Irish Chat Rooms: What's the Story? Come On In
Join freeChatting from Ireland? Step into Natter's moderated live rooms, bring the craic into private messages, and decide for yourself how close to home you keep it.
Is there an Irish version of Natter?
Not a separate one. Natter is a single site with a shared set of chat rooms, and Irish members chat in them alongside people from Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere.
So Irish chat on Natter happens in those shared rooms, with a few handy ways to keep things local. The suggestions you get each day give weight to distance, and to age, interests and what a person's looking for. Search lets you hunt for people yourself, in a limited form on Free and an advanced one with unlimited results on VIP and VIP+. And because profiles carry a nearest town or city, you'll know if someone's down the road or a few counties over.
Natter has always been about filling up your Natter box with contacts, and the idea still stands: fill yours with people close by, people further afield, or both. Natter is adults only, 18+. For how the rooms work in general, our chat rooms page has the basics, and singles chat is there if you're hoping for a date.
What's the story? Saying hello the Irish way
- What's the story?
- How's the form?
- How's the craic?
- Dia duit
- Grand
- Sound
Irish greetings travel beautifully online. "What's the story?" and "How's the form?" both mean how are you and what's new, and "How's the craic?" asks whether life's being good fun. If your Irish stretches to "Dia duit", that's hello in the language itself, and it makes a lovely opener.
A few more you'll come across: "grand" covers anything from fine to great, "sound" means someone is decent and dependable, and "giving out" means complaining. Then there's the question behind so many Irish conversations: what county are you from? Asked with a bit of humour, it rarely falls flat.
A few opening lines to borrow
Treat these as a feel for the tone, not a script. They're examples of how a first chat might go:
- Well, what's the story? How's your evening going?
- Grand, thanks. Just in from a walk, soaked through.
- Ah no. What county has you out walking in the rain?
- A proud one. Where are you yourself?
- Somewhere just as wet, so I won't judge. Go on, which county?
Getting someone to name their county can take a few goes, and that's all part of the craic. For more ways to get a chat going, see our conversation starters.
When to chat from Ireland
Ireland and Britain change their clocks on the same weekends, so their evenings match to the minute. Elsewhere it takes a quick sum. South Africans are an hour or two later than you, depending on the season. On the American east coast it's usually five hours earlier, which puts your nine o'clock at their four. In eastern Australia the clock reads somewhere between nine and eleven hours later, and New Zealand is later again, by eleven to thirteen hours, so late at night in Ireland it's already the next morning down under.
For the view from some of those places, see UK chat rooms, South African chat rooms and Kiwi chat.
A small country, so privacy matters
In Ireland, the person you're chatting to may well know someone you know. Natter's privacy features help keep that from getting awkward.
Usernames, not names
Other members know you by the username you pick. Your real name and email stay out of public view.
A chat with someone from the next parish doesn't announce who you are.
Nearest town only
Your profile gives the nearest town or city you choose. Your street address and current whereabouts never appear.
People get a sense of distance, and that's all they get.
Discretion is a house rule
Spot a fellow member in real life? The community rules ask you to leave them be unless they've said a hello would be welcome.
So nobody should get an unwanted hello in the queue at the shop.
Instant blocking
A block takes effect straight away, and any profile or message can be reported from within the site.
Anyone who makes you uneasy is out of your inbox at once.
More than the rooms: posts, polls and a bit of craic
The chat rooms are only part of it. Everyone can post updates to the Activity Feed, write longer posts in Spaces, answer polls, and comment on and like what others share. It's a good way to show some personality before anyone's said hello, and your answer to a poll gives people something to ask you about.
Badges come with activity too: Chatterbox, Heartthrob, Most Popular and Verified, plus one for members who reliably reply. If you'd rather not make the first move, Promote Me will send intros out for you.
On Free, you get a limited set of rooms and limited messaging and search. VIP opens additional rooms, including VIP and Verified ones, with unlimited messages, read receipts, advanced search and the option to start a private group chat of your own, up to 50 people. VIP+ adds priority placement, an enhanced profile and its own badge. The pricing page has the costs.
Meeting up after a good chat
- Keep it on Natter for now
- Chat on the site until you're comfortable. If someone presses you to swap to another messaging app, Natter gives you a heads-up.
- Leave money out of it
- No bank details, no transfers and no gift cards, whatever the story.
- Somewhere busy
- Make the first meeting a public place with plenty of people about.
- Someone knows the plan
- Tell a friend where you're going and who you're meeting.
- Your own way home
- Sort your own lift or bus there and back, so the evening ends when you decide.
- Stop if it feels off
- Trust your gut and walk away. Blocking someone on Natter is instant.
Our chat safety page covers the rest.
Irish chat rooms: a few questions answered
Is Natter an Irish site?
It's a global site with a British name, and Irish members are part of one shared community. There's no separate Irish edition, so you chat with people from Ireland and from further away in the same rooms.
Can I find someone in my own county?
Rooms aren't split by county, but you can still look close to home. Your daily suggestions weigh distance, search lets you hunt for people yourself, and every profile mentions a nearest town, so you can tell who's close.
What if I'd rather not be recognised?
Use a username that doesn't give you away and keep identifying details out of your profile. Only your nearest town shows, and members are expected to be discreet if they happen to see you out and about.
What do I get on the Free plan?
The Free plan gives you a limited set of chat rooms, limited messaging and search, plus the Activity Feed, posts, polls and Promote Me. VIP and VIP+ add more rooms and unlimited messages, and the pricing page has the details.
How do I let someone down nicely?
Natter has one-click polite replies for exactly that, so you can say no thanks kindly without writing an essay. Being kind is one of the community rules, and a gentle no is always enough.
Go on, have a natter
Setting up a profile takes a few minutes. Then say what's the story in a room or two and see where the craic takes you.
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