Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Dubliner, as opposed to a country person.

1829		Hants. Chron. 21 Sept. 2/3: Donnybrook Fair is unique [...] Dublin jackens, barristers, thieves, orangemen [...] all mingle.
1837		Sligo Champion 11 Mar. 1/3: There was a good many well-hedicated Irish jontlemen in the room, and I couldn’t bear to hear ’em contradicted by a such a Dublin jackeen.
1838		Mirror of Lit. XXXI 428: She [...] looked up at me with a cross expression, as if fearful, I think, that some silly ‘Dublin jackeen’ from the fair was mocking her.
1841		Dollar Mag. 228/2: If the reader wants to know what a Dublin Jackeen is, we will tell him: A Dublin Jackeen [...] is sure to sing a good song, and to belong to some harmonic society.
1850		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 18 May n.p.: Perhaps the person who captured the sea-serpent will enlighten A Dublin Jackeen.
1854		Belfast News Ltr 27 Feb. 2/3: The contrast between the Dublin ‘jackeen’ and the country gentleman was too striking.
1855		Freeman’s Jrnl (Sydney) 17 Nov. 9/3: The Dublin jackeen (of ten years ago, when I had some knowledge of them) was,— a perfect little blackguard.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 373: Soldiers [...] should disguise their American speech [...] in the ‘jackeen’ of the Coomb at Dublin.
1868		‘Paddy Miles’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 59: The Jackeens kept calling meself to annoy, / There goes Paddy Miles, he’s a Limerick boy.
1873		Cheshire Obs. 29 Mar. 2/2: The drawling burr of ulster and the clipped words of the Dublin Jackeens.
1885		Manchester Eve. News 3 Feb. 2/4: A few Yankeefied types of the Dublin jackeen.
1894		Somerville & Ross Real Charlotte III 246: You couldn’t expect any manners from a Dublin jackeen.
1916		Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 105: Peter Pickackafax beside him was his eldest son but that he was only a Dublin jackeen.
1922		E. Murphy Black Candle 255: A good-for-nothin’ jackeen.
1938		S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 150: I may not be a trueborn jackeen, but I am better than nothing.
1943		‘Miles na gCopaleen’ Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 135: They’re just something for some jackeen in a Dublin back-office to kick around.
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act II: Maybe the jackeens should spread out the red carpet for you and every other bog barbarian that comes into the place.
1961		F. O’Connor An Only Child (1970) 148: Father [...] was full of local pride, and ready to take on any misguided foreigner or Dublin jackeen who was not prepared to admit the superiority of Cork over all other cities.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 22: That Jackeen Behan has a lot to answer for.
1982		(con. 1930s–50s) E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 90: ‘I’ll tell ya what’s up,’ answered this Dub. ‘That bunch of Culchies called us “Jackeens”.’.
1995		P. Boland Tales from a City Farmyard 135: Don’t you know, you Dublin jackeen, that billy-goats – gentlemen goats to you – don’t give milk?
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Jackeen (n): a culchie’s name for a Dubliner.
2007		E.O’Brien Light of Evening 258: The eejit of a driver, a Dublin jackeen, took the wrong fork.
2010		G. Murphy In Search of the Promised Land 234: He was essentially the Dublin Jackeen with the ready wit and derisive humour so common in the city.

2. a self-assertive but worthless person, thus attrib.

1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 155: Neither Mr.Nearus nor Mr. Dyke, I imagine, wish to carry on an argument with an impudent jackeen.
1987		L. Redmond Emerald Square 61: He hated Dublin kids, who jeered him behind his back, imitating his country accent, thick as pig’s muck when he was aroused and he liked to tell his Dublin class, that he would ‘bate the Jackeen’ out of them yet.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 216: [H]aving trouble with your dad, Ryan? Having trouble with this jackeen scrote?