Skanger
Scanger or skanger is a derogatory term for the stereotypical member of a youth subculture group in Ireland (especially in Dublin).
Scangers bear a lot of resemblance to what are called chavs in Britain. Scangers are similar to chavs in numerous ways, sharing similar dress and lifestyle, but have various indigenous identifying features.
Stereotypical Appearance
Hego
- The wearing of branded baseball caps (often of the Burberry check pattern) at improbably sharp angles, exceeding forty-five degrees.
- The wearing of full tracksuits, which are commonly white in colour, along with Ben Sherman shirts and branded trainers (such as Nike Air Max) with laces tied behind the tongue of the shoe. Often, tracksuit bottoms tucked into white branded socks are worn.
- The wearing of very short haircuts (sometimes with a short fringe or quiff at the front) in males.
- The wearing of prominent jewellery: facial jewellery (especially in males), large rings, dangling earrings, and thick chains (worn around the neck or wrist). Jewellery is often made of gold, or has the appearance of gold.
- Often smoking (noticably at a young age), preferring cheap or strong brands being John Player Blue and Superkings.
- A particular gait, often likened to the walk and bobbing head of a pigeon.
- A stance similar to that of someone with a tennis ball underneath each armpit.
- Habitual public spitting.
Speech habits
The stereotypical accent is a particularly noticeable characteristic in this grouping. In Dublin, the accent resembles the typical inner-city accent, but with some slight differences:
- The speaker posseses a rather high-pitched nasal tone, and some sounds are consequently slurred to some extent.
- There is apparent difficulty in pronouncing vowel sounds such as the short 'o' sound of 'oh', often enunciated as 'ah', as in 'story' ('starry'). The flat 'u' sound of 'uh' also causes some difficulty: this is variously rendered as either a long and emphasised 'uuh' sound, or 'eh', as in
- A corrupted form of Dublin slang is used, which is so modified it is sometimes quite unintelligible to other Dubliners. A common greeting used by so-called scangers is pronounced 'starry buud?', a corruption of the Dublin phrase 'what's the story, bud?', meaning, 'how are you, my friend?'. Generally, diphthongs are not pronounced, rather seperated into two different sounds.
- 'Wha'?', a contraction of 'what?', is used frequently at the end of a statment to pose the question 'do you understand what I am saying?'. For example, 'Deadly buzz that is, wha'?'.
- Some scangers, along with some Dubliners not identifiable with the scanger stereotype, use a curious version of the possessive adjective form of 'you' (plural), normally enunciated as 'your', which is pronounced in this case as 'yezzer'. A possible explanation for this is that it is a combination of 'yez', a corruption of Dublin slang 'yous' (the second-person plural pronoun), and 'your'.
- 'Anyway' has mutated into 'Inanyways' as a preferred sentence opener or to notify a change of subject, for example: 'Inanyways, have yez any blow?'
- The generalisation of the ending of peoples names with a vowel, most commonly "O,A,I & E". Example, Thomas - "Tommo", Anthony - "Anto", Declan - "Decco". Girls names for example, Patricia - Patricieaaa - extenuating the "a" at the end as well as "ic" into an "ieeeeeeeee". The elocution has developed to somewhat like talking while trying to keep words inside the mouth. This is achieved in a sense like making an "O" of the mouth as if to blow out a candle before talking. Vowels are thus easier to include in normal speech patterns.
- Swearing and general vulgarity is usually common during speech.
- In some scanger circles, rhyming slang is popular.
Other distinguishing features
Scangers, as part of the stereotype, have similar social preferences. For example, common reading material may be tabloid newspapers, such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror. The Daily Sport is also popular among younger male scangers.
Scangers tend to refrain from licensed premises, partly due to many pubs' refusal of entrance to this social grouping and, partly, due to the high cost of alcohol in Irish bars. Scangers instead, prefer to drink on public buses and in fields. Male scangers tend to drink either Dutch Gold or Tuborg lager, while the female scanger will generally prefer Vodka or other such spirits.
Female Scangers are notable for their young average age of conception. Most female Scangers will have been pregnant at least once by the age of 18, while many conceive before the age of 14.
Scangers sometimes become involved in anti-social behaviour—public drinking and loitering on walls are two common problems particularly associated with this grouping. When in a fights, a scanger stereotypically shouts "dont hold me back" while they hold their hands behind their back in order to be stopped.
Scangers are very often anti-British, and graffiti by scangers very often concerns the IRA. The phrase 'up the 'Ra' (the 'Ra being a term for the IRA) is often shouted by scangers in groups, and also scrawled on building walls. Despite this apparent strong anti-British feeling, many follow the English Premier League, albeit often as well as teams in Irish leagues like the Eircom League. Many also support Scottish club Celtic F.C. which has a strong Irish nationalist support base, as opposed to Rangers F.C., which has a unionist support base.
Many male scangers also fit the boy racer stereotype: modes of transportation will often include small cars such as Opel Corsas, Toyota Glanzas or Honda Civics, modified with expensive parts such as UV lights and blacked-out windows. These cars are also sometimes decorated with objects such as black registration plates (illegal except on military vehicles), or 'No Fear' stickers. This type of modified small car is sometimes pejoratively referred to as a 'muppet-mobile' or a 'scanger-banger'. The boy racer has been satirised by Limerick crank callers The Rubber Bandits with their character Mossy who rings an auto customs shop wishing to modify his Honda Civic.
Scangers stereotypically have notoriously little respect for the environment, and litter shamelessly.
Female scangers are sometimes seen wearing pyjamas, in the colours of mint green, canary yellow or pale pink in public at any time of the day.
Often staring at scanger can provoke a response along the lines of "Ya lookin' at somethin'?" which is often a means to provoke a fight, in which case no reply is satisfactory, e.g. a reply of "Nothing" would prompt a response of "Ya callin' me nothin'", and "You" will provoke "Why are ya lookin' at me?".
Social origins
Scangers are often considered a phenomenon of Dublin's northside, in particular areas with state provided housing and apartments. However, scangers are not necessarily from working-class backgrounds. It is not uncommon to have a son or daughter of apparently respectable parents identifiable with the scanger stereotype, and many youths from certain parts of the city may aspire to the image through peer pressure, except in certain areas (see below). Many Dubliners casually refer to all working class youths as scangers, leading to unfair stereotyping. In reality, scangers can be found in most areas of the city and suburbs—not just areas where local authority housing is located.
Sometimes, however, a slight distinction is borne out among certain youths, often from some of the more exclusive south Dublin secondary schools. These are known as ‘wannabe’ scangers. An example of the classic ‘wannabe’ would be a youth living in a well off area with wealthy parents who speaks, dresses and acts like a scanger. This, however, is not necessarily an affirmation that ‘scangers’ hail only from certain social classes. The distinction arises more from the fact that certain speech and dress habits can sometimes seemingly originate from somewhere other than the family or the local area. It is not impossible, for example, to come across a wannabe with a very stereotypical 'scanger accent' who, nonetheless, has a sibling with a stereotypical ‘posh accent’, or even one who speaks with a 'scanger accent' among friends, but who speaks differently with their parents.
Wannabes are also noted for their slightly more zealous or pro-active approach to the anti-social behavior usually associated with scangers. However, this is conspicuously reserved to lower level of criminal activity, such as provoking brawls, petty theft and minor vandalism. Higher degrees, such as joyriding, arbitrary assault and syringe assisted robbery are usually considered less common among wannabes, hence the phrase ‘all talk, no action’.
Many scangers adhere to the scanger stereotype thanks to outside influences, such as peers and (to a lesser extent) the media. Being a scanger is not necessarily a badge of a member of a lower class. However, the appellation is generally invoked by those from a middle-class background, and is a typical example of Celtic Tiger classism.
Scangers around Ireland
In other parts of Ireland, such as Cork, Limerick and Galway scangers are known by names such as 'shams' (hence the 'muppet-mobile' is known as a 'sham-wagon'), 'scumbags', 'knackers', 'tracker knackers', 'minks' (Galway) 'wahs' and 'howayees'. 'Shams' are named for the regional custom of referring to a fellow as 'sham' (as opposed to 'bud' in Dublin), and 'wah' is short for the term 'wacker', which is a word synonymous with 'scanger' in the southern half of Ireland (especially Munster). 'Wah' is also an onomatopoeic indication of the style of speech of southern scangers. The term 'Mink' originated as a parody of their posture and general physical demeanour and comes from the animal of the same name while 'Howayee' is an older term coming from the greeting phrase often used by scangers - "Howayess?" i.e. "How are you?". The term 'scobe' is often used, also; however, this is considered highly offensive.
These groupings are closely related to scangers, but do have some regional differences. In Belfast, scangers are known as 'millies' (a collective term for women) and 'spides' (usually referring to men, but often to women also). The term 'milly' dates back to Belfast's industrial past, when women who worked in mills were referred to as millies. Relation to Nationalism depends on which side of the secterian divide the Spide belongs to. Protestant Spides are traditionally pro militant unionism. The more extreme case of Spides known in Belfast as hoods, are connected with Street Crime, joy riding, violent theft and drug dealing, they are more anti paramilitary than their less harmful relations the spide, due to paramilitaries punishment beatings for anti social behaviour. The term 'spide' first came into circulation in the early 1980s in Belfast. 'Spide' derives from the shortening of the term 'Spiderman'. A term associated with these individuals due to a common tattoo trait, a spiderweb on either or both elbows. Alternative terms are Smicker, Steek, Jock and Jaunty, all developing from Common Spide nicknames.
Dundalk, the northern-most east coast town in Ireland, also has its own class of knackers, often referred to as 'scummers' or 'scumbags'. They can be broadly broken down into, and seen to have come from, large housing schemes in the town built in the 1970/80's. These housing estates formed their own gangs with a bitter rivalry, comparable to the hate seen between English Football Hooligans. They too sport a chav-style ensemble, but replace the Lacoste tracksuits with Adidas, Le Coq Sportif, or (in the middle 1990's) Kappa. They, in typical scanger fashion, sport baseball caps with fiercely rounded peaks. Their manner of speaking of late involves replacing vowels (especially broad vowels) with an i. For example, "man" become a high-pitched "min" and most of these words are spoken with a tightened chest, resulting in breathlessness.
Related Terms
- Chav (Britain)
- Knacker (originally a term used for Irish Travellers)
- White Trash (United States)