Jackeen

 ( Anti-english Sentiment In Ireland ) 

Jackeen is a pejorative term for someone from Dublin, Ireland. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as a "contemptuous designation for a self-assertive worthless fellow", citing the earliest documented use from the year 1840.

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Etymology The term Jackeen is believed to be derived from the name Jack, a common English people nickname for the names James and John, or in reference to the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland beginning in 1169, Dublin became the centre of the The Pale, the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. By the 19th century, Dublin had served as the centre for English rule in Ireland for centuries, and Dubliners were stereotyped as being heavily Anglicized and considered the most English of all the Irish people.

On 17 December 1922, as the final garrison of British soldiers marched towards Dublin Port during the British withdrawal from Ireland, some Dubliners who lined the route bid them farewell while waving Union Jack flags.

Jack is combined with the Irish language diminutive suffix "-een" (represented as -ín in Irish) meaning little, commonly found in Irish female names such as Roisín ("little Rose") and Maureen ( Mairín, "little Mary"), implying that Dubliners are "little Englishmen".

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See also

• Culchie
• Shoneen
• West Brit
• Uncle Tom
• Dic Siôn Dafydd

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