Irish Goodbye

About

Irish Goodbye is a slang term and expression about abruptly leaving a party or event without telling anyone. Although sources may differ about the phrase's exact origin, many variations of the expression can be spotted across the years like "Irish Exit," "French Exit" or "Dutch Leave." Online, Irish goodbye has been compared to the slang term ghosting, becoming popularized as a source for memes in the mid-2010s via GIFs, image macros and other memetic content depicting someone leaving quietly without saying goodbye.

Origin

There are a few theories online about the origin of the "Irish goodbye" expression, which essentially means leaving somewhere without letting people know that you're going to do so. An Irish Star^[1] article about the term, posted on October 26th, 2023, explains two possible reasons for the expression's origin, the first being "that Irish people tend to do this at the end of parties more so than other folk, which could have some credence to it." The second in the article states, "It's a reference to the stereotype that Irish people tend to be so drunk at the end of parties, that they are in no position to say goodbye."

Online, one of the earliest mentions of the "Irish goodbye" was posted by Redditor^[2] recidivi5t in a post from December 29th, 2010, in which Redditor treefrog24 commented about a person who "Hate saying 'bye' to groups of people and would rather sneak out the room unnoticed like a ninja." Redditor recidivi5t commented on the post saying this action is known as "the 'Irish Goodbye.'" The post amassed 56 upvotes in 14 years (shown below).

Spread

The term "Irish goodbye" started to grow more prominently as internet slang somewhere in mid-2017, usually maintaining the same meaning as leaving a party or event without much warning. For example, X^[3] user @BrandyLJensen posted on June 24th, 2017, saying "the opposite of an Irish Goodbye is a Journalist Goodbye, where they stand at the door announcing their departure forever." The post (shown below, top) amassed over 1,500 likes and 141 retweets in seven years.

On November 26th, X^[4] user @MEPFuller made a post about how they "pulled off the double Irish goodbye" by leaving the bar twice without saying goodbye to his friends. The tweet (shown below, bottom) garnered nearly 1,000 likes and 50 retweets in seven years.

The term also resurfaced in the 2020s as TikTokers started to create content based on the "Irish goodbye." For example, on July 5th, 2023, TikTok user @snuge007^[5] posted a comparison video (shown below, left) of a normal goodbye and an Irish goodbye, which amassed over 1.6 million plays and 90,000 likes in almost a year.

On December 24th, 2023, TikTok^[6] user @sparklinghosewater posted a comedy skit about a person misinterpreting what an "Irish goodbye" means. The video (shown below, right) garnered more than 7 million plays and 2 million likes in four months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References