Feck it! There's now an app for Irish slang

Irish slang is as varied as the people who speak it. In Dublin's posh parts, a pub is "jammers" when it is full of people, while in Limerick's working-class areas, politicians are called "cute hoors", which means that they are clever crooks.

To help people understand the bizarre world of Irish slang, O'Brien Press has created "iPaddy", an iPhone and iPod app that aims to explain some of the colourful Hiberno-English words and phrases that cannot be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The app is based on The Feckin' Book of Irish Slang That's Great Craic for Cute Hoors and Bowsies by Colin Murphy and Donal O'Dea, which has sold more than 50,000 copies.

"In a turbulent time for the world's book industry, it is vitally important that we all recognize the need to be able to adapt to a constantly changing marketplace," Ivan O'Brien, managing director of O'Brien Press, told the Irish Times, explaining why his company has decided to move into digital publishing.