabhlás] de dhuine a bhá ann, agus cuideacht, bhá sé fuathasach [= uafásach, iontach, creathnach, as pabhar] neonach [= corr] ina dhóigh. Iomorra, bhá sé chomh neonach sin is gur shaoil [= shíl, cheap] muintir Chúl an Bhaile go rabh sé ar scaoll [= ar mire]."
iteach, eiteach (Antrim) wing
langal, lancal (Omeath) a spancel. Crobhnasc and cornasc are more standard words.
látha (two syllables) = lá. Scotticism.
lón (Antrim) meadow
lúirín (Rathlin) finger = méar
má tá well, well, bhail, ní h-ansa
móine (Antrim) turf, peat
nár (general East Ulster) = ár, our
bhá an ghrian ag neartachadh i dteas = bhí an ghrian ag dul i dteocht ("ag neartú i dteas"). The verbal noun ending -achadh for second conjugation translative verbs is another Scotticism, although it is sporadically found even in Munster (salachadh is found in Seán Ó Criomhthain's Lá Dár Saol)
pailteas (general East Ulster) lots of
paiteach (Antrim) thirsty. You might remember that pathadh is the Scottish Gaelic word for "thirst".
ar an phléasc sin = ar an toirt, ar áit na mbonn
pronntán (Antrim) = soláthraí bídh, wage-earner of the family
reic to sell. Preferable to díol, which means, above all, "to pay".
an réigiún an spéir, the sky (Omeath)
roisealach (Antrim) robber, robálaí, meirleach
sabhall (Antrim) barn (standard scioból)
sábháilte abhaile duit safe home (Omeath). (Omeath or no Omeath, I think this sounds like an unacceptable Anglicism. I would still say slán abhaile.)
saoil (general East Ulster) = síl, think
scís-uair a chur seachat = scíth a ligean, scíste a dhéanamh
seachat = thar(a)t
seorsa (Antrim) = seort, sórt, cineál, saghas
siúcar (general East Ulster) = siúcra
spliúchán (general East Ulster) purse. The standard word is sparán, but remember Central Donegal treaspac. (You must remember it because it is the word I use. I spent the years 1996-1997 studying Seán Bán's and Aindrias Ó Baoill's writings so intensively that I adopted treaspac into my own Irish and needed to relearn sparán, because the only word I could actively remember was treaspac.)
Update - I think spliúchán also belongs to Micí Mac Gabhann's vocabulary in Rotha Mór an tSaoil, a.k.a. The Hard Road to Klondyke.
spórsa (general East Ulster) sport
stoirt is samhlas (Antrim) = fearg is samhnas
stríleach (Rathlin) noise
i dtaca greise (Antrim) = ar feadh tamaill; greas = dreas
tacán (a) minute
tagán (Rathlin) purse
tasanach (Rathlin) = buartha
thachair ar dhuine = tharla/bhain/d'éirigh do dhuine. Scotticism.
till(eadh) (general East Ulster) = pill(eadh), fill(eadh)
tilleán (Oirialla) wasp, bee (silleán is attested in North Donegal)
tine aeir (Antrim) lightening, glanadh na spéire
tochaird/tochard = tochrais/tochras, i.e. "to wind". Well, this is at least what it means in Central Donegal.
toireasc (Rathlin) saw (i.e. the implement - the preferred standard word is sábh).
tonnóg (Antrim) duck. Even this is a Scotticism. By the way, Focail na nUltach says tonnóg was confined to domestic ducks. Wild duck was called lacha.
(go) troic (Antrim) often. Scotticism (gu tric), but this orthography seems best to correspond the pronunciation as explained in Ó Baoill's book.
is urrainn liom = is féidir liom, thig liom