bowsie noun a disreputable drunkard, a lout, a quarrelsome drunkard IRELAND
Behan ... had been an inmate ... of both Borstal in England and Mountjoy in Dublin. Such credentials defined him as a “character”, which is usually a Dublin synonym for a bowsie or a gurrier (q.v.). — Hugh Leonard, OutAfterDark, p. 166, 1990