Sharon Horgan forced to explain meaning of ‘rude Irish word’ to Americans

Sharon Horgan has continued to spread Irish culture around the world, but in a whole new way this week.

The Irish writer, actress and comedian is best known for creating and starring in the TV series’ Pulling, Catastrophe, and Bad Sisters, which recently released its second season.

She’s currently in the United States promoting the series, which follows five sisters – Eva (Sharon), Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene) and Becka (Eve Hewson).

Set in Dublin, it charts the aftermath of the untimely death of Grace’s abusive, controlling husband John Paul (Claes Bang) when the sisters find themselves at the centre of a life insurance investigation.

However, during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert she left the audience in shock when sharing the meaning behind some Irish slang words.

After being asked why a character was introduced as a ‘wagon’ in season 2 by the talk show host, Sharon, 54, explained: ‘It’s just a b****.’

Sharon Horgan has left fans in hysterics after sharing the meaning behind some Irish slang words (Picture: CBS)

Members of the studio audience burst out into laughter hearing her colourful language dropped so casually.

‘There’s just a lot of great Irish words that I don’t know where they come from…’ she continued.

After the talk show host asked her to share some others, Sharon explained how American audiences at the Bad Sisters premiere in New York had one specific reference go right over their heads.

‘We had our screening here the other night and it was a predominantly American audience, and they didn’t laugh at this word…the word is gee,’ she explained.

After one Irish audience member could be heard laughing loudly, Sharon was asked by Stephen what it meant.

‘It’s another word for female anatomy, or part of,’ she continued.

The Irish actress was warned against saying certain words though (Picture: Steven/ AFF-USA/ Shutterstock)

But after being told she ‘didn’t have to whisper the word vagina’ Sharon repeated it but looked somewhat nervous.

‘You can say vagina, but you can’t say that other word y’all seem to say a lot over there…in a kind of friendly way,’ she was warned with Stephen mentioning the ‘c’ word.

‘It’s just a kind of friendly word where I’m from!,’ she declared.

Continuing to bridge cultural divides, Sharon then described how ‘you can call someone a gee bag’ and how ‘you can get gee eyed’.

Possibly confusing Americans even more, she detailed multiple words the Irish had for drunk, like ‘balloobas, langered and trollied.’

She then added: ‘Dote is a good word. It means a really sweet person… or a ride, which means when someone’s very good-looking.’

Commenting on the clip of the hilarious interaction, many made it clear they loved Sharon sharing uniquely Irish terms with the rest of the world.

‘She’s one of Irelands best representatives,’ Craig commented on Instagram.

‘Only the Irish explain best,’ Darren shared.

‘Only the Irish,’ Padraig added.

Sharon, who is an ambassador for Tourism Ireland, grew up on a turkey farm in Bellewstown, County Meath.

Bad Sisters season 2 was released last week (Picture: Apple TV Plus)

In a 2018 interview with The Irish Times, she spoke about having to correct people when they incorrectly referred to her as British.

‘It’s just about annoying enough that it’s worth correcting people,’ she said.

‘It gets boring saying: “Irish, actually”. But we really shouldn’t let it go.’

She went on to say, ‘there’s nothing wrong with being English…it’s just the opposite of being Irish’.

Bad Sisters is streaming on Apple TV Plus.

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