Hiberno-English also known as Anglo-Irish and Irish English is English as spoken in Ireland, partly the result of the interaction of the English and Irish languages. English was mainly brought to Ireland during the Plantations of Ireland in the sixteenth century and established itself in Dublin and in the area of Leinster known as the Pale. It was later introduced into Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster through Belfast and the Lagan Valley in the seventeenth century. The linguistic influence of the Irish language is most evident in Gaeltachtaí, areas where Irish is still spoken, as well as in areas where, before the complete adoption of English, Irish continued to be spoken for longer than in other areas.

The standard spelling and grammar of Irish-English are largely the same as common British English. However, some unique characteristics exist, especially in the spoken language, owing to the influence of the Irish language on the pronunciation of English.

Pronunciation

Hiberno-English retains many phonemic differentiations, which have merged in other English accents. Phonetic transcriptions are given using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

• With some local exceptions, 'r' is pronounced wherever it occurs in the word, making Irish English a generally rhotic dialect. The exceptions to this are most notable in Drogheda and some other eastern towns, whose accent is distinctly non-rhotic. R is pronounced as a postalveolar tap/fricative 1 in conservative accents. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Jackie Healy-Rae are both good examples of this.
• /t/ is not usually pronounced as a plosive where it does not occur word-initially; instead, it is pronounced as a slit fricative /t̞/, between 2 and 3.
• The distinction between w /w/ and wh /ʍ/, as in wine vs. whine is preserved.
• In some varieties, the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ become dental stops 4 and 5 respectively, making thin and tin, and then and den, near-homophones,Fact: date=April 2008 where the pair tin and den employs alveolar pronunciation (as in other varieties of English). In other varieties, this occurs only to /θ/ while /ð/ is left unchanged. Some dialects of Irish have a "slender" (palatalized) d as /ðʲ/ and this may transfer over to English pronunciation. In still others, both dental fricatives are present since slender dental stops are lenited to 6 and 7.
• The distinction between /ɑɹ/ and /oːɹ/ in horse and hoarse is preserved, though not usually in Dublin.
• The distinction between 8-9-10 in herd-bird-curd is made. This feature is in decline amongst young speakers.
• /l/ is never velarized.
• The vowels in words as boat and cane are monophthongs: 11, and 12 respectively.
• The /aɪ/ in "night" may be pronounced 13 or 14
• In some varieties, speakers make no distinction between the 15 in putt and the 16 in put, pronouncing both as the latter.
• In some old-fashioned varieties, words spelled with ea and pronounced with 17 in RP are pronounced with 18, for example meat, beat.
• In words like took where "oo" usually represents /ʊ/, speakers may use /uː/.
• The /ʌ/ of words such as cut tends to be rounded to 19 in most varieties (cf. Irish phonology).
• The a in any and many is sometimes pronounced as a "short a".
• /eɪ/ often becomes /ɛ/ in words such as gave and came (becoming "gev" and "kem")