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It's called "snookering," when you leave the cue ball so that the opponent has no direct shot at an allowable target. If the cue ball first makes contact with a non-legitimate target, that is a foul - as is failure to contact a legitimate target. A principal difference between pool across the Atlantic is this rule about "two shots on a foul." In American pool, one suffers the end of one's turn on a foul (a "scratch") — and nothing more. Two shots on a foul gives dirty play a greater importance. The potential for two shots in sequence enables an extra dimension of strategy.
Generally, the two shots carry - so one's turn lasts until missing two shots in total. (In Ireland, rules vary from pub to pub and from region to region.)
In any case, the snooker is a critical stratagem on the Irish pool table. Sometimes it is a better strategy to snooker, gaining two shots, than it is to pot a ball. Sometimes it's the only good option.
Snookering (the word obviously deriving from the name of the British cue sport,) is also called "doing the dirt," and is sometimes referred to as "you know what to do."
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