What it means
A culchie is someone from rural Ireland, especially from outside Dublin. In Dublin mouths it can be a light dig at country people. Said by rural people themselves, it often flips into pride. It's one of those labels that can either wink or puff its chest out, depending on who's firing it.
Usage examples
"Jaysus, your man's a proper culchie, drove into town on a tractor and parked outside Supermac's like it was the most natural thing"
"The cousin from Donegal arrived at the family wedding in the Powerscourt Hotel in Wicklow last weekend with the unmistakable accent of the rural west of Ireland, three generations of Dublin relatives jokingly called him the culchie of the family, and he wore the title with the calm pride of a man who can name every cow in his father field."
"The new colleague at the marketing agency in the Grand Canal Dock office of Dublin is a culchie from Roscommon, brings homemade scones every Monday morning from the bakery of his hometown, and the entire team has now learned the precise location of three villages of the western seaboard that nobody had ever heard of before September."
"He's pure culchie and proud of it, rocked up to college in Dublin with a GAA half-zip and had everyone sussed in ten minutes."
"Don't be calling her a culchie like it's an insult, she knows more about real life than the whole table put together."
Where it comes from
Culchie has been knocking around Irish English since the early 20th century as a Dublin label for someone from the country. The strongest origin story links it to Kiltimagh in County Mayo, with the place name getting squashed and reshaped in city speech into a handy tag for rural folk.
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