“Funny Irish poems” most often means limericks - a five-line comic verse form named after County Limerick, though the exact reason for the connection isn’t definitively settled (one theory points to an early version of the form featuring a refrain inviting the listener to visit the place).
Limericks became widely popular from the 1840s onward, largely through English writer Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense (1846) - Lear himself wasn’t Irish, but his work is credited with popularising the form globally. The structure follows a set pattern: five lines, with lines one, two, and five rhyming together, and lines three and four rhyming as a shorter pair.
A Sample from Lear’s A Book of Nonsense
There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, “It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!”
There was an Old Man on a hill, Who seldom, if ever, stood still; He ran up and down, In his Grandmother’s gown, Which adorned that Old Man on a hill.
There was a Young Lady whose chin, Resembled the point of a pin; So she had it made sharp, And purchased a harp, And played several tunes with her chin.
Both public domain, over 170 years after first publication.
