My grandparents were Irish - and I remember them using "adjectival" in their speech, very much the same way Ned Kelly does. They used it when reporting what someone else said, they wouldn't use "bloody" in front of me.

Of course in Ireland people still say "effing" as a replacement for the stronger "f**king" which is considered very coarse, but "effing' is commonplace and not really though of as bad language at all.