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diff --git a/34251.txt b/34251.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..507b6f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/34251.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12450 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, English As We Speak It in Ireland, by P. W. +Joyce + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: English As We Speak It in Ireland + + +Author: P. W. Joyce + + + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [eBook #34251] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN +IRELAND*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Transcriber's note: + + In this e-text e-breve is represented by [)e], a-breve by [)a], + and o-macron by [=o]. + + Page numbers enclosed by curly braces (example: {25}) have + been incorporated to facilitate the use of the Vocabulary + and Index (Chapter XIII). + + + + + +ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND + +by + +P. W. JOYCE, LL.D., T.C.D., M.R.I.A. + +One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of +Ireland + +Late Principal of the Government Training College, +Marlborough Street, Dublin + +Late President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland + + + + * * * * * + +THE LIFE OF A PEOPLE IS PICTURED IN THEIR SPEECH. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +London: Longmans, Green, & Co. +Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. +1910 + + + +{v} + +PREFACE. + +This book deals with the Dialect of the English Language that is spoken in +Ireland. + +As the Life of a people--according to our motto--is pictured in their +speech, our picture ought to be a good one, for two languages were +concerned in it--Irish and English. The part played by each will be found +specially set forth in Chapters IV and VII; and in farther detail +throughout the whole book. + +The articles and pamphlets that have already appeared on this interesting +subject--which are described below--are all short. Some are full of keen +observation; but very many are mere lists of dialectical words with their +meanings. Here for the first time--in this little volume of mine--our +Anglo-Irish Dialect is subjected to detailed analysis and systematic +classification. + +I have been collecting materials for this book for more than twenty years; +not indeed by way of constant work, but off and on as detailed below. The +sources from which these materials were directly derived are mainly the +following. + +_First._--My own memory is a storehouse both of idiom and vocabulary; for +the good reason that from childhood to early manhood I spoke--like those +among whom I lived--the rich dialect {vi} of Limerick and Cork--and indeed +to some extent speak it still in the colloquial language of everyday life. + +I have also drawn pretty largely on our Anglo-Irish Folk Songs of which I +have a great collection, partly in my memory and partly on printed sheets; +for they often faithfully reflect our Dialect. + +_Second._--Eighteen years ago (1892) I wrote a short letter which was +inserted in nearly all the Irish newspapers and in very many of those +published outside Ireland, announcing my intention to write a book on +Anglo-Irish Dialect, and asking for collections of dialectical words and +phrases. In response to this I received a very large number of +communications from all parts of Ireland, as well as from outside Ireland, +even from America, Australia, and New Zealand--all more or less to the +point, showing the great and widespread interest taken in the subject. +Their importance of course greatly varied; but many were very valuable. I +give at the end of the book an alphabetical list of those contributors: and +I acknowledge the most important of them throughout the book. + +_Third._--The works of Irish writers of novels, stories, and essays +depicting Irish peasant life in which the people are made to speak in +dialect. Some of these are mentioned in Chapter I., and others are quoted +throughout the book as occasion requires. {vii} + +_Fourth._--Printed articles and pamphlets on the special subject of +Anglo-Irish Dialect. Of these the principal that I have come across are the +following:-- + +'The Provincialisms of Belfast and Surrounding District pointed out and +corrected,' by David Patterson. (1860.) + +'Remarks on the Irish Dialect of the English Language,' by A. Hume, D.C.L. +and LL.D. (1878.) + +'A Glossary of Words in use in the Counties of Antrim and Down,' by Wm. +Hugh Patterson, M.R.I.A. (1880)--a large pamphlet--might indeed be called a +book. + +'Don't, Pat,' by 'Colonel O'Critical': a very good and useful little +pamphlet, marred by a silly title which turns up perpetually through the +whole pamphlet till the reader gets sick of it. (1885.) + +'A List of Peculiar Words and Phrases at one time in use in Armagh and +South Donegal': by D. A. Simmons. (1890.) This List was annotated by me, at +the request of Mr. Simmons, who was, at or about that time, President of +the Irish National Teachers' Association. + +A Series of Six Articles on _The English in Ireland_ by myself, printed in +'The Educational Gazette'; Dublin. (1890.) + +'The Anglo-Irish Dialect,' by the Rev. William Burke (an Irish priest +residing in Liverpool); published in 'The Irish Ecclesiastical Record' for +1896. A judicious and scholarly essay, which I have very often used. {viii} + +'The Irish Dialect of English; its Origins and Vocabulary.' By Mary Hayden, +M.A., and Prof. Marcus Hartog (jointly): published in 'The Fortnightly +Review' (1909: April and May). A thoughtful and valuable essay. Miss Hayden +knows Irish well, and has made full use of her knowledge to illustrate her +subject. Of this article I have made much use. + +Besides these there were a number of short articles by various writers +published in Irish newspapers within the last twenty years or so, nearly +all of them lists of dialectical words used in the North of Ireland. + +In the Introduction to the 'Biglow Papers,' Second Series, James Russell +Lowell has some valuable observations on modern English dialectical words +and phrases derived from Old English forms, to which I am indebted for much +information, and which will be found acknowledged through this book: for it +touches my subject in many places. In this Introduction Mr. Lowell remarks +truly:--'It is always worth while to note down the erratic words or phrases +one meets with in any dialect. They may throw light on the meaning of other +words, on the relationship of languages, or even history itself.' + +Of all the above I have made use so far as served my purpose--always with +acknowledgment. + +_Fifth._ For twenty years or more I have kept a large note-book lying just +at my hand; and {ix} whenever any peculiar Irish-English expression, or +anything bearing on the subject, came before me--from memory, or from +reading, or from hearing it in conversation--down it went in the +manuscript. In this way an immense mass of materials was accumulated almost +imperceptibly. + +The vast collection derived from all the above sources lay by till early +last year, when I went seriously to work at the book. But all the materials +were mixed up--_three-na-haila_--'through-other'--and before a line of the +book was written they had to be perused, selected, classified, and +alphabetised, which was a very heavy piece of work. + +A number of the Irish items in the great 'Dialect Dictionary' edited for +the English Dialect Society by Dr. Joseph Wright were contributed by me and +are generally printed with my initials. I have neither copied nor avoided +these--in fact I did not refer to them at all while working at my book--and +naturally many--perhaps most--of them reappear here, probably in different +words. But this is quite proper; for the Dialect Dictionary is a book of +reference--six large volumes, very expensive--and not within reach of the +general public. + +Many of the words given in this book as dialectical are also used by the +people in the ordinary sense they bear in standard English; such as +_break_:--'Poor Tom was broke yesterday' (dialect: dismissed from +employment): 'the bowl {x} fell on the flags and was broken in pieces' +(correct English): and _dark_: 'a poor dark man' (dialect: blind): 'a dark +night' (correct English). + +This is essentially a subject for popular treatment; and accordingly I have +avoided technical and scientific details and technical terms: they are not +needed. + +When a place is named in connexion with a dialectical expression, it is not +meant that the expression is confined to that place, but merely that it is, +or was, in use there. + + P. W. J. + +DUBLIN: _March, 1910_. + + * * * * * + + +{xi} + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + + I. SOURCES OF ANGLO-IRISH DIALECT, 1 + + II. AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING, 9 + + III. ASSERTING BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE, 16 + + IV. IDIOMS DERIVED FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE, 23 + + V. THE DEVIL AND HIS 'TERRITORY,' 56 + + VI. SWEARING, 66 + + VII. GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION, 74 + + VIII. PROVERBS, 105 + + IX. EXAGGERATION AND REDUNDANCY, 120 + + X. COMPARISONS, 136 + + XI. THE MEMORY OF HISTORY AND OF OLD CUSTOMS, 143 + + XII. A VARIETY OF PHRASES, 185 + + XIII. VOCABULARY AND INDEX, 209 + + Alphabetical List of Persons who sent + Collections of Dialectical Words and + Phrases, 353 + + * * * * * + + +{1} + +ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. + +CHAPTER I. + +SOURCES OF ANGLO-IRISH DIALECT. + +Our Anglo-Irish dialectical words and phrases are derived from three main +sources:-- + +_First_: the Irish language. + +_Second_: Old English and the dialect of Scotland. + +_Third_: independently of these two sources, dialectical expressions have +gradually grown up among our English-speaking people, as dialects arise +everywhere. + +In the following pages whenever a word or a phrase is not assigned to any +origin it is to be understood as belonging to this third class:--that is so +far as is known at present; for I have no doubt that many of these will be +found, after further research, to be either Irish-Gaelic or Old English. It +is to be also observed that a good many of the dialectical expressions +given in this book as belonging to Ireland may possibly be found current in +England or in Scotland or in both. But that is no reason why they should +not be included here. + +_Influence of Irish._ + +The Irish language has influenced our Irish-English speech in several ways. +To begin with: it {2} has determined the popular pronunciation, in certain +combinations, of three English consonants, _t_, _d_, and _th_, but in a way +(so far as _t_ and _d_ are concerned) that would not now be followed by +anyone even moderately well educated. The sounds of _English t_ and _d_ are +not the same as those of the _Irish t_ and _d_; and when the people began +to exchange the Irish language for English, they did not quite abandon the +Irish sounds of these two letters, but imported them into their English, +especially _when they came before r_. That is why we hear among the people +in every part of Ireland such vulgarisms as (for _t_) _bitther_, _butther_, +_thrue_; and (for _d_) _laddher_ (ladder), _cidher_ (cider), _foddher_, &c. +Yet in other positions we sound these letters correctly, as in _fat_, +_football_, _white_; _bad_, _hide_, _wild_, &c. No one, however uneducated, +will mispronounce the _t_ and _d_ in such words as these. Why it is that +the _Irish_ sound is retained before _r_ and not in other combinations--why +for instance the Irish people sound the _t_ and _d_ incorrectly in +_platter_ and _drive_ [platther, dhrive] and correctly in _plate_ and +_dive_--is a thing I cannot account for. + +As for the English _th_, it may be said that the general run of the Irish +people never sound it at all; for it is a very difficult sound to anyone +excepting a born Englishman, and also excepting a small proportion of those +born and reared on the east coast of Ireland. It has two varieties of +sound, heard in _bath_ and _bathe_: and for these two our people use the +Irish _t_ and _d_, as heard in the words given above. + +A couple of centuries ago or more the people had another substitute for +this _th_ (in _bathe_) namely _d_, which held its place for a considerable +time, and this {3} sound was then considered almost a national +characteristic; so that in the song of 'Lillibulero' the English author of +the song puts this pronunciation all through in the mouth of the +Irishman:--'_Dere_ was an ould prophecy found in a bog.' It is still +sometimes heard, but merely as a defect of speech of individuals:--'_De_ +books are here: _dat_ one is yours and _dis_ is mine.' Danny Mann speaks +this way all through Gerald Griffin's 'Collegians.' + +There was, and to a small extent still is, a similar tendency--though not +so decided--for the other sound of _th_ (as in _bath_):--'I had a hot _bat_ +this morning; and I remained in it for _tirty_ minutes': 'I _tink_ it would +be well for you to go home to-day.' + +Another influence of the Irish language is on the letter _s_. In Irish, +this letter in certain combinations is sounded the same as the English +_sh_; and the people often--though not always--in similar combinations, +bring this sound into their English:--'He gave me a blow of his _fisht_'; +'he was _whishling_ St. Patrick's Day'; 'Kilkenny is _sickshty_ miles from +this.' You hear this sound very often among the more uneducated of our +people. + +In imitation of this vulgar sound of _s_, the letter _z_ often comes in for +a similar change (though there is no such sound in the Irish language). +Here the _z_ gets the sound heard in the English words _glazier_, +_brazier_:--'He bought a _dozhen_ eggs'; ''tis _drizzhling_ rain'; 'that is +_dizhmal_ news.' + +The second way in which our English is influenced by Irish is in +vocabulary. When our Irish forefathers began to adopt English, they brought +with them from their native language many single Irish {4} words and used +them--as best suited to express what they meant--among their newly acquired +English words; and these words remain to this day in the current English of +their descendants, and will I suppose remain for ever. And the process +still goes on--though slowly--for as time passes, Irish words are being +adopted even in the English of the best educated people. There is no need +to give many examples here, for they will be found all through this book, +especially in the Vocabulary. I will instance the single word _galore_ +(plentiful) which you will now often see in English newspapers and +periodicals. The adoption of Irish words and phrases into English nowadays +is in great measure due to the influence of Irishmen resident in England, +who write a large proportion--indeed I think the largest proportion--of the +articles in English periodicals of every kind. Other Irish words such as +_shamrock_, _whiskey_, _bother_, _blarney_, are now to be found in every +English Dictionary. _Smithereens_ too (broken bits after a smash) is a +grand word, and is gaining ground every day. Not very long ago I found it +used in a public speech in London by a Parliamentary candidate--an +Englishman; and he would hardly have used it unless he believed that it was +fairly intelligible to his audience. + +The third way in which Irish influences our English is in idiom: that is, +idiom borrowed from the Irish language. Of course the idioms were +transferred about the same time as the single words of the vocabulary. This +is by far the most interesting and important feature. Its importance was +pointed out by me in a paper printed twenty years {5} ago, and it has been +properly dwelt upon by Miss Hayden and Professor Hartog in their recently +written joint paper mentioned in the Preface. Most of these idiomatic +phrases are simply translations from Irish; and when the translations are +literal, Englishmen often find it hard or impossible to understand them. +For a phrase may be correct in Irish, but incorrect, or even +unintelligible, in English when translated word for word. Gerald Griffin +has preserved more of these idioms (in 'The Collegians,' 'The Coiner,' +'Tales of a Jury-room,' &c.) than any other writer; and very near him come +Charles Kickham (in 'Knocknagow'), Crofton Croker (in 'Fairy Legends') and +Edward Walsh. These four writers almost exhaust the dialect of the South of +Ireland. + +On the other hand Carleton gives us the Northern dialect very fully, +especially that of Tyrone and eastern Ulster; but he has very little idiom, +the peculiarities he has preserved being chiefly in vocabulary and +pronunciation. + +Mr. Seumas MacManus has in his books faithfully pictured the dialect of +Donegal (of which he is a native) and of all north-west Ulster. + +In the importation of Irish idiom into English, Irish writers of the +present day are also making their influence felt, for I often come across a +startling Irish expression (in English words of course) in some English +magazine article, obviously written by one of my fellow-countrymen. Here I +ought to remark that they do this with discretion and common sense, for +they always make sure that the Irish idiom they use is such as that any +Englishman can understand it. {6} + +There is a special chapter (iv) in this book devoted to Anglo-Irish phrases +imported direct from Irish; but instances will be found all through the +book. + +It is safe to state that by far the greatest number of our Anglo-Irish +idioms come from the Irish language. + +_Influence of Old English and of Scotch._ + +From the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, in the twelfth century, +colonies of English and of Welsh-English people were settled in +Ireland--chiefly in the eastern part--and they became particularly numerous +in the time of Elizabeth, three or four centuries ago, when they were +spread all over the country. When these Elizabethan colonists, who were +nearly all English, settled down and made friends with the natives and +intermarried with them, great numbers of them learned to use the Irish +language; while the natives on their part learned English from the +newcomers. There was give and take in every place where the two peoples and +the two languages mixed. And so the native Irish people learned to speak +Elizabethan English--the very language used by Shakespeare; and in a very +considerable degree the old Gaelic people and those of English descent +retain it to this day. For our people are very conservative in retaining +old customs and forms of speech. Many words accordingly that are discarded +as old-fashioned--or dead and gone--in England, are still +flourishing--alive and well--in Ireland. They are now regarded as +vulgarisms by the educated--which no doubt they are--but they are +vulgarisms of respectable origin, {7} representing as they do the classical +English of Shakespeare's time. + +Instances of this will be found all through the book; but I may here give a +passing glance at such pronunciations as _tay_ for _tea_, _sevare_ for +_severe_, _desaive_ for _deceive_; and such words as _sliver_, _lief_, +_afeard_, &c.--all of which will be found mentioned farther on in this +book. It may be said that hardly any of those incorrect forms of speech, +now called vulgarisms, used by our people, were invented by them; they are +nearly all survivals of usages that in former times were correct--in either +English or Irish. + +In the reign of James I.--three centuries ago--a large part of +Ulster--nearly all the fertile land of six of the nine counties--was handed +over to new settlers, chiefly Presbyterians from Scotland, the old Catholic +owners being turned off. These settlers of course brought with them their +Scotch dialect, which remains almost in its purity among their descendants +to this day. This dialect, it must be observed, is confined to Ulster, +while the remnants of the Elizabethan English are spread all over Ireland. + +As to the third main source--the gradual growth of dialect among our +English-speaking people--it is not necessary to make any special +observations about it here; as it will be found illustrated all through the +book. + +Owing to these three influences, we speak in Ireland a very distinct +dialect of English, which every educated and observant Englishman perceives +the moment he sets foot in this country. It is most marked among our +peasantry; but in fact none of us are free from it, no matter how well +educated. {8} This does not mean that we speak bad English; for it is +generally admitted that our people on the whole, including the peasantry, +speak better English--nearer to the literary standard--than the +corresponding classes of England. This arises mainly--so far as we are +concerned--from the fact that for the last four or five generations we have +learned our English in a large degree from books, chiefly through the +schools. + +So far as our dialectical expressions are vulgar or unintelligible, those +who are educated among us ought of course to avoid them. But outside this a +large proportion of our peculiar words and phrases are vivid and +picturesque, and when used with discretion and at the right time, give a +sparkle to our conversation; so that I see no reason why we should wipe +them out completely from our speech so as to hide our nationality. To be +hypercritical here is often absurd and sometimes silly. + +I well remember on one occasion when I was young in literature perpetrating +a pretty strong Hibernicism in one of my books. It was not forbidding, but +rather bright and expressive: and it passed off, and still passes off very +well, for the book is still to the fore. Some days after the publication, a +lady friend who was somewhat of a pedant and purist in the English +language, came to me with a look of grave concern--so solemn indeed that it +somewhat disconcerted me--to direct my attention to the error. Her manner +was absurdly exaggerated considering the occasion. Judging from the serious +face and the voice of bated breath, you might almost imagine that I had +committed a secret murder and {9} that she had come to inform me that the +corpse had just been found. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER II. + +AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING. + +The various Irish modes of affirming, denying, &c., will be understood from +the examples given in this short chapter better than from any general +observations. + +The Irish _ni'l la fos e_ [neel law fo-say: it isn't day yet] is often used +for emphasis in asseveration, even when persons are speaking English; but +in this case the saying is often turned into English. 'If the master didn't +give Tim a tongue-dressing, _'tisn't day yet_' (which would be said either +by day or by night): meaning he gave him a very severe scolding. 'When I +saw the mad dog running at me, if I didn't get a fright, +_neel-law-fo-say_.' + +'I went to town yesterday in all the rain, and if I didn't get a wetting +_there isn't a cottoner in Cork_': meaning I got a very great wetting. This +saying is very common in Munster; and workers in cotton were numerous in +Cork when it was invented. + +A very usual emphatic ending to an assertion is seen in the +following:--'That horse is a splendid animal _and no mistake_.' + +'_I'll engage_ you visited Peggy when you were in town': i.e. I assert it +without much fear of contradiction: I warrant. Much in the same sense we +use _I'll go bail_:--'I'll go bail you never got that {10} money you lent +to Tom': 'An illigant song he could sing I'll go bail' (Lever): 'You didn't +meet your linnet (i.e. your girl--your sweetheart) this evening I'll go +bail' (Robert Dwyer Joyce in 'The Beauty of the Blossom Gate'). + +'I'll hold you' introduces an assertion with some emphasis: it is really +elliptical: I'll hold you [a wager: but always a fictitious wager]. I'll +hold you I'll finish that job by one o'clock, i.e. I'll warrant I will--you +may take it from me that I will. + +The phrase 'if you go to that of it' is often added on to a statement to +give great emphasis, amounting almost to a sort of defiance of +contradiction or opposition. 'I don't believe you could walk four miles an +hour': 'Oh don't you: I could then, or five if you go to that of it': 'I +don't believe that Joe Lee is half as good a hurler as his brother Phil.' +'I can tell you he is then, and a great deal better if you go to that of +it.' Lowry Looby, speaking of St. Swithin, says:--'He was then, buried more +than once if you go to that of it.' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians': +Munster.) + +'Is it cold outside doors?' Reply, 'Aye is it,' meaning 'it is certainly.' +An emphatic assertion (after the Gaelic construction) frequently heard is +'Ah then, 'tis I that wouldn't like to be in that fight.' 'Ah 'tis my +mother that will be delighted.' + +'What did he do to you?' 'He hit me with his stick, _so he did_, and it is +a great shame, so it is.' 'I like a cup of tea at night, so I do.' In the +South an expression of this kind is very often added on as a sort of +clincher to give emphasis. Similar are the very usual endings as seen in +these {11} assertions:--'He is a great old schemer, _that's what he is_': +'I spoke up to the master and showed him he was wrong--_I did begob_.' + +I asked a man one day: 'Well, how is the young doctor going on in his new +place?' and he replied 'Ah, how but well'; which he meant to be very +emphatic: and then he went on to give particulars. + +A strong denial is often expressed in the following way: 'This day will +surely be wet, so don't forget your umbrella': 'What a fool I am': as much +as to say, 'I should be a fool indeed to go without an umbrella to-day, and +I think there's no mark of a fool about me.' 'Now Mary don't wait for the +last train [from Howth] for there will be an awful crush.' 'What a fool I'd +be ma'am.' 'Oh Mr. Lory I thought you were gone home [from the dance] two +hours ago': 'What a fool I am,' replies Lory ('Knocknagow'), equivalent to +'I hadn't the least notion of making such a fool of myself while there's +such fun here.' This is heard everywhere in Ireland, 'from the centre all +round to the sea.' + +Much akin to this is Nelly Donovan's reply to Billy Heffernan who had made +some flattering remark to her:--'Arrah now Billy what sign of a fool do you +see on me?' ('Knocknagow.') + +An emphatic assertion or assent: 'Yesterday was very wet.' Reply:--'You may +say it was,' or 'you may well say that.' + +'I'm greatly afeard he'll try to injure me.' Answer:--''Tis fear _for_ you' +(emphasis on _for_), meaning 'you have good reason to be afeard': merely a +translation of the Irish _is eagal duitse_. {12} + +'Oh I'll pay you what I owe you.' ''Tis a pity you wouldn't indeed,' says +the other, a satirical reply, meaning 'of course you will and no thanks to +you for that; who'd expect otherwise?' + +'I am going to the fair to-morrow, as I want to buy a couple of cows.' +Reply, 'I know,' as much as to say 'I see,' 'I understand.' This is one of +our commonest terms of assent. + +An assertion or statement introduced by the words 'to tell God's truth' is +always understood to be weighty and somewhat unexpected, the introductory +words being given as a guarantee of its truth:--'Have you the rest of the +money you owe me ready now James?' 'Well to tell God's truth I was not able +to make it all up, but I can give you L5.' + +Another guarantee of the same kind, though not quite so solemn, is 'my hand +to you,' or 'I give you my hand and word.' 'My hand to you I'll never rest +till the job is finished.' 'Come and hunt with me in the wood, and my hand +to you we shall soon have enough of victuals for both of us.' (Clarence +Mangan in Ir. Pen. Journ.) + + 'I've seen--and here's my hand to you I only say what's true-- + A many a one with twice your stock not half so proud as you.' + (CLARENCE MANGAN.) + +'Do you know your Catechism?' Answer, 'What would ail me not to know it?' +meaning 'of course I do--'twould be a strange thing if I didn't.' 'Do you +think you can make that lock all right?' 'Ah what would ail me,' i.e., 'no +doubt I can--of course I can; if I couldn't do that it would be a sure sign +{13} that something was amiss with me--that something ailed me.' + +'Believe Tom and who'll believe you': a way of saying that Tom is not +telling truth. + +An emphatic 'yes' to a statement is often expressed in the following +way:--'This is a real wet day.' Answer, 'I believe you.' 'I think you made +a good bargain with Tim about that field.' 'I believe you I did.' + +A person who is offered anything he is very willing to take, or asked to do +anything he is anxious to do, often answers in this way:--'James, would you +take a glass of punch?' or 'Tom, will you dance with my sister in the next +round?' In either case the answer is, 'Would a duck swim?' + +A weak sort of assent is often expressed in this way:--'Will you bring +Nelly's book to her when you are going home, Dan?' Answer, 'I don't mind,' +or 'I don't mind if I do.' + +To express unbelief in a statement or disbelief in the usefulness or +effectiveness of any particular line of action, a person says 'that's all +in my eye,' or ''Tis all in my eye, Betty Martin--O'; but this last is +regarded as slang. + +Sometimes an unusual or unexpected statement is introduced in the following +manner, the introductory words being usually spoken quickly:--'_Now do you +know what I'm going to tell you_--that ragged old chap has L200 in the +bank.' In Derry they make it--'Now listen to what I'm going to say.' + +In some parts of the South and West and Northwest, servants and others have +a way of replying to directions that at first sounds strange or even {14} +disrespectful:--'Biddy, go up please to the drawing-room and bring me down +the needle and thread and stocking you will find on the table.' 'That will +do ma'am,' replies Biddy, and off she goes and brings them. But this is +their way of saying 'yes ma'am,' or 'Very well ma'am.' + +So also you say to the hotel-keeper:--'Can I have breakfast please +to-morrow morning at 7 o'clock?' 'That will do sir.' This reply in fact +expresses the greatest respect, as much as to say, 'A word from you is +quite enough.' + +'I caught the thief at my potatoes.' 'No, but did you?' i.e., is it +possible you did so? A very common exclamation, especially in Ulster. + +'Oh man' is a common exclamation to render an assertion more emphatic, and +sometimes to express surprise:--'Oh man, you never saw such a fine race as +we had.' In Ulster they duplicate it, with still the same application:--'Oh +man-o-man that's great rain.' 'Well John you'd hardly believe it, but I got +L50 for my horse to-day at the fair.' Reply, 'Oh man that's a fine price.' + +'Never fear' is heard constantly in many parts of Ireland as an expression +of assurance:--'Now James don't forget the sugar.' 'Never fear ma'am.' 'Ah +never fear there will be plenty flowers in that garden this year.' 'You +will remember to have breakfast ready at 7 o'clock.' 'Never fear sir,' +meaning 'making your mind easy on the point--it will be all right.' _Never +fear_ is merely a translation of the equally common Irish phrase, _na bi +heagal ort_. + +Most of our ordinary salutations are translations from Irish. _Go +m-beannuighe Dia dhuit_ is literally {15} 'May God bless you,' or 'God +bless you' which is a usual salutation in English. The commonest of all our +salutes is 'God save you,' or (for a person entering a house) 'God save all +here'; and the response is 'God save you kindly' ('Knocknagow'); where +_kindly_ means 'of a like kind,' 'in like manner,' 'similarly.' Another but +less usual response to the same salutation is, 'And you too,' which is +appropriate. ('Knocknagow.') 'God save all here' is used all over Ireland +except in the extreme North, where it is hardly understood. + +To the ordinary salutation, 'Good-morrow,' which is heard everywhere, the +usual response is 'Good-morrow kindly.' 'Morrow Wat,' said Mr. Lloyd. +'Morrow kindly,' replied Wat. ('Knocknagow.') 'The top of the morning to +you' is used everywhere, North and South. + +In some places if a woman throws out water at night at the kitchen door, +she says first, 'Beware of the water,' lest the 'good people' might happen +to be passing at the time, and one or more of them might get splashed. + +A visitor coming in and finding the family at dinner:--'Much good may it do +you.' + +In very old times it was a custom for workmen on completing any work and +delivering it finished to give it their blessing. This blessing was called +_abarta_ (an old word, not used in modern Irish), and if it was omitted the +workman was subject to a fine to be deducted from his hire equal to the +seventh part of the cost of his feeding. (_Senchus Mor_ and 'Cormac's +Glossary.') It was especially incumbent on women to bless the work of other +women. This custom, which is more than a thousand years old, has {16} +descended to our day; for the people on coming up to persons engaged in +work of any kind always say 'God bless your work,' or its equivalent +original in Irish, _Go m-beannuighe Dia air bhur n-obair_. (See my 'Social +History of Ancient Ireland,' II., page 324.) + +In modern times tradesmen have perverted this pleasing custom into a new +channel not so praise-worthy. On the completion of any work, such as a +building, they fix a pole with a flag on the highest point to ask the +employer for his _blessing_, which means money for a drink. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER III. + +ASSERTION BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE. + +Assertions are often made by using the negative of the opposite assertion. +'You must be hungry now Tom, and this little rasher will do you no harm,' +meaning it will do you good. An old man has tired himself dancing and +says:--'A glass of whiskey will do us no harm after that.' (Carleton.) A +lady occupying a furnished house at the seaside near Dublin said to the boy +who had charge of the premises:--'There may be burglars about here; +wouldn't it be well for you to come and close the basement shutters at +night?' 'Why then begob ma'am _'twould be no har-um_.' Here is a bit of +rustic information (from Limerick) that might be useful to food experts:-- + + 'Rye bread will do you good, + Barley bread _will do you no harm_, + Wheaten bread will sweeten your blood, + Oaten bread will strengthen your arm.' + +{17} + +This curious way of speaking, which is very general among all classes of +people in Ireland and in every part of the country, is often used in the +Irish language, from which we have imported it into our English. Here are a +few Irish examples; but they might be multiplied indefinitely, and some +others will be found through this chapter. In the Irish tale called 'The +Battle of Gavra,' the narrator says:--[The enemy slew a large company of +our army] 'and that was no great help to us.' In 'The Colloquy,' a piece +much older than 'The Battle of Gavra,' Kylta, wishing to tell his audience +that when the circumstance he is relating occurred he was very young, +expresses it by saying [at that time] 'I myself was not old.' + +One night a poet was grossly insulted: 'On the morrow he rose and he was +not thankful.' (From the very old Irish tale called 'The Second Battle of +Moytura': Rev. Celt.) + +Another old Irish writer, telling us that a certain company of soldiers is +well out of view, expresses it in this way:--_Ni fhuil in cuire gan +chleith_, literally, 'the company is not without concealment.' + +How closely these and other old models are imitated in our English will be +seen from the following examples from every part of Ireland:-- + +'I can tell you Paddy Walsh is no chicken now,' meaning he is very old. The +same would be said of an old maid:--'She's no chicken,' meaning that she is +old for a girl. + +'How are your potato gardens going on this year?' 'Why then they're not too +good'; i.e. only middling or bad. + +A usual remark among us conveying mild approval {18} is 'that's not bad.' A +Dublin boy asked me one day:--'Maybe you wouldn't have e'er a penny that +you'd give me, sir?' i.e., 'Have you a penny to give me?' 'You wouldn't +like to have a cup of tea, would you?' An invitation, but not a cordial +one. This is a case of '_will you_ was never a good fellow' (for which see +Vocabulary). + +'No joke' is often used in the sense of 'very serious.' 'It was no joke to +be caught in our boat in such a storm as that.' 'The loss of L10 is no joke +for that poor widow.' + + 'As for Sandy he worked like a downright demolisher-- + Bare as he is, yet _his lick is no polisher_.' + + (THOMAS MOORE in the early part of his career.) + +You remark that a certain person has some fault, he is miserly, or +extravagant, or dishonest, &c.: and a bystander replies, 'Yes indeed, and +'tisn't to-day or yesterday it happened him'--meaning that it is a fault of +long standing. + +A tyrannical or unpopular person goes away or dies:--'There's many a dry +eye after him.' (Kildare.) + +'Did Tom do your work as satisfactorily as Davy?' 'Oh, it isn't alike': to +imply that Tom did the work very much better than Davy. + +'Here is the newspaper; and 'tisn't much you'll find in it.' + +'Is Mr. O'Mahony good to his people?' 'Oh, indeed he is no great things': +or another way of saying it:--'He's no great shakes.' 'How do you like your +new horse?' 'Oh then he's no great shakes'--or 'he's {19} not much to boast +of.' Lever has this in a song:--'You think the Blakes are no great shakes.' +But I think it is also used in England. + +A consequential man who carries his head rather higher than he ought:--'He +thinks no small beer of himself.' + +Mrs. Slattery gets a harmless fall off the form she is sitting on, and is +so frightened that she asks of the person who helps her up, 'Am I killed?' +To which he replies ironically--'Oh there's great fear of you.' +('Knocknagow.') + +[Alice Ryan is a very purty girl] 'and she doesn't want to be reminded of +that same either.' ('Knocknagow.') + +A man has got a heavy cold from a wetting and says: 'That wetting did me no +good,' meaning 'it did me great harm.' + +'There's a man outside wants to see you, sir,' says Charlie, our office +attendant, a typical southern Irishman. 'What kind is he Charlie? does he +look like a fellow wanting money?' Instead of a direct affirmative, Charlie +answers, 'Why then sir I don't think he'll give you much anyway.' + +'Are people buried there now?' I asked of a man regarding an old graveyard +near Blessington in Wicklow. Instead of answering 'very few,' he replied: +'Why then not too many sir.' + +When the roads are dirty--deep in mire--'there's fine walking overhead.' + +In the Irish Life of St. Brigit we are told of a certain chief:--'It was +not his will to sell the bondmaid,' by which is meant, it was his will +_not_ to sell her. {20} + +So in our modern speech the father says to the son:--'It is not my wish +that you should go to America at all,' by which he means the positive +assertion:--'It is my wish that you should not go.' + +Tommy says, 'Oh, mother, I forgot to bring you the sugar.' 'I wouldn't +doubt you,' answers the mother, as much as to say, 'It is just what I'd +expect from you.' + +When a message came to Rory from absent friends, that they were true to +Ireland:-- + +'"My _sowl_, I never doubted them" said Rory of the hill.' (Charles +Kickham.) + +'It wouldn't be wishing you a pound note to do so and so': i.e. 'it would +be as bad as the loss of a pound,' or 'it might cost you a pound.' Often +used as a sort of threat to deter a person from doing it. + +'Where do you keep all your money?' 'Oh, indeed, _it's not much I have_': +merely translated from the Gaelic, _Ni moran ata agum_. + +To a silly foolish fellow:--'There's a great deal of sense outside your +head.' + +'The only sure way to conceal evil is not to do it.' + +'I don't think very much of these horses,' meaning 'I have a low opinion of +them.' + +'I didn't pretend to understand what he said,' appears a negative +statement; but it is really one of our ways of making a positive one:--'I +pretended not to understand him.' To the same class belongs the common +expression 'I don't think':--'I don't think you bought that horse too +dear,' meaning 'I think you did not buy him too dear'; 'I don't think this +day will be wet,' equivalent to 'I think it will not be wet.' {21} + +Lowry Looby is telling how a lot of fellows attacked Hardress Cregan, who +defends himself successfully:--'Ah, it isn't a goose or a duck they had to +do with when they came across Mr. Cregan.' (Gerald Griffin.) Another way of +expressing the same idea often heard:--'He's no sop (wisp) in the road'; +i.e. 'he's a strong brave fellow.' + +'It was not too wise of you to buy those cows as the market stands at +present,' i.e. it was rather foolish. + +'I wouldn't be sorry to get a glass of wine, meaning, 'I would be glad.' + +An unpopular person is going away:-- + + 'Joy be with him and a bottle of moss, + And if he don't return he's no great loss.' + +'How are you to-day, James?' + +'Indeed I can't say that I'm very well': meaning 'I am rather ill.' + +'You had no right to take that book without my leave'; meaning 'You were +wrong in taking it--it was wrong of you to take it.' A translation of the +Irish _ni coir duit_. 'A bad right' is stronger than 'no right.' 'You have +no right to speak ill of my uncle' is simply negation:--'You are wrong, for +you have no reason or occasion to speak so.' 'A bad right you have to speak +ill of my uncle:' that is to say, 'You are doubly wrong' [for he once did +you a great service]. 'A bad right anyone would have to call Ned a screw' +[for he is well known for his generosity]. ('Knocknagow.') Another way of +applying the word--in the sense of _duty_--is seen in the following:--A +member at an Urban Council {22} meeting makes an offensive remark and +refuses to withdraw it: when another retorts:--'You have a right to +withdraw it'--i.e. 'it is your duty.' So:--'You have a right to pay your +debts.' + +'Is your present farm as large as the one you left?' Reply:--'Well indeed +it doesn't want much of it.' A common expression, and borrowed from the +Irish, where it is still more usual. The Irish _beagnach_ ('little but') +and _acht ma beag_ ('but only a little') are both used in the above sense +('doesn't want much'), equivalent to the English _almost_. + +A person is asked did he ever see a ghost. If his reply is to be negative, +the invariable way of expressing it is: 'I never saw anything worse than +myself, thanks be to God.' + +A person is grumbling without cause, making out that he is struggling in +some difficulty--such as poverty--and the people will say to him +ironically: 'Oh how bad you are.' A universal Irish phrase among high and +low. + +A person gives a really good present to a girl:--'He didn't affront her by +that present.' (Patterson: Antrim and Down.) + +How we cling to this form of expression--or rather how it clings to us--is +seen in the following extract from the Dublin correspondence of one of the +London newspapers of December, 1909:--'Mr. ---- is not expected to be +returned to parliament at the general election'; meaning it _is_ expected +that he will _not_ be returned. So also:--'How is poor Jack Fox to-day?' +'Oh he's not expected'; i.e. not expected to live,--he is _given over_. +This expression, _not expected_, is a very common Irish phrase in cases of +death sickness. {23} + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER IV. + +IDIOMS DERIVED FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. + +In this chapter I am obliged to quote the original Irish passages a good +deal as a guarantee of authenticity for the satisfaction of Irish scholars: +but for those who have no Irish the translations will answer equally well. +Besides the examples I have brought together here, many others will be +found all through the book. I have already remarked that the great majority +of our idiomatic Hibernian-English sayings are derived from the Irish +language. + +When existence or modes of existence are predicated in Irish by the verb +_ta_ or _ata_ (English _is_), the Irish preposition _in_ (English _in_) in +some of its forms is always used, often with a possessive pronoun, which +gives rise to a very curious idiom. Thus, 'he is a mason' is in Irish _ta +se 'n a shaor_, which is literally _he is in his mason_: 'I am standing' is +_ta me a m' sheasamh_, lit. _I am in my standing_. This explains the common +Anglo-Irish form of expression:--'He fell on the road out of his standing': +for as he is 'in his standing' (according to the Irish) when he is standing +up, he is 'out of his standing' when he falls. This idiom with _in_ is +constantly translated literally into English by the Irish people. Thus, +instead of saying, 'I sent the wheat thrashed into corn to the mill, and it +came home as flour,' they will rather say, 'I sent the wheat _in corn_ to +the mill, and it came home _in flour_.' Here the _in_ denotes identity: +'Your {24} hair is in a wisp'; i.e. it _is_ a wisp: 'My eye is in whey in +my head,' i.e. it _is_ whey. (John Keegan in Ir. Pen. Journ.) + +But an idiom closely resembling this, and in some respects identical with +it, exists in English (though it has not been hitherto noticed--so far as I +am aware)--as may be seen from the following examples:--'The Shannon ... +rushed through Athlone _in_ a deep and rapid stream (Macaulay), i.e. it +_was_ a deep and rapid stream (like our expression 'Your handkerchief is in +ribbons'). + + 'Where heaves the turf _in_ many a mouldering heap.' + + (GRAY'S 'Elegy.') + + 'Hence bards, like Proteus, long in vain tied down, + Escape _in_ monsters and amaze the town.' + + (POPE: 'Dunciad.') + +'The bars forming the front and rear edges of each plane [of the +flying-machine] are always _in_ one piece' (Daily Mail). Shelley's 'Cloud' +says, 'I laugh _in_ thunder' (meaning I laugh, and my laugh _is_ thunder.) +'The greensand and chalk were continued across the weald _in_ a great +dome.' (Lord Avebury.) + +'Just to the right of him were the white-robed bishops _in a group_.' +(Daily Mail.) 'And men _in_ nations' (Byron in 'The Isles of Greece'): 'The +people came _in_ tens and twenties': 'the rain came down _in_ torrents': +'I'll take L10 _in_ gold and the rest _in_ silver': 'the snow gathered _in_ +a heap.' 'The money came [home] sometimes _in_ specie and sometimes _in_ +goods' (Lord Rothschild, speech in House of Lords, 29th November, 1909), +exactly like 'the corn came home _in_ flour,' quoted above. The {25} +preceding examples do not quite fully represent the Irish idiom in its +entirety, inasmuch as the possessive pronouns are absent. But even these +are sometimes found, as in the familiar phrases, 'the people came _in +their_ hundreds.' 'You are _in your_ thousands' [here at the meeting], +which is an exact reproduction of the Gaelic phrase in the Irish classical +story:--_Ata sibh in bhur n-ealaibh_, 'Ye are swans' (lit. 'Ye are in your +swans'). + +When mere existence is predicated, the Gaelic _ann_ (_in it_, i.e. 'in +existence') is used, as _ata sneachta ann_, 'there is snow'; lit. 'there is +snow _there_,' or 'there is snow _in it_,' i.e. in existence. The _ann_ +should be left blank in English translation, i.e. having no proper +representative. But our people will not let it go waste; they bring it into +their English in the form of either _in it_ or _there_, both of which in +this construction carry the meaning of _in existence_. Mrs. Donovan says to +Bessy Morris:--'Is it yourself that's _in it_?' ('Knocknagow'), which would +stand in correct Irish _An tusa ata ann_? On a Sunday one man insults and +laughs at another, who says, 'Only for the day that's _in it_ I'd make you +laugh at the wrong side of your mouth': 'the weather that's _in it_ is very +hot.' 'There's nothing at all _there_ (in existence) as it used to be' +(Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians'): 'this day is bad for growth, there's a +sharp east wind _there_.' + +I do not find this use of the English preposition _in_--namely, to denote +identity--referred to in English dictionaries, though it ought to be. + +The same mode of expressing existence by _an_ or _in_ is found in the +Ulster and Scotch phrase for {26} _to be alone_, which is as follows, +always bringing in the personal pronoun:--'I am in my lone,' 'he is in his +lone,' 'they are in their lone'; or more commonly omitting the preposition +(though it is always understood): 'She is living her lone.' All these +expressions are merely translations from Gaelic, in which they are +constantly used; 'I am in my lone' being from _Ta me am' aonar_, where +_am'_ is 'in my' and _aonar_, 'lone.' _Am' aonar seal do bhiossa_, 'Once as +I was alone.' (Old Irish Song.) In north-west Ulster they sometimes use the +preposition _by_:--'To come home by his lone' (Seumas Mac Manus). Observe +the word _lone_ is always made _lane_ in Scotland, and generally in Ulster; +and these expressions or their like will be found everywhere in Burns or in +any other Scotch (or Ulster) dialect writer. + +Prepositions are used in Irish where it might be wrong to use them in +corresponding constructions in English. Yet the Irish phrases are +continually translated literally, which gives rise to many incorrect +dialect expressions. Of this many examples will be found in what follows. + +'He put lies _on_ me'; a form of expression often heard. This might have +one or the other of two meanings, viz. either 'he accused me of telling +lies,' or 'he told lies about me.' + +'The tinker took fourpence _out of_ that kettle,' i.e. he earned 4d. by +mending it. St. Patrick left his name _on_ the townland of Kilpatrick: that +nickname remained _on_ Dan Ryan ever since. + +'He was vexed _to_ me' (i.e. with me): 'I was _at him_ for half a year' +(with him); 'You could find no fault _to it_' (with it). All these are in +use. {27} + +'I took the medicine according to the doctor's order, but I found myself +nothing the better _of it_.' 'You have a good time _of it_.' I find in +Dickens however (in his own words) that the wind 'was obviously determined +to make a night _of it_.' (See p. 10 for a peculiarly Irish use of _of +it_.) + +In the Irish poem _Bean na d-Tri m-Bo_, 'The Woman of Three Cows,' occurs +the expression, _As do bholacht na bi teann_, 'Do not be haughty _out of_ +your cattle.' This is a form of expression constantly heard in +English:--'he is as proud as a peacock _out of_ his rich relations.' So +also, 'She has great thought _out of_ him,' i.e. She has a very good +opinion of him. (Queen's Co.) + +'I am without a penny,' i.e. I haven't a penny: very common: a translation +from the equally common Irish expression, _ta me gan pinghin_. + +In an Irish love song the young man tells us that he had been vainly trying +to win over the colleen _le bliadhain agus le la_, which Petrie correctly +(but not literally) translates 'for a year and for a day.' As the Irish +preposition _le_ signifies _with_, the literal translation would be '_with_ +a year and _with_ a day,' which would be incorrect English. Yet the +uneducated people of the South and West often adopt this translation; so +that you will hear such expressions as 'I lived in Cork _with_ three +years.' + +There is an idiomatic use of the Irish preposition _air_, 'on,' before a +personal pronoun or before a personal name and after an active verb, to +intimate injury or disadvantage of some kind, a violation of right or +claim. Thus, _Do bhuail Seumas mo ghadhar orm_ [where _orm_ is _air me_], +'James struck my dog {28} _on me_,' where _on me_ means to my detriment, in +violation of my right, &c. _Chaill se mo sgian orm_; 'he lost my knife _on +me_.' + +This mode of expression exists in the oldest Irish as well as in the +colloquial languages--both Irish and English--of the present day. When St. +Patrick was spending the Lent on Croagh Patrick the demons came to torment +him in the shape of great black hateful-looking birds: and the Tripartite +Life, composed (in the Irish language) in the tenth century, says, 'The +mountain was filled with great sooty-black birds _on him_' (to his torment +or detriment). In 'The Battle of Rossnaree,' Carbery, directing his men how +to act against Conor, his enemy, tells them to send some of their heroes +_re tuargain a sgeithe ar Conchobar_, 'to smite Conor's shield _on him_.' +The King of Ulster is in a certain hostel, and when his enemies hear of it, +they say:--'We are pleased at that for we shall [attack and] take the +hostel _on him_ to-night.' (Congal Claringneach.) It occurs also in the +_Amra_ of Columkille--the oldest of all--though I cannot lay my hand on the +passage. + +This is one of the commonest of our Anglo-Irish idioms, so that a few +examples will be sufficient. + + 'I saw thee ... thrice _on Tara's champions_ win the goal.' + + (FERGUSON: 'Lays of the Western Gael.') + +I once heard a grandmother--an educated Dublin lady--say, in a charmingly +petting way, to her little grandchild who came up crying:--'What did they +do to you on me--did they beat you on me?' + +The Irish preposition _ag_--commonly translated 'for' in this connexion--is +used in a sense much like _air_, viz. to carry an idea of some sort of +injury {29} to the person represented by the noun or pronoun. Typical +examples are: one fellow threatening another says, 'I'll break your head +_for you_': or 'I'll soon _settle his hash for him_.' This of course also +comes from Irish; _Gur scoilt an plaosg aige_, 'so that he broke his skull +_for him_' (Battle of Gavra); _Do ghearr a reim aige beo_, 'he shortened +his career for him.' ('The Amadan Mor.') See 'On' in Vocabulary. + +There is still another peculiar usage of the English preposition _for_, +which is imitated or translated from the Irish, the corresponding Irish +preposition here being _mar_. In this case the prepositional phrase is +added on, not to denote injury, but to express some sort of mild +depreciation:--'Well, how is your new horse getting on?' 'Ah, I'm tired of +him _for a horse_: he is little good.' A dog keeps up a continuous barking, +and a person says impatiently, 'Ah, choke you _for a dog_' (may you be +choked). Lowry Looby, who has been appointed to a place and is asked how he +is going on with it, replies, 'To lose it I did _for a place_.' +('Collegians.') In the Irish story of _Bodach an Chota Lachtna_ ('The Clown +with the Grey Coat'), the Bodach offers Ironbones some bones to pick, on +which Ironbones flies into a passion; and Mangan, the translator, happily +puts into the mouth of the Bodach:--'Oh, very well, then we will not have +any more words about them, _for bones_.' Osheen, talking in a querulous +mood about all his companions--the Fena--having left him, says, [were I in +my former condition] _Ni ghoirfinn go brath orruibh, mar Fheinn_, 'I would +never call on you, _for Fena_.' This last and its like are the models on +which the Anglo-Irish phrases are formed. {30} + +'Of you' (where _of_ is not intended for _off_) is very frequently used in +the sense of _from you_: 'I'll take the stick _of you_ whether you like it +or not.' 'Of you' is here simply a translation of the Irish _diot_, which +is always used in this connexion in Irish: _bainfead diot e_, 'I will take +it of you.' In Irish phrases like this the Irish _uait_ ('from you') is not +used; if it were the people would say 'I'll take it _from you_,' not _of +you_. (Russell.) + +'Oh that news was _on_ the paper yesterday.' 'I went _on_ the train to +Kingstown.' Both these are often heard in Dublin and elsewhere. Correct +speakers generally use _in_ in such cases. (Father Higgins and Kinahan.) + +In some parts of Ulster they use the preposition _on_ after _to be +married_:--'After Peggy McCue had been married _on_ Long Micky Diver' +(Sheumas MacManus). + +'To make a speech _takes a good deal out of me_,' i.e. tires me, exhausts +me, an expression heard very often among all classes. The phrase in italics +is merely the translation of a very common Irish expression, _baineann se +rud eigin asam_, it takes something out of me. + +'I am afraid of her,' 'I am frightened at her,' are both correct English, +meaning 'she has frightened me': and both are expressed in Donegal by 'I am +afeard _for_ her,' 'I am frightened _for_ her,' where in both cases _for_ +is used in the sense of 'on account of.' + +In Irish any sickness, such as fever, is said to be _on_ a person, and this +idiom is imported into English. If a person wishes to ask 'What ails you?' +he often {31} gives it the form of 'What is on you?' (Ulster), which is +exactly the English of _Cad e sin ort_? + +A visitor stands up to go. 'What hurry is on you?' A mild invitation to +stay on (Armagh). In the South, 'What hurry are you in?' + +She had _a nose on her_, i.e. looked sour, out of humour ('Knocknagow'). +Much used in the South. 'They never asked me had I a mouth on me': +universally understood and often used in Ireland, and meaning 'they never +offered me anything to eat or drink.' + +I find Mark Twain using the same idiom:--[an old horse] 'had a neck _on +him_ like a bowsprit' ('Innocents Abroad'); but here I think Mark shows a +touch of the Gaelic brush, wherever he got it. + +'I tried to knock another shilling out of him, but all in vain': i.e. I +tried to persuade him to give me another shilling. This is very common with +Irish-English speakers, and is a word for word translation of the equally +common Irish phrase _bain sgilling eile as_. (Russell.) + +'I came against you' (more usually _agin you_) means 'I opposed you and +defeated your schemes.' This is merely a translation of an Irish phrase, in +which the preposition _le_ or _re_ is used in the sense of _against_ or _in +opposition to_: _do thainic me leat annsin_. (S. H. O'Grady.) 'His sore +knee came _against him_ during the walk.' + +_Against_ is used by us in another sense--that of meeting: 'he went against +his father,' i.e. he went to meet his father [who was coming home from +town]. This, which is quite common, is, I think, pure {32} Anglo-Irish. But +'he laid up a supply of turf against the winter' is correct English as well +as Anglo-Irish. + + 'And the cravat of hemp was surely spun + _Against_ the day when their race was run.' + + ('Touchstone' in 'Daily Mail.') + +A very common inquiry when you meet a friend is:--'How are all your care?' +Meaning chiefly your family, those persons that are under your care. This +is merely a translation of the common Irish inquiry, _Cionnos ta do churam +go leir_? + +A number of idiomatic expressions cluster round the word _head_, all of +which are transplanted from Irish in the use of the Irish word _ceann_ +[cann] 'head'. _Head_ is used to denote the cause, occasion, or motive of +anything. 'Did he really walk that distance in a day?' Reply in Irish, +_Ni'l contabhairt air bith ann a cheann_: 'there is no doubt at all _on the +head of it_,' i.e. about it, in regard to it. 'He is a bad head to me,' +i.e. he treats me badly. Merely the Irish _is olc an ceann dom e_. _Bhi +fearg air da chionn_, he was vexed on the head of it. + +A dismissed clerk says:--'I made a mistake in one of the books, and I was +sent away _on the head of_ that mistake.' + +A very common phrase among us is, 'More's the pity':--'More's the pity that +our friend William should be so afflicted.' + + 'More's the pity one so pretty + As I should live alone.' + + (Anglo-Irish Folk-Song.) + +This is a translation of a very common Irish expression as seen in:--_Budh +mho an sgeile Diarmaid_ {33} _do bheith marbh_: 'More's the pity Dermot to +be dead.' (Story of 'Dermot and Grania.') + +'Who should come up to me in the fair but John.' Intended not for a +question but for an assertion--an assertion of something which was hardly +expected. This mode of expression, which is very common, is a Gaelic +construction. Thus in the song _Fainne geal an lae:--Cia gheabhainn le +m'ais acht cuilfhionn deas_: 'Whom should I find near by me but the pretty +fair haired girl.' 'Who should walk in only his dead wife.' (Gerald +Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'As we were walking along what should happen but +John to stumble and fall on the road.' + +The pronouns _myself_, _himself_, &c., are very often used in Ireland in a +peculiar way, which will be understood from the following examples:--'The +birds were singing _for themselves_.' 'I was looking about the fair _for +myself_' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians'): 'he is pleasant _in himself_ +(ibid.): 'I felt dead [dull] _in myself_' (ibid.). 'Just at that moment I +happened to be walking by myself' (i.e. alone: Irish, _liom fein_). +Expressions of this kind are all borrowed direct from Irish. + +We have in our Irish-English a curious use of the personal pronouns which +will be understood from the following examples:--'He interrupted me _and I +writing_ my letters' (as I was writing). 'I found Phil there too _and he +playing_ his fiddle for the company.' This, although very incorrect +English, is a classic idiom in Irish, from which it has been imported as it +stands into our English. Thus:--_Do chonnairc me Tomas agus e n'a shuidhe +cois na teine_: 'I saw Thomas _and he sitting_ beside the fire.' 'How could +you see {34} me there _and I to be in bed at the time_?' This latter part +is merely a translation from the correct Irish:--_agus meise do bheith mo +luidhe ag an am sin_ (Irish Tale). Any number of examples of this usage +might be culled from both English and Irish writings. Even so classical a +writer as Wolfe follows this usage in 'The Burial of Sir John Moore':-- + + 'We thought ... + That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, + _And we far away_ on the billow.' + +(I am reminded of this by Miss Hayden and Prof. Hartog.) + +But there is a variety in our English use of the pronouns here, namely, +that we often use the objective (or accusative) case instead of the +nominative. 'How could you expect Davy to do the work _and him so very +sick_?' 'My poor man fell into the fire a Sunday night _and him hearty_' +(_hearty_, half drunk: Maxwell, 'Wild Sports of the West'). 'Is that what +you lay out for me, mother, _and me after turning the Voster_' (i.e. after +working through the whole of Voster's Arithmetic: Carleton). 'John and Bill +were both reading and _them eating their dinner_' (while they were eating +their dinner). This is also from the Irish language. We will first take the +third person plural pronoun. The pronoun 'they' is in Irish _siad_: and the +accusative 'them' is the Irish _iad_. But in some Irish constructions this +_iad_ is (correctly) used as a nominative; and in imitation of this our +people often use 'them' as a nominative:--'_Them_ are just the gloves I +want.' '_Them_ are the boys' is exactly translated from the correct Irish +_is_ {35} _iad sin na buachaillidhe_. 'Oh she melted the hearts of the +swains in _them_ parts.' ('The Widow Malone,' by Lever.) + +In like manner with the pronouns _se_, _si_ (he, she), of which the +accusatives _e_ and _i_ are in certain Irish constructions (correctly) used +for the nominative forms, which accusative forms are (incorrectly) imported +into English. _Do chonnairc me Seadhan agus e n'a shuidhe_, 'I saw Shaun +and _him_ sitting down,' i.e. 'as he was sitting down.' So also 'don't ask +me to go and _me_ having a sore foot.' 'There's the hen and _her_ as fat as +butter,' i.e. 'she (the hen) being as fat as butter.' + +The little phrase 'the way' is used among us in several senses, all +peculiar, and all derived from Irish. Sometimes it is a direct translation +from _amhlaidh_ ('thus,' 'so,' 'how,' 'in a manner'). An old example of +this use of _amhlaidh_ in Irish is the following passage from the _Boroma_ +(_Silva Gadelica_):--_Is amlaid at chonnaic [Concobar] Laigin ocus Ulaid +man dabaig oca hol_: 'It is how (or 'the way') [Concobar] saw the Lagenians +and the Ulstermen [viz. they were] round the vat drinking from it.' _Is +amhlaidh do bhi Fergus_: 'It is thus (or the way) Fergus was [conditioned; +that his shout was heard over three cantreds].' + +This same sense is also seen in the expression, 'this is the way I made my +money,' i.e. 'this is how I made it.' + +When this expression, 'the way,' or 'how,' introduces a statement it means +''tis how it happened.' 'What do you want, James?' ''Tis the way ma'am, my +mother sent me for the loan of the {36} shovel.' This idiom is very common +in Limerick, and is used indeed all through Ireland. + +Very often 'the way' is used in the sense of 'in order that':--'Smoking +carriages are lined with American cloth _the way_ they wouldn't keep the +smell'; 'I brought an umbrella _the way_ I wouldn't get wet'; 'you want not +to let the poor boy do for himself [by marrying] _the way_ that you +yourself should have all.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You constantly hear this in +Dublin, even among educated people. + +Sometimes the word _way_ is a direct translation from the Irish _caoi_, 'a +way,' 'a road'; so that the common Irish salutation, _Cad chaoi bh-fuil +tu_? is translated with perfect correctness into the equally common +Irish-English salute, 'What way are you?' meaning 'How are you?' + +'This way' is often used by the people in the sense of 'by this +time':--'The horse is ready this way,' i.e. 'ready by this time.' (Gerald +Griffin, 'Collegians.') + +The word _itself_ is used in a curious way in Ireland, which has been +something of a puzzle to outsiders. As so used it has no gender, number, or +case; it is not in fact a pronoun at all, but a substitute for the word +_even_. This has arisen from the fact that in the common colloquial Irish +language the usual word to express both _even_ and _itself_, is _fein_; and +in translating a sentence containing this word _fein_, the people rather +avoided _even_, a word not very familiar to them in this sense, and +substituted the better known _itself_, in cases where _even_ would be the +correct word, and _itself_ would be incorrect. Thus _da mbeith an meud sin +fein agum_ is correctly rendered 'if I had {37} even that much': but the +people don't like _even_, and don't well understand it (as applied here), +so they make it 'If I had that much _itself_.' This explains all such +Anglo-Irish sayings as 'if I got it itself it would be of no use to me,' +i.e. 'even if I got it': 'If she were there itself I wouldn't know her'; +'She wouldn't go to bed till you'd come home, and if she did itself she +couldn't sleep.' (Knocknagow.) A woman is finding some fault with the +arrangements for a race, and Lowry Looby (Collegians) puts in 'so itself +what hurt' i.e. 'even so what harm.' (Russell and myself.) + +The English _when_ is expressed by the Irish _an uair_, which is literally +'the hour' or 'the time.' This is often transplanted into English; as when +a person says 'the time you arrived I was away in town.' + +When you give anything to a poor person the recipient commonly utters the +wish 'God increase you!' (meaning your substance): which is an exact +translation of the equally common Irish wish _Go meadaighe Dia dhuit_. +Sometimes the prayer is 'God increase your store,' which expresses exactly +what is meant in the Irish wish. + +The very common aspiration 'God help us' [you, me, them, &c.] is a +translation of the equally common _Go bh-foireadh Dia orruinn_ [_ort_, +&c.]. + +In the north-west instead of 'your father,' 'your sister,' &c., they often +say 'the father of you,' 'the sister of you,' &c.; and correspondingly as +to things:--'I took the hand of her' (i.e. her hand) (Seumas Mac Manus). + +All through Ireland you will hear _show_ used instead of _give_ or _hand_ +(verb), in such phrases as {38} 'Show me that knife,' i.e. hand it to me. +'Show me the cream, please,' says an Irish gentleman at a London +restaurant; and he could not see why his English friends were laughing. + +'He passed me in the street _by the way_ he didn't know me'; 'he refused to +give a contribution _by the way_ he was so poor.' In both, _by the way_ +means 'pretending.' + +'My own own people' means my immediate relations. This is a translation of +_mo mhuinterse fein_. In Irish the repetition of the emphatic pronominal +particles is very common, and is imported into English; represented here by +'own own.' + +A prayer or a wish in Irish often begins with the particle _go_, meaning +'that' (as a conjunction): _Go raibh maith agut_, '_that_ it may be well +with you,' i.e. 'May it be well with you.' In imitation or translation of +this the corresponding expression in English is often opened by this word +_that_: 'that you may soon get well,' i.e., 'may you soon get well.' +Instead of 'may I be there to see' (John Gilpin) our people would say 'that +I may be there to see.' A person utters some evil wish such as 'may bad +luck attend you,' and is answered 'that the prayer may happen the +preacher.' A usual ending of a story told orally, when the hero and heroine +have been comfortably disposed of is 'And if they don't live happy _that we +may_.' + +When a person sees anything unusual or unexpected, he says to his +companion, 'Oh do you mind that!' + +'You want me to give you L10 for that cow: well, I'm not so soft _all +out_.' 'He's not so bad as that _all out_.' {39} + +A common expression is 'I was talking to him to-day, and I _drew down +about_ the money,' i.e. I brought on or introduced the subject. This is a +translation of the Irish form _do tharraing me anuas_ 'I drew down.' + +Quite a common form of expression is 'I had like to be killed,' i.e., I was +near being killed: I had a narrow escape of being killed: I escaped being +killed _by the black of my nail_. + +Where the English say _it rains_, we say 'it is raining': which is merely a +translation of the Irish way of saying it:--_ta se ag fearthainn_. + +The usual Gaelic equivalent of 'he gave a roar' is _do leig se geim as_ +(met everywhere in Irish texts), 'he let a roar out of him'; which is an +expression you will often hear among people who have not well mastered +English--who in fact often speak the Irish language with English words. + +'I put it before me to do it,' meaning I was resolved to do it, is the +literal translation of _chuireas romhaim e to dheunamh_. Both Irish and +Anglo-Irish are very common in the respective languages. + +When a narrator has come to the end of some minor episode in his narrative, +he often resumes with the opening 'That was well and good': which is merely +a translation of the Gaelic _bhi sin go maith_. + +Lowry Looby having related how the mother and daughter raised a terrible +_pillilu_, i.e., 'roaring and bawling,' says after a short pause 'that was +well and good,' and proceeds with his story. (Gerald Griffin: +'Collegians.') + +A common Irish expression interjected into a narrative or discourse, as a +sort of stepping stone {40} between what is ended and what is coming is +_Ni'l tracht air_, 'there is no talking about it,' corresponding to the +English 'in short,' or 'to make a long story short.' These Irish +expressions are imported into our English, in which popular phrases like +the following are very often heard:--'I went to the fair, and _there's no +use in talking_, I found the prices real bad.' + + 'Wisha my bones are exhausted, and _there's no use in talking_, + My heart is scalded, _a wirrasthru_.' + + (Old Song.) + +'Where is my use in staying here, so there's no use in talking, go I will.' +('Knocknagow.') Often the expression takes this form:--'Ah 'tis a folly to +talk, he'll never get that money.' + +Sometimes the original Irish is in question form. _Cid tracht_ ('what +talking?' i.e. 'what need of talking?') which is Englished as follows:--'Ah +what's the use of talking, your father will never consent.' These +expressions are used in conversational Irish-English, not for the purpose +of continuing a narrative as in the original Irish, but--as appears from +the above examples--merely to add emphasis to an assertion. + +'It's a fine day that.' This expression, which is common enough among us, +is merely a translation from the common Irish phrase _is breagh an la e +sin_, where the demonstrative _sin_ (that) comes last in the proper Irish +construction: but when imitated in English it looks queer to an English +listener or reader. + +'_There is no doubt_ that is a splendid animal.' This expression is a +direct translation from the Irish _Ni'l contabhairt ann_, and is equivalent +to the English 'doubtless.' It occurs often in the Scottish dialect +also:--'Ye need na doubt I held my whisht' (Burns). {41} + +You are about to drink from a cup. 'How much shall I put into this cup for +you?' 'Oh you may give me _the full of it_.' This is Irish-English: in +England they would say--'Give it to me full.' Our expression is a +translation from the Irish language. For example, speaking of a +drinking-horn, an old writer says, _a lan do'n lionn_, literally, 'the full +of it of ale.' In Silva Gadelica we find _lan a ghlaice deise do losaibh_, +which an Irishman translating literally would render 'the full of his right +hand of herbs,' while an Englishman would express the same idea in this +way--'his right hand full of herbs.' + +Our Irish-English expression 'to come round a person' means to induce or +_circumvent_ him by coaxing cuteness and wheedling: 'He came round me by +his _sleudering_ to lend him half a crown, fool that I was': 'My +grandchildren came round me to give them money for sweets.' This expression +is borrowed from Irish:--'When the Milesians reached Erin _tanic a ngaes +timchioll Tuathi De Danand_, 'their cuteness circumvented (lit. 'came +round') the Dedannans.' (Opening sentence in _Mesca Ulad_ in Book of +Leinster: Hennessy.) + +'Shall I do so and so?' 'What would prevent you?' A very usual +Hibernian-English reply, meaning 'you may do it of course; there is nothing +to prevent you.' This is borrowed or translated from an Irish phrase. In +the very old tale _The Voyage of Maildune_, Maildune's people ask, 'Shall +we speak to her [the lady]?' and he replies _Cid gatas uait ce atberaid +fria_. 'What [is it] that takes [anything] from you though ye speak to +her,' as much as to say, 'what harm will it do you if you speak to her?' +{42} equivalent to 'of course you may, there's nothing to prevent you.' + +That old horse is _lame of one leg_, one of our very usual forms of +expression, which is merely a translation from _bacach ar aonchois_. +(MacCurtin.) 'I'll seem to be lame, quite useless of one of my hands.' (Old +Song.) + +Such constructions as _amadan fir_ 'a fool of a man' are very common in +Irish, with the second noun in the genitive (_fear_ 'a man,' gen. _fir_) +meaning 'a man who is a fool.' _Is and is ail ollamhan_, 'it is then he is +a rock of an _ollamh_ (doctor), i.e. a doctor who is a rock [of learning]. +(Book of Rights.) So also 'a thief of a fellow,' 'a steeple of a man,' i.e. +a man who is a steeple--so tall. This form of expression is however common +in England both among writers and speakers. It is noticed here because it +is far more general among us, for the obvious reason that it has come to us +from two sources (instead of one)--Irish and English. + +'I removed to Dublin this day twelve months, and this day two years I will +go back again to Tralee.' 'I bought that horse last May was a twelvemonth, +and he will be three years old come Thursday next.' 'I'll not sell my pigs +till coming on summer': a translation of _air theacht an t-samhraidh_. Such +Anglo-Irish expressions are very general, and are all from the Irish +language, of which many examples might be given, but this one from 'The +Courtship of Emer,' twelve or thirteen centuries old, will be enough. [It +was prophesied] that the boy would come to Erin that day seven years--_dia +secht m-bliadan_. (Kuno Meyer.) {43} + +In our Anglo-Irish dialect the expression _at all_ is often duplicated for +emphasis: 'I'll grow no corn this year at all at all': 'I have no money at +all at all.' So prevalent is this among us that in a very good English +grammar recently published (written by an Irishman) speakers and writers +are warned against it. This is an importation from Irish. One of the Irish +words for 'at all' is _idir_ (always used after a negative), old forms +_itir_ and _etir_:--_nir bo tol do Dubthach recc na cumaile etir_, +'Dubthach did not wish to sell the bondmaid at all.' In the following old +passage, and others like it, it is duplicated for emphasis _Cid beac, itir +itir, ges do obar_: 'however little it is forbidden to work, at all at +all.' ('Prohibitions of beard,' O'Looney.) + +When it is a matter of indifference which of two things to choose, we +usually say 'It is equal to me' (or 'all one to me'), which is just a +translation of _is cuma liom_ (best rendered by 'I don't care'). Both Irish +and English expressions are very common in the respective languages. Lowry +Looby says:--'It is equal to me whether I walk ten or twenty miles.' +(Gerald Griffin.) + + 'I am a bold bachelor, airy and free, + Both cities and counties are equal to me.' + + (Old Song.) + +'Do that out of the face,' i.e. begin at the beginning and finish it out +and out: a translation of _deun sin as eudan_. + +'The day is rising' means the day is clearing up,--the rain, or snow, or +wind is ceasing--the weather is becoming fine: a common saying in Ireland: +a translation of the usual Irish expression _ta an la_ {44} _ag eirghidh_. +During the height of the great wind storm of 1842 a poor _shooler_ or +'travelling man' from Galway, who knew little English, took refuge in a +house in Westmeath, where the people were praying in terror that the storm +might go down. He joined in, and unconsciously translating from his native +Irish, he kept repeating 'Musha, that the Lord may rise it, that the Lord +may rise it.' At which the others were at first indignant, thinking he was +asking God to _raise_ the wind higher still. (Russell.) + +Sometimes two prepositions are used where one would do:--'The dog got _in +under_ the bed:' 'Where is James? He's _in in_ the room--or inside in the +room.' + + 'Old woman, old woman, old woman,' says I, + 'Where are you going up so high?' + 'To sweep the cobwebs _off o'_ the sky.' + +Whether this duplication _off of_ is native Irish or old English it is not +easy to say: but I find this expression in 'Robinson Crusoe':--'For the +first time since the storm _off of_ Hull.' + +Eva, the witch, says to the children of Lir, when she had turned them into +swans:--_Amach daoibh a chlann an righ_: 'Out with you [on the water] ye +children of the king.' This idiom which is quite common in Irish, is +constantly heard among English speakers:--'Away with you now'--'Be off with +yourself.' + +'Are you going away now?' One of the Irish forms of answering this is _Ni +fos_, which in Kerry the people translate 'no yet,' considering this nearer +to the original than the usual English 'not yet.' {45} + +The usual way in Irish of saying _he died_ is _fuair se bas_, i.e. 'he +found (or got) death,' and this is sometimes imitated in Anglo-Irish:--'He +was near getting his death from that wetting'; 'come out of that draught or +you'll get your death.' + +The following curious form of expression is very often heard:--'Remember +you have gloves to buy for me in town'; instead of 'you have to buy me +gloves.' 'What else have you to do to-day?' 'I have a top to bring to +Johnny, and when I come home I have the cows to put in the stable'--instead +of 'I have to bring a top'--'I have to put the cows.' This is an imitation +of Irish, though not, I think, a direct translation. + +What may be called the Narrative Infinitive is a very usual construction in +Irish. An Irish writer, relating a past event (and using the Irish +language) instead of beginning his narrative in this way, 'Donall O'Brien +went on an expedition against the English of Athlone,' will begin 'Donall +O'Brien _to go_ on an expedition,' &c. No Irish examples of this need be +given here, as they will be found in every page of the Irish Annals, as +well as in other Irish writings. Nothing like this exists in English, but +the people constantly imitate it in the Anglo-Irish speech. 'How did you +come by all that money?' Reply:--'To get into the heart of the fair' +(meaning 'I got into the heart of the fair'), and to cry _old china_, &c. +(Gerald Griffin.) 'How was that, Lowry?' asks Mr. Daly: and Lowry +answers:--'Some of them Garryowen boys sir to get about Danny Mann.' +(Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'How did the mare get that hurt?' 'Oh Tom +Cody to leap {46} her over the garden wall yesterday, and she to fall on +her knees on the stones.' + +The Irish language has the word _annso_ for _here_, but it has no +corresponding word _derived from annso_, to signify _hither_, though there +are words for this too, but not from _annso_. A similar observation applies +to the Irish for the words _there_ and _thither_, and for _where_ and +_whither_. As a consequence of this our people do not use _hither_, +_thither_, and _whither_ at all. They make _here_, _there_, and _where_ do +duty for them. Indeed much the same usage exists in the Irish language too: +_Is ann tigdaois eunlaith_ (Keating): 'It is _here_ the birds used to +come,' instead of _hither_. In consequence of all this you will hear +everywhere in Anglo-Irish speech:--'John came here yesterday': 'come here +Patsy': 'your brother is in Cork and you ought to go _there_ to see him': +'_where_ did you go yesterday after you parted from me?' + +'Well Jack how are you these times?' 'Oh, indeed Tom I'm purty well thank +you--_all that's left of me_': a mock way of speaking, as if the hard usage +of the world had worn him to a thread. 'Is Frank Magaveen there?' asks the +blind fiddler. 'All that's left of me is here,' answers Frank. (Carleton.) +These expressions, which are very usual, and many others of the kind, are +borrowed from the Irish. In the Irish tale, 'The Battle of Gavra,' poor old +Osheen, the sole survivor of the Fena, says:--'I know not where to follow +them [his lost friends]; and this makes _the little remnant that is left of +me_ wretched. (_D'fuig sin m'iarsma_). + +Ned Brophy, introducing his wife to Mr. Lloyd, says, 'this is _herself_ +sir.' This is an extremely {47} common form of phrase. 'Is _herself_ [i.e. +the mistress] at home Jenny?' 'I'm afraid himself [the master of the house] +will be very angry when he hears about the accident to the mare.' This is +an Irish idiom. The Irish chiefs, when signing their names to any document, +always wrote the name in this form, _Misi O'Neill_, i.e. 'Myself O'Neill.' + +A usual expression is 'I have no Irish,' i.e. I do not know or speak Irish. +This is exactly the way of saying it in Irish, of which the above is a +translation:--_Ni'l Gaodhlainn agum_. + +To _let on_ is to pretend, and in this sense is used everywhere in Ireland. +'Oh your father is very angry': 'Not at all, he's only letting on.' 'If you +meet James don't let on you saw me,' is really a positive, not a negative +request: equivalent to--'If you meet James, let on (pretend) that you +didn't see me.' A Dublin working-man recently writing in a newspaper says, +'they passed me on the bridge (Cork), and never let on to see me' (i.e. +'they let on not to see me'). + +'He is all _as one as_ recovered now'; he is nearly the same as recovered. + +At the proper season you will often see auctioneers' posters:--'To be sold +by auction 20 acres of splendid meadow _on foot_,' &c. This term _on foot_, +which is applied in Ireland to _growing_ crops of all kinds--corn, flax, +meadow, &c.--is derived from the Irish language, in which it is used in the +oldest documents as well as in the everyday spoken modern Irish; the usual +word _cos_ for 'foot' being used. Thus in the Brehon Laws we are told that +a wife's share of the flax is one-ninth if it be on foot (_for a cois_, +{48} 'on its foot,' modern form _air a chois_) one-sixth after being dried, +&c. In one place a fine is mentioned for appropriating or cutting furze if +it be 'on foot.' (Br. Laws.) + +This mode of speaking is applied in old documents to animals also. Thus in +one of the old Tales is mentioned a present of a swine and an ox _on foot_ +(_for a coiss_, 'on their foot') to be given to Mac Con and his people, +i.e. to be sent to them alive--not slaughtered. (Silva Gadelica.) But I +have not come across this application in our modern Irish-English. + +To give a thing 'for God's sake,' i.e. to give it in charity or for mere +kindness, is an expression very common at the present day all over Ireland. +'Did you sell your turf-rick to Bill Fennessy?' Oh no, I gave it to him for +God's sake: he's very badly off now poor fellow, and I'll never miss it.' +Our office attendant Charlie went to the clerk, who was chary of the pens, +and got a supply with some difficulty. He came back grumbling:--'A person +would think I was asking them for God's sake' (a thoroughly Hibernian +sentence). This expression is common also in Irish, both ancient and +modern, from which the English is merely a translation. Thus in the Brehon +Laws we find mention of certain young persons being taught a trade 'for +God's sake' (_ar Dia_), i.e. without fee: and in another place a man is +spoken of as giving a poor person something 'for God's sake.' + +The word _'nough_, shortened from _enough_, is always used in English with +the possessive pronouns, in accordance with the Gaelic construction in such +phrases as _gur itheadar a n-doithin diobh_, 'So that {49} they ate their +enough of them' ('Diarmaid and Grainne'): _d'ith mo shaith_ 'I ate my +enough.' Accordingly uneducated people use the word _'nough_ in this +manner, exactly as _fill_ is correctly used in 'he ate his fill.' Lowry +Looby wouldn't like to be 'a born gentleman' for many reasons--among others +that you're expected 'not to ate half your 'nough at dinner.' (Gerald +Griffin: 'Collegians.') + +The words _world_ and _earth_ often come into our Anglo-Irish speech in a +way that will be understood and recognised from the following +examples:--'Where in the world are you going so early?' 'What in the world +kept you out so long?' 'What on earth is wrong with you?' 'That cloud looks +for all the world like a man.' 'Oh you young thief of the world, why did +you do that?' (to a child). These expressions are all thrown in for +emphasis, and they are mainly or altogether imported from the Irish. They +are besides of long standing. In the 'Colloquy'--a very old Irish +piece--the king of Leinster says to St. Patrick:--'I do not know _in the +world_ how it fares [with my son].' So also in a still older story, 'The +Voyage of Maildune':--'And they [Maildune and his people] knew not whither +_in the world_ (_isan bith_) they were going. In modern Irish, _Ni +chuirionn se tabhacht a n-einidh san domhuin_: 'he minds nothing in the +world.' (Mac Curtin.) + +But I think some of the above expressions are found in good English too, +both old and new. For example in a letter to Queen Elizabeth the Earl of +Ormond (an Irishman--one of the Butlers) designates a certain Irish chief +'that most arrogant, {50} vile, traitor of the world Owney McRorye' +[O'Moore]. But perhaps he wrote this with an Irish pen. + +A person does something to displease me--insults me, breaks down my +hedge--and I say 'I will not let that go with him': meaning I will bring +him to account for it, I will take satisfaction, I will punish him. This, +which is very usual, is an Irish idiom. In the story of The Little Brawl of +Allen, Goll boasts of having slain Finn's father; and Finn answers _bud +maith m'acfainnse ar gan sin do leicen let_, 'I am quite powerful enough +not to let that go with you.' ('Silva Gadelica.') Sometimes this +Anglo-Irish phrase means to vie with, to rival. 'There's no doubt that old +Tom Long is very rich': 'Yes indeed, but I think Jack Finnerty _wouldn't +let it go with him_.' Lory Hanly at the dance, seeing his three companions +sighing and obviously in love with three of the ladies, feels himself just +as bad for a fourth, and sighing, says to himself that he 'wouldn't let it +go with any of them.' ('Knocknagow.') + +'I give in to you' means 'I yield to you,' 'I assent to (or believe) what +you say,' 'I acknowledge you are right': 'He doesn't give in that there are +ghosts at all.' This is an Irish idiom, as will be seen in the +following:--[A lion and three dogs are struggling for the mastery and] +_adnaigit [an triur eile] do [an leomain]_ 'And the three others gave in to +the [lion].' + +This mode of expression is however found in English also:--[Beelzebub] +'proposes a third undertaking which the whole assembly gives in to.' +(Addison in 'Spectator.') {51} + +_For_ is constantly used before the infinitive: 'he bought cloth _for to_ +make a coat.' + + 'And "Oh sailor dear," said she, + "How came you here by me?" + And then she began _for to cry_.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + + 'King James he pitched his tents between + His lines _for to retire_.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song: 'The Boyne Water.') + +This idiom is in Irish also: _Deunaidh duthracht le leas bhur n-anma a +dheunadh_: 'make an effort _for to accomplish_ the amendment of your +souls.' ('Dunlevy.') Two Irish prepositions are used in this sense of +_for_: _le_ (as above) and _chum_. But this use of _for_ is also very +general in English peasant language, as may be seen everywhere in Dickens. + +_Is ceangailte do bhidhinn_, literally 'It is bound I should be,' i.e. in +English 'I should be bound.' This construction (from 'Diarmaid and +Grainne'), in which the position of the predicate as it would stand +according to the English order is thrown back, is general in the Irish +language, and quite as general in our Anglo-Irish, in imitation or +translation. I once heard a man say in Irish _is e do chailleamhuin do rinn +me_: 'It is to lose it I did' (I lost it). The following are everyday +examples from our dialect of English: ''Tis to rob me you want': 'Is it at +the young woman's house the wedding is to be?' ('Knocknagow'): 'Is it +reading you are?' ''Twas to dhrame it I did sir' ('Knocknagow'): 'Maybe +'tis turned out I'd be' ('Knocknagow'): 'To lose it I did' (Gerald Griffin: +'Collegians'): 'Well John I am glad to {52} see you, and it's right well +you look': [Billy thinks the fairy is mocking him, and says:--] 'Is it +after making a fool of me you'd be?' (Crofton Croker): 'To make for +Rosapenna (Donegal) we did:' i.e., 'We made for Rosapenna': 'I'll tell my +father about your good fortune, and 'tis he that will be delighted.' + +In the fine old Irish story the 'Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,' Grania says +to her husband Dermot:--[Invite guests to a feast to our daughter's house] +_agus ni feas nach ann do gheubhaidh fear cheile_; 'and there is no knowing +but that there she may get a husband.' This is almost identical with what +Nelly Donovan says in our own day--in half joke--when she is going to Ned +Brophy's wedding:--'There'll be some likely lads there to-night, and who +knows what luck I might have.' ('Knocknagow.') This expression 'there is no +knowing but' or 'who knows but,' borrowed as we see from Gaelic, is very +common in our Anglo-Irish dialect. 'I want the loan of L20 badly to help to +stock my farm, but how am I to get it?' His friend answers:--'Just come to +the bank, and who knows but that they will advance it to you on my +security:' meaning 'it is not unlikely--I think it rather probable--that +they will advance it' + +'He looks like a man _that there would be_ no money in his pocket': +'there's _a man that his wife leaves him_ whenever she pleases.' These +phrases and the like are heard all through the middle of Ireland, and +indeed outside the middle: they are translations from Irish. Thus the +italics of the second phrase would be in Irish _fear da d-treigeann a bhean +e_ (or _a threigeas a bhean e_). 'Poor brave honest Mat Donovan that +everyone is proud of _him_ and fond {53} of _him_' ('Knocknagow'): 'He was +a descendant of Sir Thomas More that Henry VIII. cut his head off' (whose +head Henry VIII. cut off). The phrases above are incorrect English, as +there is redundancy; but they, and others like them, could generally be +made correct by the use of _whose_ or _of whom_:--'He looks like a man in +whose pocket,' &c.--'A man whose wife leaves him.' But the people in +general do not make use of _whose_--in fact they do not know how to use it, +except at the beginning of a question:--'Whose knife is this?' (Russell.) +This is an excellent example of how a phrase may be good Irish but bad +English. + +A man possesses some prominent quality, such as generosity, for which his +father was also distinguished, and we say 'kind father for him,' i.e. 'He +is of the same _kind_ as his father--he took it from his father.' So also +''Tis kind for the cat to drink milk'--'cat after kind'--''Tis kind for +John to be good and honourable' [for his father or his people were so +before him]. All this is from Irish, in which various words are used to +express the idea of _kind_ in this sense:--_bu cheneulta do_--_bu dhual +do_--_bu dhuthcha do_. + +Very anxious to do a thing: ''Twas all his trouble to do so and so' +('Collegians'): corresponding to the Irish:--'_Is e mo churam uile_,' 'He +(or it) is all my care.' (MacCurtin.) + +Instead of 'The box will hold all the parcels' or 'All the parcels will fit +into the box,' we in Ireland commonly say 'All the parcels _will go_ into +the box.' This is from a very old Gaelic usage, as may be seen from this +quotation from the 'Boroma':--_Coire mor uma i teigtis da muic dec_: 'A +large bronze caldron {54} into which _would go_ (teigtis) twelve [jointed] +pigs.' ('Silva Gadelica.') + +_Chevilles._ What is called in French a _cheville_--I do not know any Irish +or English name for it--is a phrase interjected into a line of poetry +merely to complete either the measure or the rhyme, with little or no use +besides. The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish +poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by +the constant and wearisome recurrence of these _chevilles_. For instance +here is a translation of a couple of verses from 'The Voyage of Maildune' +with their _chevilles_:-- + + 'They met with an island after sailing-- + _wonderful the guidance_. + 'The third day after, on the end of the rod-- + _deed of power_-- + The chieftain found--_it was a very great joy_-- + a cluster of apples.' + +In modern _Irish_ popular poetry we have _chevilles_ also; of which I think +the commonest is the little phrase _gan go_, 'without a lie'; and this is +often reflected in our Anglo-Irish songs. In 'Handsome Sally,' published in +my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' these lines occur:-- + + 'Young men and maidens I pray draw near-- + _The truth to you I will now declare_-- + How a fair young lady's heart was won + All by the loving of a farmer's son.' + +And in another of our songs:-- + + 'Good people all I pray draw near-- + _No lie I'll tell to ye_-- + About a lovely fair maid, + And her name is Polly Lee.' + +{55} + +This practice is met with also in English poetry, both classical and +popular; but of course this is quite independent of the Irish custom. + +_Assonance._ In the modern Irish language the verse rhymes are +_assonantal_. Assonance is the correspondence of the vowels: the consonants +count for nothing. Thus _fair_, _may_, _saint_, _blaze_, _there_, all rhyme +assonantally. As it is easy to find words that rhyme in this manner, the +rhymes generally occur much oftener in Anglo-Irish verse than in pure +English, in which the rhymes are what English grammarians call _perfect_. + +Our rustic poets rhyme their English (or Irish-English) verse assonantally +in imitation of their native language. For a very good example of this, see +the song of Castlehyde in my 'Old Irish Music and Songs'; and it may be +seen in very large numbers of our Anglo-Irish Folk-songs. I will give just +one example here, a free translation of an elegy, rhyming like its +original. To the ear of a person accustomed to assonance--as for instance +to mine--the rhymes here are as satisfying as if they were _perfect_ +English rhymes. + + You remember our _neigh_bour Mac_Bra_dy we buried last YEAR; + His death it _amaz_ed me and _daz_ed me with sorrow and GRIEF; + From _cra_dle to _grave_ his _name_ was held in ESTEEM; + For at _fairs_ and at _wakes_ there was no one like him for a SPREE; + And 'tis he knew the _way_ how to _make_ a good cag of potTHEEN. + He'd make verses in _Gael_ic quite _ais_y most _plaz_ing to READ; + And he knew how to _plaze_ the fair _maids_ with his soothering SPEECH. + He could clear out a _fair_ at his _aise_ with his ash clehalPEEN; + But ochone he's now _laid_ in his _grave_ in the churchyard of KEEL. + +{56} + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE DEVIL AND HIS 'TERRITORY.' + +Bad as the devil is he has done us some service in Ireland by providing us +with a fund of anecdotes and sayings full of drollery and fun. This is all +against his own interests; for I remember reading in the works of some good +old saint--I think it is St. Liguori--that the devil is always hovering +near us watching his opportunity, and that one of the best means of scaring +him off is a good honest hearty laugh. + +Those who wish to avoid uttering the plain straight name 'devil' often call +him 'the Old Boy,' or 'Old Nick.' + +In some of the stories relating to the devil he is represented as a great +simpleton and easily imposed upon: in others as clever at everything. In +many he gets full credit for his badness, and all his attributes and all +his actions are just the reverse of the good agencies of the world; so that +his attempts at evil often tend for good, while anything he does for +good--or pretending to be for good--turns to evil. + +When a person suffers punishment or injury of any kind that is well +deserved--gets his deserts for misconduct or culpable mismanagement or +excessive foolishness of any kind--we say 'the devil's cure to him,' or +'the devil mend him' (as much as to say {57} in English 'serve him right'); +for if the devil goes to cure or to mend he only makes matters ten times +worse. Dick Millikin of Cork (the poet of 'The Groves of Blarney') was +notoriously a late riser. One morning as he was going very late to +business, one of his neighbours, a Quaker, met him. 'Ah friend Dick thou +art very late to-day: remember the early bird picks the worm.' 'The devil +mend the worm for being out so early,' replied Dick. So also 'the devil +bless you' is a bad wish, because the devil's blessing is equivalent to the +curse of God; while 'the devil's curse to you' is considered a good wish, +for the devil's curse is equal to God's blessing. (Carleton.) The devil +comes in handy in many ways. What could be more expressive than this +couplet of an old song describing a ruffian in a rage:-- + + 'He stamped and he cursed and he swore he would fight, + And I saw the _ould_ devil between his two eyes.' + +Sometimes the devil is taken as the type of excellence or of great +proficiency in anything, or of great excess, so that you often hear 'That +fellow is as old as the devil,' 'That beefsteak is as tough as the devil,' +'He beats the devil for roguery,' 'My landlord is civil, but dear as the +divil.' (Swift: who wrote this with a pen dipped in Irish ink.) + +A poor wretch or a fellow always in debt and difficulty, and consequently +shabby, is a 'poor devil'; and not very long ago I heard a friend say to +another--who was not sparing of his labour--'Well, there's no doubt but +you're a hard-working old devil.' {58} + +Very bad potatoes:--'Wet and watery, scabby and small, thin in the ground +and hard to dig, hard to wash, hard to boil, and _the devil to eat them_.' + +'I don't wonder that poor Bill should be always struggling, for he has the +devil of an extravagant family.' + + 'Oh confusion to you Dan,' says the T. B. C., + 'You're the devil of a man,' says the T. B. C. + + (Repeal Song of 1843.) + +(But this form of expression occurs in Dickens--'Our Mutual Friend'--'I +have a devil of a temper myself'). An emphatic statement:--'I wouldn't like +to trust him, for he's the _devil's own_ rogue.' + +'There's no use in your trying that race against Johnny Keegan, for Johnny +is the very devil at running.' 'Oh your reverence,' says Paddy Galvin, +'don't ax me to fast; but you may put as much prayers on me as you like: +for, your reverence, I'm very bad at fasting, but I'm the divel at the +prayers.' According to Mr. A. P. Graves, in 'Father O'Flynn,' the 'Provost +and Fellows of Trinity' [College, Dublin] are 'the divels an' all at +Divinity.' This last expression is truly Hibernian, and is very often +heard:--A fellow is boasting how he'll leather Jack Fox when next he meets +him. 'Oh yes, you'll do the _devil an' all_ while Jack is away; but wait +till he comes to the fore.' + +In several of the following short stories and sayings the simpleton side of +Satan's character is well brought out. + +Damer of Shronell, who lived in the eighteenth century, was reputed to be +the richest man in Ireland--a sort of Irish Croesus: so that 'as rich as +{59} Damer' has become a proverb in the south of Ireland. An Irish peasant +song-writer, philosophising on the vanity of riches, says:-- + + 'There was ould Paddy Murphy had money galore, + And Damer of Shronell had twenty times more-- + They are now on their backs under nettles and stones.' + +Damer's house in ruins is still to be seen at Shronell, four miles west of +Tipperary town. The story goes that he got his money by selling his soul to +the devil for as much gold as would fill his boot--a top boot, i.e. one +that reaches above the knee. On the appointed day the devil came with his +pockets well filled with guineas and sovereigns, as much as he thought was +sufficient to fill any boot. But meantime Damer had removed the heel and +fixed the boot in the floor, with a hole in the boards underneath, opening +into the room below. The devil flung in handful after handful till his +pockets were empty, but still the boot was not filled. He then sent out a +signal, such as they understand in hell--for they had wireless telegraphy +there long before Mr. Marconi's Irish mother was born--on which a crowd of +little imps arrived all laden with gold coins, which were emptied into the +boot, and still no sign of its being filled. He had to send them many times +for more, till at last he succeeded in filling _the room beneath_ as well +as the boot; on which the transaction was concluded. The legend does not +tell what became of Damer in the end; but such agreements usually wind up +(in Ireland) by the sinner tricking Satan out of his bargain. + +When a person does an evil deed under cover of some untruthful but +plausible justification, or utters {60} a wicked saying under a disguise: +that's 'blindfolding the devil in the dark.' The devil is as cute in the +dark as in the light: and blindfolding him is useless and foolish: he is +only laughing at you. + +'You're a very coarse Christian,' as the devil said to the hedgehog. +(Tyrone.) + +The name and fame of the great sixteenth-century magician, Dr. Faust or +Faustus, found way somehow to our peasantry; for it was quite common to +hear a crooked knavish man spoken of in this way:--'That fellow is a match +for the devil and _Dr. Fosther_.' (Munster.) + +The magpie has seven drops of the devil's blood in its body: the +water-wagtail has three drops. (Munster.) + +When a person is unusually cunning, cute, and tricky, we say 'The devil is +a poor scholar to you.' ('Poor scholar' here means a bad shallow scholar.) + +'Now since James is after getting all the money, _the devil can't howld +him_': i.e. he has grown proud and overbearing. + +'_Firm and ugly_, as the devil said when he sewed his breeches with gads.' +Here is how it happened. The devil was one day pursuing the soul of a +sinner across country, and in leaping over a rough thorn hedge, he tore his +breeches badly, so that his tail stuck out; on which he gave up the chase. +As it was not decent to appear in public in that condition, he sat down and +stitched up the rent with next to hand materials--viz. slender tough osier +withes or _gads_ as we call them in Ireland. When the job was finished he +spread out the garment before him on his {61} knees, and looking admiringly +on his handiwork, uttered the above saying--'Firm and ugly!' + +The idea of the 'old boy' pursuing a soul appears also in the words of an +old Anglo-Irish song about persons who commit great crimes and die +unrepentant:-- + + 'For committing those crimes unrepented + The devil shall after them run, + And slash him for that at a furnace + Where coal sells for nothing a ton.' + +A very wet day--teeming rain--raining cats and dogs--_a fine day for young +ducks_:--'The devil wouldn't send out his dog on such a day as this.' + + 'Did you ever see the devil + With the wooden spade and shovel + Digging praties for his supper + And his tail cocked up?' + +A person struggling with poverty--constantly in money difficulties--is said +to be 'pulling the devil by the tail.' + +'Great noise and little wool,' as the devil said when he was shearing a +pig. + +'What's got over the devil's back goes off under the devil's belly.' This +is another form of _ill got ill gone_. + +Don't enter on a lawsuit with a person who has in his hands the power of +deciding the case. This would be 'going to law against the devil with the +courthouse in hell.' + +Jack hates that man and all belonging to him 'as the devil hates holy +water.' + +_Yerra_ or _arrah_ is an exclamation very much in use in the South: a +phonetic representation of the Irish _air[)e]_, meaning _take care_, _look +out_, _look you_:--'Yerra {62} Bill why are you in such a hurry?' The old +people didn't like our continual use of the word; and in order to deter us +we were told that _Yerra_ or _Arrah_ was the name of the devil's mother! +This would point to something like domestic conditions in the lower +regions, and it is in a way corroborated by the words of an old song about +a woman--a desperate old reprobate of a virago--who kicked up all sorts of +ructions the moment she got inside the gate:-- + + 'When she saw the _young devils_ tied up in their chains + She up with her crutch and knocked one of their brains.' + +'Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.' The people of Munster do not +always put it that way; they have a version of their own:--'Time enough to +bid the devil good-morrow when you meet him.' But an intelligent +correspondent from Carlow puts a somewhat different interpretation on the +last saying, namely, 'Don't go out of your way to seek trouble.' + +'When needs must the devil drives': a man in a great fix is often driven to +illegal or criminal acts to extricate himself. + +When a man is threatened with a thrashing, another will say to +him:--'You'll get Paddy Ryan's supper--_hard knocks and the devil to eat_': +common in Munster. + +'When you sup with the devil have a long spoon': that is to say, if you +have any dealings with rogues or criminals, adopt very careful precautions, +and don't come into closer contact with them than is absolutely necessary. +(Lover: but used generally.) + +'Speak the truth and shame the devil' is a very common saying. {63} + +'The devil's children have the devil's luck'; or 'the devil is good to his +own': meaning bad men often prosper. But it is now generally said in joke +to a person who has come in for an unexpected piece of good luck. + +A holy knave--something like our modern Pecksniff--dies and is sent in the +downward direction: and--according to the words of the old folk-song--this +is his reception:-- + + 'When hell's gate was opened the devil jumped with joy, + Saying "I have a warm corner for you my holy boy."' + +A man is deeply injured by another and threatens reprisal:--'I'll make you +smell hell for that'; a bitter threat which may be paraphrased: I'll +persecute you to death's door; and for you to be near death is to be near +hell--I'll put you so near that you'll smell the fumes of the brimstone. + +A usual imprecation when a person who has made himself very unpopular is +going away: 'the devil go with him.' One day a fellow was eating his dinner +of dry potatoes, and had only one egg half raw for _kitchen_. He had no +spoon, and took the egg in little sips intending to spread it over the +dinner. But one time he tilted the shell too much, and down went the whole +contents. After recovering from the gulp, he looked ruefully at the empty +shell and blurted out--_the devil go with you down_! + + + +Many people think--and say it too--that it is an article of belief with +Catholics that all Protestants when they die go straight to hell--which is +a libel. Yet it is often kept up in joke, as in this and other {64} +stories:--The train was skelping away like mad along the main line to +hell--for they have railways _there_ now--till at last it pulled up at the +junction. Whereupon the porters ran round shouting out, 'Catholics change +here for purgatory: Protestants keep your places!' + +This reminds us of Father O'Leary, a Cork priest of the end of the +eighteenth century, celebrated as a controversialist and a wit. He was one +day engaged in gentle controversy--or _argufying religion_ as we call it in +Ireland--with a Protestant friend, who plainly had the worst of the +encounter. 'Well now Father O'Leary I want to ask what have you to say +about purgatory?' 'Oh nothing,' replied the priest, 'except that you might +go farther and fare worse.' + +The same Father O'Leary once met in the streets a friend, a witty +Protestant clergyman with whom he had many an encounter of wit and +repartee. 'Ah Father O'Leary, have you heard the bad news?' 'No,' says +Father O'Leary. 'Well, the bottom has fallen out of purgatory, and all the +poor Papists have gone down into hell.' 'Oh the Lord save us,' answered +Father O'Leary, 'what a crushing the poor Protestants must have got!' + +Father O'Leary and Curran--the great orator and wit--sat side by side once +at a dinner party, where Curran was charmed with his reverend friend. 'Ah +Father O'Leary,' he exclaimed at last, 'I wish you had the key of heaven.' +'Well Curran it might be better for you that I had the key of the other +place.' + +A parish priest only recently dead, a well-known wit, sat beside a +venerable Protestant clergyman at {65} dinner; and they got on very +agreeably. This clergyman rather ostentatiously proclaimed his liberality +by saying:--'Well Father ---- I have been for _sixty years in this world_ +and I could never understand that there is any great and essential +difference between the Catholic religion and the Protestant.' 'I can tell +you,' replied Father ----, 'that when you die you'll not be _sixty minutes +in the other world_ before you will understand it perfectly.' + +The preceding are all in joke: but I once heard the idea enunciated in +downright earnest. In my early life, we, the village people, were a mixed +community, about half and half Catholics and Protestants, the latter nearly +all Palatines, who were Methodists to a man. We got on very well together, +and I have very kindly memories of my old playfellows, Palatines as well as +Catholics. + +One young Palatine, Peter Stuffle, differed in one important respect from +the others, as he never attended Church Mass or Meeting. He emigrated to +America; and being a level headed fellow and keeping from drink, he got on. +At last he came across Nelly Sullivan, a bright eyed colleen all the way +from Kerry, a devoted Catholic, and fell head and ears in love with her. +She liked him too, but would have nothing to say to him unless he became a +Catholic: in the words of the old song, 'Unless that you turn a _Roman_ you +ne'er shall get me for your bride.' Peter's theology was not proof against +Nelly's bright face: he became a Catholic, and a faithful one too: for once +he was inside the gate his wife took care to instruct him, and kept him +well up to his religious duties. {66} + +They prospered; so that at the end of some years he was able to visit his +native place. On his arrival nothing could exceed the consternation and +rage of his former friends to find that instead of denouncing the Pope, he +was now a flaming papist: and they all disowned and boycotted him. So he +visited round his Catholic neighbours who were very glad to receive him. I +was present at one of the conversations: when Peter, recounting his +successful career, wound up with:--'So you see, James, that I am now well +off, thanks be to God and to Nelly. I have a large farm, with ever so many +horses, and a fine _baan_ of cows, and you could hardly count the sheep and +pigs. I'd be as happy as the days are long now, James, only for one thing +that's often troubling me; and that is, to think that my poor old father +and mother are in hell.' + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SWEARING. + +The general run of our people do not swear much; and those that do commonly +limit themselves to the name of the devil either straight out or in some of +its various disguised forms, or to some harmless imitation of a curse. You +do indeed come across persons who go higher, but they are rare. Yet while +keeping themselves generally within safe bounds, it must be confessed that +many of the people have a sort of sneaking admiration--lurking secretly and +seldom expressed in words--for a good well-balanced curse, so long as it +does not shock by its profanity. I once knew a doctor--not in {67} +Dublin--who, it might be said, was a genius in this line. He could, on the +spur of the moment, roll out a magnificent curse that might vie with a +passage of the Iliad in the mouth of Homer. 'Oh sir'--as I heard a fellow +say--''tis grand to listen to him when he's in a rage.' He was known as a +skilled physician, and a good fellow in every way, and his splendid +swearing crowned his popularity. He had discretion however, and knew when +to swear and when not; but ultimately he swore his way into an extensive +and lucrative practice, which lasted during his whole life--a long and +honourable one. + +Parallel to this is Maxwell's account of the cursing of Major Denis +O'Farrell--'the Mad Major,' who appears to have been a dangerous rival to +my acquaintance, the doctor. He was once directing the evolutions at a +review in presence of Sir Charles, the General, when one important movement +was spoiled by the blundering of an incompetent little adjutant. In a +towering passion the Mad Major addressed the General:--'Stop, Sir Charles, +do stop; just allow me two minutes to curse that rascally adjutant.' To so +reasonable a request (Maxwell goes on to say), Sir Charles readily +assented. He heard the whole malediction out, and speaking of it +afterwards, he said that 'he never heard a man cursed to his perfect +satisfaction until he heard (that adjutant) anathematised in the Phoenix +Park.' + +The Mad Major was a great favourite; and when he died, there was not a dry +eye in the regiment on the day of the funeral. Two months afterwards when +an Irish soldier was questioned on the merits of his successor:--'The man +is well enough,' said Pat, {68} with a heavy sigh, 'but where will we find +the equal of the Major? By japers, it was a comfort to be cursed by him!' +('Wild Sports of the West.') + +In my part of the country there is--or was--a legend--a very circumstantial +one too--which however I am not able to verify personally, as the thing +occurred a little before my time--that Father Buckley, of Glenroe, cured +Charley Coscoran, the greatest swearer in the barony--cured him in a most +original way. He simply directed him to cut out a button from some part of +his dress, no matter where--_to whip it out on the instant_--every time he +uttered a serious curse, i.e, one involving the Sacred Name. Charley made +the promise with a light heart, thinking that by only using a little +caution he could easily avoid snipping off his buttons. But inveterate +habit is strong. Only very shortly after he had left the priest he saw a +cow in one of his cornfields playing havoc: out came a round curse, and off +came a button on the spot. For Charley was a manly fellow, with a real +sense of religion at bottom: and he had no notion of shirking his penance. +Another curse after some time and another button. Others again +followed:--coat, waistcoat, trousers, shirt-collar, were brought under +contribution till his clothes began to fall off him. For a needle and +thread were not always at hand, and at any rate Charley was no great shakes +at the needle. At last things came to that pass with poor Charley, that +life was hardly worth living; till he had to put his mind seriously to +work, and by careful watching he gradually cured himself. But many score +buttons passed through his hands during the process. {69} + +Most persons have a sort of craving or instinct to utter a curse of some +kind--as a sort of comforting interjection--where there is sufficient +provocation; and in order to satisfy this without incurring the guilt, +people have invented ejaculations in the form of curses, but still +harmless. Most of them have some resemblance in sound to the forbidden +word--they are near enough to satisfy the craving, but still far enough off +to avoid the guilt: the process may in fact be designated _dodging a +curse_. Hence we have such blank cartridges as _begob_, _begor_, by my +_sowkins_, by _Jove_, by the _laws_ [Lord], by _herrings_ [heavens], by +_this and by that_, _dang_ it, &c.; all of them ghosts of curses, which are +very general among our people. The following additional examples will +sufficiently illustrate this part of our subject. + +The expression _the dear knows_ (or correctly _the deer knows_), which is +very common, is a translation from Irish of one of those substitutions. The +original expression is _thauss ag Dhee_ [given here phonetically], meaning +_God knows_; but as this is too solemn and profane for most people, they +changed it to _Thauss ag fee_, i.e. _the deer knows_; and this may be +uttered by anyone. _Dia_ [Dhee] God: _fiadh_ [fee], a deer. + +Says Barney Broderick, who is going through his penance after confession at +the station, and is interrupted by a woman asking him a +question:--'Salvation seize your soul--God forgive me for cursing--be off +out of that and don't set me astray!' ('Knocknagow.') Here the substitution +has turned a wicked imprecation into a benison: for the first word in the +original is not _salvation_ but _damnation_. {70} + +'By the hole in my coat,' which is often heard, is regarded as a harmless +oath: for if there is no hole you are swearing by nothing: and if there is +a hole--still the hole is nothing. + +'Bad manners to you,' a mild imprecation, to avoid 'bad luck to you,' which +would be considered wicked: reflecting the people's horror of rude or +offensive manners. + +'By all the goats in Kerry,' which I have often heard, is always said in +joke, which takes the venom out of it. In Leinster they say, 'by all the +goats in Gorey'--which is a big oath. Whether it is a big oath now or not, +I do not know; but it was so formerly, for the name _Gorey_ (Wexford), like +the Scotch _Gowrie_, means 'swarming with goats.' + +'Man,' says the pretty mermaid to Dick Fitzgerald, when he had captured her +from the sea, 'man will you eat me?' '_By all the red petticoats and check +aprons between Dingle and Tralee_,' cried Dick, jumping up in amazement, +'I'd as soon eat myself, my jewel! Is it I to eat you, my pet!' (Crofton +Croker.) + +'Where did he get the whiskey?' 'Sorrow a know I know,' said Leary. 'Sorrow +fly away with him.' (Crofton Croker.) In these and such like--which you +often hear--_sorrow_ is a substitute for _devil_. + +Perhaps the most general exclamations of this kind among Irish people are +_begor_, _begob_, _bedad_, _begad_ (often contracted to _egad_), _faith_ +and _troth_. _Faith_, contracted from _in faith_ or _i' faith_, is looked +upon by many people as not quite harmless: it is a little too serious to be +used indiscriminately--'Faith I feel this day very cold': 'Is that tea +good?' {71} 'Faith it is no such thing: it is very weak.' 'Did Mick sell +his cows to-day at the fair?' 'Faith I don't know.' People who shrink from +the plain word often soften it to _faix_ or _haith_ (or _heth_ in Ulster). +An intelligent contributor makes the remark that the use of this word +_faith_ (as above) is a sure mark of an Irishman all over the world. + +Even some of the best men will occasionally, in an unguarded moment or in a +hasty flash of anger, give way to the swearing instinct. Father John Burke +of Kilfinane--I remember him well--a tall stern-looking man with heavy +brows, but really gentle and tender-hearted--held a station at the house of +our neighbour Tom Coffey, a truly upright and pious man. All had gone to +confession and Holy Communion, and the station was over. Tom went out to +bring the priest's horse from the paddock, but in leading him through a gap +in the hedge the horse stood stock still and refused obstinately to go an +inch farther. Tom pulled and tugged to no purpose, till at last his +patience went to pieces, and he flung this, in no gentle voice, at the +animal's head:--'Blast your _sowl_ will you come on!' Just then unluckily +Father Burke walked up behind: he had witnessed and heard all, and you may +well say that Tom's heart dropped down into his shoes; for he felt +thoroughly ashamed. The crime was not great; but it looked bad and +unbecoming under the circumstances; and what could the priest do but +perform his duty: so the black brows contracted, and on the spot he gave +poor Tom _down-the-banks_ and no mistake. I was at that station, though I +did not witness the horse scene. {72} + +If a person pledges himself to anything, clinching the promise with an +adjuration however mild or harmless, he will not by any means break the +promise, considering it in a manner as a vow. The old couple are at tea and +have just one egg, which causes a mild dispute. At last the father says +decisively--'The divel a bit of it I'll eat, so there's an end of it': when +the mother instantly and with great solemnity--'FAITH I won't eat it--there +now!' The result was that neither would touch it; and they gave it to their +little boy who demolished it without the least scruple. + +I was one time a witness of a serio-comic scene _on the head of_ one of +these blank oaths when I was a small boy attending a very small school. The +master was a truly good and religious man, but very severe (a _wicked_ +master, as we used to say), and almost insane in his aversion to swearing +in any shape or form. To say _begob_ or _begor_ or _by Jove_ was +unpardonably wicked; it was nothing better than blindfolding the devil in +the dark. + +One day Jack Aimy, then about twelve years of age--_the saint_ as we used +to call him--for he was always in mischief and always in trouble--said +exultingly to the boy sitting next him:--'Oh _by the hokey_, Tom, I have my +sum finished all right at last.' In evil hour for him the master happened +to be standing just behind his back; and then came the deluge. In an +instant the school work was stopped, and poor Jack was called up to stand +before the judgment seat. There he got a long lecture--with the usual +quotations--as severe and solemn as if he were a man and had perjured +himself half a {73} dozen times. As for the rest of us, we sat in the +deadly silence shivering in our skins; for we all, to a man, had a guilty +consciousness that we were quite as bad as Jack, if the truth were known. +Then poor Jack was sent to his seat so wretched and crestfallen after his +lecture that a crow wouldn't pick his bones. + +'By the hokey' is to this day common all over Ireland. + +When we, Irish, go abroad, we of course bring with us our peculiarities and +mannerisms--with now and then a little meteoric flash of +eccentricity--which on the whole prove rather attractive to foreigners, +including Englishmen. One Sunday during the South African war, Mass was +celebrated as usual in the temporary chapel, which, after the rough and +ready way of the camp, served for both Catholics and Protestants: Mass +first; Protestant Service after. On this occasion an Irish officer, a +splendid specimen of a man, tall, straight, and athletic--a man born to +command, and well known as a strict and devoted Catholic--was serving +Mass--aiding and giving the responses to the priest. The congregation was +of course of mixed nationalities--English, Irish, and Scotch, and the +chapel was filled. Just outside the chapel door a nigger had charge of the +big bell to call the congregations. On this day, in blissful ignorance and +indifference, he began to ring for the Protestant congregation too +soon--while Mass was still going on--so as greatly to disturb the people at +their devotions. The officer was observed to show signs of impatience, +growing more and more restless as the ringing went {74} on persistently, +till at last one concentrated series of bangs burst up his patience +utterly. Starting up from his knees during a short interval when his +presence was not required--it happened to be after the most solemn part of +the Mass--he strode down the middle passage in a mighty rage--to the +astonishment of everybody--till he got to the door, and letting fly--in the +midst of the perfect silence,--a tremendous volley of _damns_, _blasts_, +_scoundrels_, _blackguards_, &c., &c., at the head of the terrified nigger, +he shut him up, himself and his bell, while a cat would be licking her ear. +He then walked back and resumed his duties, calm and collected, and +evidently quite unconscious that there was anything unusual in the +proceeding. + +The whole thing was so sudden and odd that the congregation were convulsed +with suppressed silent laughter; and I am afraid that some people observed +even the priest's sides shaking in spite of all he could do. + +This story was obtained from a person who was present at that very Mass; +and it is given here almost in his own words. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER VII. + +GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. + +_Shall_ and _Will_. It has been pretty clearly shown that the somewhat +anomalous and complicated niceties in the English use of _shall_ and _will_ +have been developed within the last 300 years or so. It is of course well +known that our Irish popular manner of using these {75} two particles is +not in accordance with the present correct English standard; yet most of +our shall-and-will Hibernianisms represent the classical usage of two or +three centuries ago: so that this is one of those Irish 'vulgarisms' that +are really survivals in Ireland of the correct old English usages, which in +England have been superseded by other and often incorrect forms. On this +point I received, some years ago, a contribution from an English gentleman +who resided long in Ireland, Mr. Marlow Woollett, a man of wide reading, +great culture, and sound judgment. He gives several old examples in +illustration, of which one is so much to the point--in the use of +_will_--that you might imagine the words were spoken by an Irish peasant of +the present day. Hamlet says: + + 'I will win for him an (if) I can; if not I _will_ gain nothing but my + shame and the odd hits.' ('Hamlet,' Act v., scene ii.) + +This (the second _will_) exactly corresponds with what many of us in +Ireland would say now:--'I will win the race if I can; if not I _will_ get +some discredit': 'If I go without my umbrella I am afraid I will get wet.' +So also in regard to _shall_; modern English custom has departed from +correct ancient usage and etymology, which in many cases we in Ireland have +retained. The old and correct sense of _shall_ indicated obligation or duty +(as in Chaucer:--'The faith I shal to God') being derived from A.S. _sceal_ +'I owe' or 'ought': this has been discarded in England, while we still +retain it in our usage in Ireland. You say to an attentive Irish waiter, +'Please have breakfast for me at 8 o'clock to-morrow morning'; and he +answers, 'I shall sir.' When I was a boy I was {76} present in the chapel +of Ardpatrick one Sunday, when Father Dan O'Kennedy, after Mass, called on +the two schoolmasters--candidates for a school vacancy--to come forward to +him from where they stood at the lower end of the chapel; when one of them, +Mat Rea, a good scholar but a terrible pedant, called out magniloquently, +'Yes, doctor, we SHALL go to your reverence,' unconsciously following in +the footsteps of Shakespeare. + +The language both of the waiter and of Mat Rea is exactly according to the +old English usage. + + '_Lady Macbeth_ (_to Macbeth_):--Be bright and jovial among your guests + to-night. + + '_Macbeth_:--So shall I, love.' ('Macbeth,' Act iii. scene ii.) + + '_Second Murderer_:--We shall, my lord, + Perform what you command us.' (_Ibid._, Act iii. scene i.) + +But the Irish waiter's answer would now seem strange to an Englishman. To +him, instead of being a dutiful assent, as it is intended to be, and as it +would be in England in old times, it would look too emphatic and assertive, +something like as if it were an answer to a command _not_ to do it. +(Woollett.) + +The use of _shall_ in such locutions was however not universal in +Shakespearian times, as it would be easy to show; but the above +quotations--and others that might be brought forward--prove that this usage +then prevailed and was correct, which is sufficient for my purpose. Perhaps +it might rather be said that _shall_ and _will_ were used in such cases +indifferently:-- + + '_Queen_:--Say to the king, I would attend his leisure + For a few words. + + '_Servant_: Madam, I will.' ('Macbeth,' Act iii. scene ii.) + +{77} + +Our use of _shall_ and _will_ prevails also in Scotland, where the English +change of custom has not obtained any more than it has in Ireland. The +Scotch in fact are quite as bad (or as good) in this respect as we are. +Like many another Irish idiom this is also found in American society +chiefly through the influence of the Irish. In many parts of Ireland they +are shy of using _shall_ at all: I know this to be the case in Munster; and +a correspondent informs me that _shall_ is hardly ever heard in Derry. + +The incorrect use of _will_ in questions in the first person singular +('Will I light the fire ma'am?' 'Will I sing you a song?'--instead of +'Shall I?') appears to have been developed in Ireland independently, and +not derived from any former correct usage: in other words we have created +this incorrect locution--or vulgarism--for ourselves. It is one of our most +general and most characteristic speech errors. _Punch_ represents an Irish +waiter with hand on dish-cover, asking:--'Will I sthrip ma'am?' + +What is called the _regular_ formation of the past tense (in _ed_) is +commonly known as the weak inflection:--_call, called_: the _irregular_ +formation (by changing the vowel) is the strong inflection:--_run, ran_. In +old English the strong inflection appears to have been almost universal; +but for some hundreds of years the English tendency is to replace strong by +weak inflection. But our people in Ireland, retaining the old English +custom, have a leaning towards the strong inflection, and not only use many +of the old-fashioned English strong past tenses, but often form strong ones +in their own way:--We use _slep_ and _crep_, old English; and we coin +others. 'He _ruz_ his hand {78} to me,' 'I _cotch_ him stealing the turf,' +'he _gother_ sticks for the fire,' 'he _hot_ me on the head with his +stick,' he _sot_ down on the chair' (very common in America). Hyland, the +farm manager, is sent with some bullocks to the fair; and returns. 'Well +Hyland, are the bullocks sold?'--'Sowld and _ped_ for sir.' _Wor_ is very +usual in the south for _were_: 'tis long since we _wor_ on the road so late +as this.' (Knocknagow.) + + '_Wor_ you at the fair--did you see the wonder-- + Did you see Moll Roe riding on the gander?' + +_E'er_ and _ne'er_ are in constant use in Munster:--'Have you e'er a penny +to give me sir? No, I have ne'er a penny for you this time.' Both of these +are often met with in Shakespeare. + +The Irish schoolmasters knew Irish well, and did their best--generally with +success--to master English. This they did partly from their neighbours, but +in a large measure from books, including dictionaries. As they were +naturally inclined to show forth their learning, they made use, as much as +possible, of long and unusual words, mostly taken from dictionaries, but +many coined by themselves from Latin. Goldsmith's description of the +village master with his 'words of learned length and thundering sound,' +applies exactly to a large proportion of the schoolmasters of the +eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century all over Ireland. You +heard these words often in conversation, but the schoolmasters most +commonly used them in song-writing. Here also they made free use of the +classical mythology; but I will not touch on this {79} feature, as I have +treated of it, and have given specimens, in my 'Old Irish Folk Music and +Songs,' pp. 200-202. + +As might be expected, the schoolmasters, as well as others, who used these +strange words often made mistakes in applying them; which will be seen in +some of the following examples. Here is one whole verse of a song about a +young lady--'The Phoenix of the Hall.' + + 'I being quite captivated and so infatuated + I then prognosticated my sad forlorn case; + But I quickly ruminated--suppose I was _defaited_, + I would not be implicated or treated with disgrace; + So therefore I awaited with my spirits elevated, + And no more I ponderated let what would me befall; + I then to her _repated_ how Cupid had me _thrated_, + And thus expostulated with The Phoenix of the Hall.' + +In another verse of this song the poet tells us what he might do for the +Phoenix if he had greater command of language:-- + + 'Could I indite like Homer that celebrated _pomer_.' + +One of these schoolmasters, whom I knew, composed a poem in praise of Queen +Victoria just after her accession, of which I remember only two lines:-- + + 'In England our queen resides with _alacrity_, + With civil authority and kind urbanity.' + +Another opens his song in this manner:-- + + 'One morning serene as I roved in solitude, + Viewing the magnitude of th' orient ray. + +The author of the song in praise of Castlehyde speaks of + + 'The bees _perfuming_ the fields with music'; + +{80} and the same poet winds up by declaring, + + 'In all my ranging and _serenading_ + I met no _aiquel_ to Castlehyde.' + +_Serenading_ here means wandering about leisurely. + +The author of 'The Cottage Maid' speaks of the danger of Mercury abducting +the lady, even + + 'Though an _organising_ shepherd be her guardian'; + +where _organising_ is intended to mean playing on an _organ_, i.e. a +shepherd's reed. + +But endless examples of this kind might be given. + +Occasionally you will find the peasantry attempting long or unusual words, +of which some examples are scattered through this chapter; and here also +there are often misapplications: 'What had you for dinner to-day?' 'Oh I +had bacon and goose and several other _combustibles_' (comestibles). I have +repeatedly heard this word. + +Sometimes the simple past tense is used for one of the subjunctive past +forms. 'If they had gone out in their boat that night they were lost men'; +i.e. 'they would have been lost men.' 'She is now forty, and 'twas well if +she was married' ('it would be well'). + + 'Oh Father Murphy, had aid come over, the green flag floated from shore to + shore' + +(i.e. would have floated). See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 242. + + 'A summons from William to Limerick, a summons to open their gate, + Their fortress and stores to surrender, else the sword and the gun _were_ + their fate.' + + (R. D. JOYCE: Ballads of Irish Chivalry, p. 15.) + +{81} + +_See_ is very often used for _saw_:--'Did you ever see a cluricaun Molly?' +'Oh no sir, I never see one myself.' (Crofton Croker.) 'Come here Nelly, +and point out the bride to us.' 'I never see her myself Miss' [so I don't +know her] replied Nelly. (Knocknagow.) This is a survival from old English, +in which it was very common. It is moreover general among the English +peasantry at the present day, as may be seen everywhere in Dickens. + +The imperative of verbs is often formed by _let_:--instead of 'go to the +right 'or 'go you to the right,' our people say 'let you go to the right': +'let you look after the cows and I will see to the horses.' A fellow is +arrested for a crime and dares the police with:--'Let ye prove it.' + +In Derry porridge or stirabout always takes the plural: 'Have you dished +_them_ yet?' + +'I didn't go to the fair _'cause why_, the day was too wet.' This +expression _'cause why_, which is very often heard in Ireland, is English +at least 500 years old: for we find it in Chaucer. + +You often hear _us_ for _me_: 'Give us a penny sir to buy sweets' (i.e. +'Give me'). + +In Waterford and South Wexford the people often use such verbal forms as is +seen in the following:--'Does your father grow wheat still?' 'He _do_.' +'Has he the old white horse now?' 'He _have_.' As to _has_, Mr. MacCall +states that it is unknown in the barony of Forth: there you always hear +'that man _have_ plenty of money'--he _have_--she _have_, &c. + +The Rev. William Burke tells us that _have_ is found as above (a third +person singular) all through the old Waterford Bye-Laws; which would render +it {82} pretty certain that both _have_ and _do_ in these applications are +survivals from the old English colony in Waterford and Wexford. + +In Donegal and thereabout _the yon_ is often shortened to _thon_, which is +used as equivalent to _that_ or _those_: 'you may take _thon_ book.' + +In Donegal 'such a thing' is often made _such an a thing_.' I have come +across this several times: but the following quotation is decisive--'No, +Dinny O'Friel, I don't want to make you say any such an a thing.' (Seamus +MacManus.) + +There is a tendency to put _o_ at the end of some words, such as boy-o, +lad-o. A fellow was tried for sheep-stealing before the late Judge Monahan, +and the jury acquitted him, very much against the evidence. 'You may go +now,' said the judge, 'as you are acquitted; but you stole the sheep all +the same, my buck-o.' + + 'I would hush my lovely laddo + In the green arbutus shadow.' + + (A. P. GRAVES: 'Irish Songs and Ballads.') + +This is found in Irish also, as in '_a vick-o_' ('my boy,' or more exactly +'my son,' where _vick_ is _mhic_, vocative of _mac_, son) heard universally +in Munster: 'Well Billy a vick-o, how is your mother this morning?' I +suppose the English practice is borrowed from the Irish. + +In Irish there is only one article, _an_, which is equivalent to the +English definite article _the_. This article (_an_) is much more freely +used in Irish than _the_ is in English, a practice which we are inclined to +imitate in our Anglo-Irish speech. Our use of _the_ {83} often adds a sort +of emphasis to the noun or adjective:--'Ah John was the man,' i.e. the real +man, a man pre-eminent for some quality--bravery, generosity, &c. 'Ah that +was the trouble in earnest.' The Irish chiefs of long ago 'were the men in +the gap' (Thomas Davis):--i.e. the real men and no mistake. We often use +the article in our speech where it would not be used in correct +English:--'I am perished with _the_ cold.' 'I don't know much Greek, but I +am good at _the_ Latin.' + +'That was the dear journey to me.' A very common form of expression, +signifying that 'I paid dearly for it'--'it cost me dear.' Hugh Reynolds +when about to be hanged for attempting the abduction of Catherine McCabe +composes (or is supposed to compose) his 'Lamentation,' of which the verses +end in 'She's the dear maid to me.' (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and +Songs,' p. 135.) A steamer was in danger of running down a boat rowed by +one small boy on the Shannon. 'Get out of the way you young rascal or we'll +run over you and drown you!' Little Jacky looks up defiantly and cries +out:--'Ye'll drownd me, will ye: if ye do, I'll make it the dear drownding +to ye!' In such expressions it is however to be observed that the +indefinite article _a_ is often used--perhaps as often as _the_:--'That was +a dear transaction for me.' 'Oh, green-hilled pleasant Erin you're a dear +land to me!' (Robert Dwyer Joyce's 'Ballads of Irish Chivalry,' p. 206.) + +In Ulster they say:--'When are you going?' 'Oh I am going _the day_,' i.e. +to-day. I am much better _the day_ than I was yesterday. In this _the day_ +{84} is merely a translation of the Irish word for to-day--_andiu_, where +_an_ is 'the' and _diu_ a form of the Irish for 'day.' + +The use of the singular of nouns instead of the plural after a numeral is +found all through Ireland. Tom Cassidy our office porter--a Westmeath +man--once said to me 'I'm in this place now forty-four year': and we always +use such expressions as _nine head of cattle_. A friend of mine, a +cultivated and scholarly clergyman, always used phrases like 'that bookcase +cost thirteen _pound_.' This is an old English survival. Thus in Macbeth we +find 'this three mile.' But I think this phraseology has also come partly +under the influence of our Gaelic in which _ten_ and numerals that are +multiples of _ten_ always take the singular of nouns, as _tri-caogad +laoch_, 'thrice fifty heroes'--lit. 'thrice fifty _hero_.' + +In the south of Ireland _may_ is often incorrectly used for _might_, even +among educated people:--'Last week when setting out on my long train +journey, I brought a book that I _may_ read as I travelled along.' I have +heard and read, scores of times, expressions of which this is a type--not +only among the peasantry, but from newspaper correspondents, professors, +&c.--and you can hear and read them from Munstermen to this day in Dublin. + +In Ulster _till_ is commonly used instead of _to_:--'I am going _till_ +Belfast to-morrow': in like manner _until_ is used for _unto_. + +There are two tenses in English to which there is nothing corresponding in +Irish:--what is sometimes called the perfect--'I _have finished_ my work'; +and the pluperfect--'I _had finished_ my work' [before you {85} arrived]. +The Irish people in general do not use--or know how to use--these in their +English speech; but they feel the want of them, and use various expedients +to supply their places. The most common of these is the use of the word +_after_ (commonly with a participle) following the verb _to be_. Thus +instead of the perfect, as expressed above, they will say 'I am after +finishing my work,' 'I am after my supper.' ('Knocknagow.') 'I'm after +getting the lend of an American paper' (_ibid._); and instead of the +pluperfect (as above) they will say 'I was after finishing my work' [before +you arrived]. Neither of these two expressions would be understood by an +Englishman, although they are universal in Ireland, even among the higher +and educated classes. + +This word _after_ in such constructions is merely a translation of the +Irish _iar_ or _a n-diaigh_--for both are used in corresponding expressions +in Irish. + +But this is only one of the expedients for expressing the perfect tense. +Sometimes they use the simple past tense, which is ungrammatical, as our +little newsboy in Kilkee used to do: 'Why haven't you brought me the +paper?' 'The paper didn't come from the station yet sir.' Sometimes the +present progressive is used, which also is bad grammar: 'I am sitting here +waiting for you for the last hour' (instead of 'I have been sitting'). +Occasionally the _have_ or _has_ of the perfect (or the _had_ of the +pluperfect) is taken very much in its primary sense of having or +possessing. Instead of 'You have quite distracted me with your talk,' the +people will say 'You have me quite distracted,' &c.: {86} 'I have you found +out at last.' 'The children had me vexed.' (Jane Barlow.) + + 'And she is a comely maid + That has my heart betrayed.' + + (Old Irish Folk-Song.) + + '... I fear, + That some cruel goddess _has him captivated_, + And has left here in mourning his dear Irish maid.' + + (See my Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, p. 208.) + +Corresponding devices are resorted to for the pluperfect. Sometimes the +simple past is used where the pluperfect ought to come in:--'An hour before +you came yesterday I finished my work': where it should be 'I had +finished.' Anything to avoid the pluperfect, which the people cannot +manage. + +In the Irish language (but not in English) there is what is called the +consuetudinal tense, i.e. denoting habitual action or existence. It is a +very convenient tense, so much so that the Irish, feeling the want of it in +their English, have created one by the use of the word _do_ with _be_: 'I +do be at my lessons every evening from 8 to 9 o'clock.' 'There does be a +meeting of the company every Tuesday.' ''Tis humbuggin' me they _do be_.' +('Knocknagow.') + +Sometimes this is expressed by _be_ alone without the _do_; but here the +_be_ is also often used in the ordinary sense of _is_ without any +consuetudinal meaning. 'My father _bees_ always at home in the morning': +'At night while I _bees_ reading my wife bees knitting.' (Consuetudinal.) +'You had better not wait till it bees night.' (Indicative.) + + 'I'll seek out my Blackbird wherever he be.' (Indicative.) + + (Old Folk Song--'The Blackbird.') + +{87} This use of _be_ for _is_ is common in the eastern half of Ireland +from Wexford to Antrim. + +Such old forms as _anear_, _adown_, _afeard_, _apast_, _afore_, &c., are +heard everywhere in Ireland, and are all of old English origin, as it would +be easy to show by quotations from English classical writers. 'If my child +was standing _anear_ that stone.' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'She was +never a-shy or ashamed to show' [her respect for me]. ('Knocknagow.') The +above words are considered vulgar by our educated people: yet many others +remain still in correct English, such as _aboard_, _afoot_, _amidst_, &c. + +I think it likely that the Irish language has had some influence in the +adoption and retention of those old English words; for we have in Irish a +group of words identical with them both in meaning and structure: such as +_a-n-aice_ (a-near), where _aice_ is 'near.' (The _n_ comes in for a +grammatical reason.) + +'I be to do it' in Ulster is used to express 'I have to do it': 'I am bound +to do it'; 'it is destined that I shall do it.' 'I be to remain here till +he calls,' I am bound to remain. 'The only comfort I have [regarding some +loss sure to come on] is that it be to be,' i.e. that 'it is fated to +be'--'it is _unavoidable_.' 'What bees to be maun be' (must be). + +Father William Burke points out that we use 'every other' in two different +senses. He remains at home always on Monday, but goes to town 'every other' +day--meaning every day of the week except Monday: which is the most usual +application among us. 'My father goes to town every other day,' i.e. {88} +every alternate day. This last is rarely used by our people, who prefer to +express it 'My father goes to town _every second day_.' Of two persons it +is stated: + + 'You'd like to see them drinking from one cup, + They took so loving _every second sup_.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + +The simple phrase 'the other day' means a few days ago. 'When did you see +your brother John?' 'Oh I saw him the other day.' + + 'The other day he sailed away and parted his dear Nancy.' + + (Old Folk Song.) + +The dropping of _thou_ was a distinct loss to the English language: for now +_you_ has to do double duty--for both singular and plural--which sometimes +leads to obscurity. The Irish try to avoid this obscurity by various +devices. They always use _ye_ in the plural whenever possible: both as a +nominative and as an objective: 'Where are ye going to-day?' 'I'm afeard +that will be a dear journey to ye.' Accepting the _you_ as singular, they +have created new forms for the plural such as _yous_, _yez_, _yiz_, which +do not sound pleasant to a correct speaker, but are very clear in sense. In +like manner they form a possessive case direct on _ye_. Some English +soldiers are singing 'Lillibulero'-- + + 'And our skeans we'll make good at de Englishman's throat,' + +on which Cus Russed (one of the ambush) says--'That's true for ye at any +rate. I'm laughing at the way we'll carry out _yeer_ song afore the day is +over.' ('The House of Lisbloom,' by Robert D. Joyce.) Similarly '_weer_ +own' is sometimes used for 'our own.' {89} + +The distributive _every_ requires to be followed by pronouns in the +singular: but this rule is broken even by well-known English +writers:--'Every one for themselves' occurs in Robinson Crusoe; and in +Ireland plurals are almost universally used. '_Let every one mind +themselves_ as the ass said when he leaped into a flock of chickens.' + +Father Burke has shown--a matter that had escaped me--that we often use the +verbs _rest_ and _perish_ in an active sense. The first is seen in the very +general Irish prayer 'God rest his soul.' Mangan uses the word in this +sense in the Testament of Cathaeir Mor:-- + + 'Here is the Will of Cathaeir Mor, + God rest him.' + +And John Keegan in 'Caoch O'Leary':-- + + 'And there he sleeps his last sweet sleep-- + God rest you, Caoch O'Leary.' + +_Perish_ is quoted below in the saying--'That breeze would perish the +Danes.' + +We have many intensive words, some used locally, some generally:--'This is +a _cruel_ wet day'; 'that old fellow is _cruel_ rich': that's a _cruel_ +good man (where _cruel_ in all means _very_: Ulster). 'That girl is _fine +and fat_: her cheeks are _fine and red_.' 'I was _dead fond_ of her' (very +fond): but _dead certain_ occurs in 'Bleak House.' 'That tree has a +_mighty_ great load of apples.' 'I want a drink badly; my throat is +_powerful_ dry.' ('Shanahan's Ould Shebeen,' New York.) 'John Cusack is the +finest dancer _at all_.' 'This day is _mortal_ cold.' 'I'm _black out_ with +you.' {90} 'I'm very glad _entirely_ to hear it.' 'He is very sick +_entirely_.' This word _entirely_ is one of our most general and +characteristic intensives. 'He is a very good man _all out_.' 'This day is +_guy and_ wet': 'that boy is _guy and_ fat' (Ulster). A half fool of a +fellow looking at a four-wheeled carriage in motion: 'Aren't the little +wheels _damn good_ not to let the big wheels overtake them.' In the early +days of cycling a young friend of mine was riding on a five-foot wheel past +two countrymen; when one remarked to the other:--'Tim, that's a _gallows_ +way of travelling.' 'I was up _murdering_ late last night.' (Crofton +Croker.) + +In the Irish language there are many diminutive terminations, all giving +the idea of 'little,' which will be found fully enumerated and illustrated +in my 'Irish Names of Places,' vol. ii, chap. ii. Of these it may be said +that only one--_in_ or _een_--has found its way into Ireland's English +speech, carrying with it its full sense of smallness. There are +others--_an_ or _aun_, and _og_ or _oge_; but these have in great measure +lost their original signification; and although we use them in our +Irish-English, they hardly convey any separate meaning. But _een_ is used +everywhere: it is even constantly tacked on to Christian names (especially +of boys and girls):--_Mickeen_ (little Mick), _Noreen_, _Billeen_, +_Jackeen_ (a word applied to the conceited little Dublin citizen). So also +you hear _Birdeen_, _Robineen_-redbreast, _bonniveen_, &c. A boy who apes +to be a man--puts on airs like a man--is called a _manneen_ in contempt +(exactly equivalent to the English _mannikin_). I knew a boy named Tommeen +Trassy: and the name stuck to him even when he {91} was a great big whacker +of a fellow six feet high. In the south this diminutive is long (_een_) and +takes the accent: in the north it is made short (_in_) and is unaccented. + +It is well known that three hundred years ago, and even much later, the +correct English sound of the diphthong _ea_ was the same as long _a_ in +_fate_: _sea_ pronounced _say_, &c. Any number of instances could be +brought together from the English poets in illustration of this:-- + + 'God moves in a mysterious way, + His wonders to perform; + He plants His footsteps in the _sea_, + And rides upon the storm.' + + (COWPER (18th century).) + +This sound has long since been abandoned in England, but is still preserved +among the Irish people. You will hear everywhere in Ireland, 'a pound of +_mate_,' 'a cup of _tay_,' 'you're as deep as the _say_,' &c. + + 'Kind sir be _aisy_ and do not _taize_ me with your false _praises_ most + jestingly.'--(Old Irish Folk Song.) + +(In this last line _easy_ and _teaze_ must be sounded so as to +rhyme--assonantally--with _praises_). + +Many years ago I was travelling on the long car from Macroom to Killarney. +On the other side--at my back--sat a young gentleman--a 'superior person,' +as anyone could gather from his _dandified_ speech. The car stopped where +he was to get off: a tall fine-looking old gentleman was waiting for him, +and nothing could exceed the dignity and kindness with which he received +him. Pointing to {92} his car he said 'Come now and they'll get you a nice +refreshing cup of _tay_.' 'Yes,' says the dandy, 'I shall be very glad to +get a cup of _tee_'--laying a particular stress on _tee_. I confess I felt +a shrinking of shame for our humanity. Now which of these two was the +vulgarian? + +The old sound of _ea_ is still retained--even in England--in the word +_great_; but there was a long contest in the English Parliament over this +word. Lord Chesterfield adopted the affected pronunciation (_greet_), +saying that only an Irishman would call it _grate_. 'Single-speech +Hamilton'--a Dublin man--who was considered, in the English House of +Commons, a high authority on such matters, stoutly supported _grate_, and +the influence of the Irish orators finally turned the scale. (Woollett.) + +A similar statement may be made regarding the diphthong _ei_ and long _e_, +that is to say, they were both formerly sounded like long _a_ in _fate_. + + 'Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race, + In quiet flow from Lucrece to _Lucrece_.' + + (POPE: 'Essay on Man.') + +In the same essay Pope rhymes _sphere_ with _fair_, showing that he +pronounced it _sphaire_. Our _hedge_ schoolmaster did the same thing in his +song:-- + + Of all the maids on this terrestrial _sphaire_ + Young Molly is the fairest of the fair. + + 'The plots are fruitless which my foe + Unjustly did _conceive_; + The pit he digg'd for me has proved + His own untimely grave.' + + (TATE AND BRADY.) + +{93} + +Our people generally retain the old sounds of long _e_ and _ei_; for they +say _persaive_ for perceive, and _sevare_ for _severe_. + + 'The pardon he gave me was hard and _sevare_; + 'Twas bind him, confine him, he's the rambler from Clare.' + +Our Irish way of sounding both _ea_ and long _e_ is exemplified in what I +heard a man say--a man who had some knowledge of Shakespeare--about a girl +who was becoming somewhat of an old maid: 'She's now getting into the +_sair_ and _yallow laif_.' + +Observe, the correct old English sound of _ie_ and _ee_ has not changed: it +is the same at present in England as it was formerly; and accordingly the +Irish people always sound these correctly. They never say _praste_ for +priest, _belave_ for believe, _indade_ for indeed, or _kape_ for keep, as +some ignorant writers set down. + +_Ate_ is pronounced _et_ by the educated English. In Munster the educated +people pronounce it _ait_: 'Yesterday I _ait_ a good dinner'; and when _et_ +is heard among the uneducated--as it generally is--it is considered very +vulgar. + +It appears that in correct old English _er_ was sounded _ar_--Dryden rhymes +_certain_ with _parting_--and this is still retained in correct English in +a few words, like _sergeant_, _clerk_, &c. Our people retain the old sound +in most such words, as _sarvant_, _marchant_, _sartin_. But sometimes in +their anxiety to avoid this vulgarity, they overdo the refinement: so that +you will hear girls talk mincingly about _derning_ a stocking. This is like +what happened in the case of one of our servant girls who took it into her +head that {94} _mutton_ was a vulgar way of pronouncing the word, like +_pudden'_ for _pudding_; so she set out with her new grand pronunciation; +and one day rather astonished our butcher by telling him she wanted a small +leg of _mutting_. I think this vulgarism is heard among the English +peasantry too: though we have the honour and glory of evolving it +independently. + +All over Ireland you will hear the words _vault_ and _fault_ sounded _vaut_ +and _faut_. 'If I don't be able to shine it will be none of my _faut_.' +(Carleton, as cited by Hume.) We have retained this sound from old English: + + Let him not dare to vent his dangerous thought: + A noble fool was never in a _fault_ [faut]. + + (POPE, cited by Hume.) + +Goldsmith uses this pronunciation more than once; but whether he brought it +from Ireland or took it from classical English writers, by whom it was used +(as by Pope) almost down to his time, it is hard to say. For instance in +'The Deserted Village' he says of the Village Master:-- + + 'Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught + The love he bore to learning was in _fault_' [faut]. + +I remember reading many years ago a criticism of Goldsmith by a well-known +Irish professor of English literature, in which the professor makes great +fun, as a 'superior person,' of the _Hibernicism_ in the above couplet, +evidently ignorant of the fact, which Dr. Hume has well brought out, that +it is classical English. {95} + +In many parts of Munster there is a tendency to give the long _a_ the sound +of _a_ in _car_, _father_:-- + + Were I Paris whose deeds are _vaarious_ + And _arbithraather_ on Ida's hill. + + (Old Folk Song--'The Colleen Rue.')[1] + + The _gladiaathers_ both bold and darling, + Each night and morning to watch the flowers. + + (Old Folk Song--'Castlehyde.')[1] + +So, an intelligent peasant,--a born orator, but illiterate in so far as he +could neither read nor write,--told me that he was a _spectaathor_ at one +of O'Connell's Repeal meetings: and the same man, in reply to a strange +gentleman's inquiry as to who planted a certain wood up the hill, replied +that the trees were not planted--they grew _spontaan-yus_. + +I think this is a remnant of the old classical teaching of Munster: though +indeed I ought to mention that the same tendency is found in Monaghan, +where on every possible occasion the people give this sound to long a. + +_D_ before long _u_ is generally sounded like _j_; as in _projuce_ for +_produce_: the _Juke_ of Wellington, &c. Many years ago I knew a fine old +gentleman from Galway. He wished to make people believe that in the old +fighting times, when he was a young man, he was a desperate _gladiaathor_; +but he really was a gentle creature who never in all his born days hurt man +or mortal. Talking one day to some workmen in Kildare, and recounting his +exploits, he told them {96} that he was now _harrished_ every night by the +ghosts of all the _min_ he killed in _juels_. + +So _s_ before long _u_ is sounded _sh_: Dan Kiely, a well-to-do young +farmer, told the people of our neighbourhood that he was now looking out +for a wife that would _shoot_ him. This pronunciation is however still +sometimes heard in words of correct English, as in _sure_. + +There are some consonants of the Irish language which when they come +together do not coalesce in sound, as they would in an English word, so +that when they are uttered a very short obscure vowel sound is heard +between them: and a native Irish speaker cannot avoid this. By a sort of +hereditary custom this peculiarity finds its way into our pronunciation of +English. Thus _firm_ is sounded in Ireland _ferrum_--two distinct +syllables: 'that bird is looking for a _wurrum_.' _Form_ (a seat) we call a +_furrum_. + + 'His sire he'd seek no more nor descend to Mammon's shore, + Nor venture on the tyrant's dire _alaa-rums_, + But daily place his care on that emblematic fair, + Till he'd barter coronations for her _chaa-rums_.' + + (Old Folk Song.)[2] + +_Herb_ is sounded _errub_: and we make two syllables of the name Charles +[Char-less]. At the time of the Bulgarian massacres, I knew a Dublin +doctor, a Tipperary man, who felt very strongly on the subject and was +constantly talking about the poor _Bullugarians_. + +In the County Monaghan and indeed elsewhere {97} in Ireland, _us_ is +sounded _huz_, which might seem a Cockney vulgarism, but I think it is not. +In Roscommon and in the Munster counties a thong is called a _fong_. + +_Chaw_ for _chew_, _oncet_ [wonst] for _once_, _twiced_ for _twice_, and +_heighth_, _sighth_, for _height_, _sight_, which are common in Ireland, +are all old English survivals. Thus in the 'Faerie Queene' (Bk. I., Canto +IV., XXX.):-- + + 'And next to him malicious Envy rode + Upon a ravenous wolfe and still did _chaw_ + Between his cankred teeth a venomous tode.' + +_Chaw_ is also much used in America. '_Onst_ for once, is in the Chester +Plays' (Lowell); and _highth_ for _height_ is found all through 'Paradise +Lost.' So also we have _drooth_ for _drought_:-- + + 'Like other historians I'll stick to the truth + While I sing of the monarch who died of the _drooth_.' + + (SAM LOVER.) + +_Joist_ is sounded _joice_ in Limerick; and _catch_ is everywhere +pronounced _ketch_. + +The word _hither_ is pronounced in Ireland _hether_, which is the correct +old English usage, but long since abandoned in England. Thus in a State +Paper of 1598, we read that two captains returned _hether_: and in +Spenser's 'View,' he mentions a 'colony [sent] _hether_ out of Spaine.' + + 'An errant knight or any other wight + That _hether_ turns his steps.' ('Faerie Queene.') + +Hence we have coined the word _comether_, for _come-hether_, to denote a +sort of spell brought about {98} by coaxing, wheedling, making love, +&c.--as in the phrase 'she put her _comether_ on him, so that he married +her up at once.' 'There'll not be six girls in the fair he'll not be +putting the _comether_ on.' (Seumas MacManus.) + +The family name 'Bermingham' is always made _Brimmigem_ in Ireland, which +is a very old English corruption. In Friar Clyn's Annals (Latin) written in +the fourteenth century, the death is recorded in 1329 of Johannes de +_Brimegham_, i.e., the celebrated Sir John Bermingham who defeated Edward +Bruce at Faughart. + +Leap is pronounced _lep_ by our people; and in racing circles it is still +so pronounced by all classes. The little village of Leap in the County Cork +is always called _Lep_. + +There is a curious tendency among us to reverse the sounds of certain +letters, as for instance _sh_ and _ch_. 'When you're coming home to-morrow +bring the spade and _chovel_, and a pound of butter fresh from the +_shurn_.' 'That _shimney_ doesn't draw the smoke well.' So with the letters +_u_ and _i_. 'When I was crossing the _brudge_ I dropped the sweeping +_brish_ into the _ruvver_.' 'I never saw _sich_ a sight.' But such words +are used only by the very uneducated. _Brudge_ for _bridge_ and the like +are however of old English origin. 'Margaret, mother of Henry VII, writes +_seche_ for _such_' (Lowell). So in Ireland:--'_Jestice_ is all I ax,' says +Mosy in the story ('Ir. Pen. Mag.); and _churries_ for _cherries_ +('Knocknagow'). This tendency corresponds with the vulgar use of _h_ in +London and elsewhere in England. 'The 'en has just laid a _hegg_': 'he was +singing My 'art's in the {99} 'ighlands or The Brave Old _Hoak_.' +(Washington Irving.) + +_Squeeze_ is pronounced _squeedge_ and _crush_ _scroodge_ in Donegal and +elsewhere; but corruptions like these are found among the English +peasantry--as may be seen in Dickens. + +'You had better _rinsh_ that glass' is heard everywhere in Ireland: an old +English survival; for Shakespeare and Lovelace have _renched_ for _rinced_ +(Lowell): which with the Irish sound of short _e_ before _n_ gives us our +word _rinshed_. + +Such words as _old_, _cold_, _hold_ are pronounced by the Irish people +_ould_, _cowld_, _hould_ (or _howlt_); _gold_ is sounded _goold_ and _ford_ +_foord_. I once heard an old Wicklow woman say of some very rich people +'why these people could _ait goold_.' These are all survivals of the old +English way of pronouncing such words. In the State Papers of Elizabeth's +time you will constantly meet with such words as _hoult_ and _stronghowlt_ +(hold and stronghold.) In my boyhood days I knew a great large sinewy +active woman who lived up in the mountain gap, and who was universally +known as 'Thunder the _cowlt_ from Poulaflaikeen' (_cowlt_ for _colt_); +Poulaflaikeen, the high pass between Glenosheen and Glenanaar, Co. +Limerick, for which see Dr. R. D. Joyce's 'Ballads of Irish Chivalry,' pp. +102, 103, 120. + +Old Tom Howlett, a Dublin job gardener, speaking to me of the management of +fruit trees, recommended the use of butchers' waste. 'Ah sir'--said he, +with a luscious roll in his voice as if he had been licking his lips--'Ah +sir, there's nothing for the roots of an apple tree like a big tub of fine +rotten _ould_ guts,' {100} + +Final _d_ is often omitted after _l_ and _n_: you will see this everywhere +in Seumas MacManus's books for Donegal. Recently we were told by the +attendant boy at one of the Dublin seaside baths that the prices were--'a +shilling for the hot and sixpence for the _cowl_.' So we constantly use +_an'_ for _and_: in a Waterford folk song we have 'Here's to the swan that +sails on the _pon_' (the 'swan' being the poet's sweetheart): and I once +heard a man say to another in a fair:--'That horse is sound in win' and +limb.' + +Short _e_ is always sounded before _n_ and _m_, and sometimes in other +positions, like short _i_: 'How many arrived?' '_Tin min_ and five women': +'He always smoked a pipe with a long _stim_.' If you ask a person for a +pin, he will inquire 'Is it a brass pin or a writing _pin_ you want?' + +_Again_ is sounded by the Irish people _agin_, which is an old English +survival. 'Donne rhymes _again_ with _sin_, and Quarles repeatedly with +_in_.' (Lowell.) An Irishman was once landed on the coast of some unknown +country where they spoke English. Some violent political dispute happened +to be going on there at the time, and the people eagerly asked the stranger +about his political views; on which--instinctively giving expression to the +feelings he brought with him from the 'ould sod'--he promptly replied +before making any inquiry--'I'm agin the Government.' This story, which is +pretty well known, is a faked one; but it affords us a good illustration. + +_Onion_ is among our people always pronounced _ingion_: constantly heard in +Dublin. 'Go out Mike {101} for the _ingions_,' as I once heard a woman say +in Limerick. + + 'Men are of different opinions, + Some like leeks and some like _ingions_.' + +This is old English; 'in one of Dodsley's plays we have _onions_ rhyming +with _minions_' (Lowell.) + +The general _English_ tendency is to put back the accent as far from the +end of the word as possible. But among our people there is a contrary +tendency--to throw forward the accent; as in _ex-cel'lent_, his +_Ex-cel'-lency_--Nas-sau' Street (Dublin), Ar-bu'-tus, commit-tee', +her-e-dit'tary. + + 'Tele-mach'us though so grand ere the sceptre reached his hand.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + +In Gough's Arithmetic there was a short section on the laws of radiation +and of pendulums. When I was a boy I once heard one of the old +schoolmasters reading out, in his grandiloquent way, for the people grouped +round Ardpatrick chapel gate after Mass, his formidable prospectus of the +subjects he could teach, among which were 'the _raddiation_ of light and +heat and the vibrations of swinging _pen-joo'lums_.' The same fine old +scholarly pedant once remarked that our neighbourhood was a very +_moun-taan'-yus_ locality. A little later on in my life, when I had written +some pieces in high-flown English--as young writers will often do--one of +these schoolmasters--a much lower class of man than the last--said to me by +way of compliment: 'Ah! Mr. Joyce, you have a fine _voca-bull'ery_.' + +_Mischievous_ is in the south accented on the second +syllable--_Mis-chee'-vous_: but I have come across this {102} in Spenser's +Faerie Queene. We accent _character_ on the second syllable:-- + + 'Said he in a whisper to my benefactor, + Though good your _charac'ter_ has been of that lad.' + + (Song by Mr. Patrick Murray of Kilfinane, + a schoolmaster of great ability: about 1840). + +One of my school companions once wrote an ode in praise of Algebra, of +which unfortunately I remember only the opening line: but this fragment +shows how we pronounced the word in our old schools in the days of yore:-- + + 'Hail sweet _al-jib'era_, you're my heart's delight.' + +There is an Irish ballad about the people of Tipperary that I cannot lay my +hands on, which speaks of the + + 'Tipperary boys, + Although we are cross and _contrairy_ boys'; + +and this word 'contrairy' is universal in Munster. + +In Tipperary the vowel _i_ is generally sounded _oi_. Mick Hogan a +Tipperary boy--he was a man indeed--was a pupil in Mr. Condon's school in +Mitchelstown, with the full rich typical accent. One morning as he walked +in, a fellow pupil, Tom Burke--a big fellow too--with face down on desk +over a book, said, without lifting his head--to make fun of him--'_foine_ +day, Mick.' 'Yes,' said Mick as he walked past, at the same time laying his +hand on Tom's poll and punching his nose down hard against the desk. Tom +let Mick alone after that 'foine day.' Farther south, and in many places +all over Ireland, they do the reverse:--'The kettle is _biling_'; + + 'She smiled on me like the morning sky, + And she won the heart of the prentice _bye_.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + +{103} + +The old English pronunciation of _oblige_ was _obleege_:-- + + 'Dreaded by fools, by flatterers besieged, + And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.' + + (POPE.) + +Among the old-fashioned and better-educated of our peasantry you will still +hear this old pronunciation preserved:--I am very much obleeged to you. It +is now generally heard in Kildare among all classes. A similar tendency is +in the sound of _whine_, which in Munster is always made _wheen_: 'What's +that poor child _wheening_ for?' also everywhere heard:--'All danger [of +the fever] is now past: he is over his _creesis_.' + +Metathesis, or the changing of the place of a letter or syllable in a word, +is very common among the Irish people, as _cruds_ for _curds_, _girn_ for +_grin_, _purty_ for _pretty_. I heard a man quoting from Shakespeare about +Puck--from hearsay: he said he must have been a wonderful fellow, for he +could put a _griddle_ round about the earth in forty minutes.' I knew a +fellow that could never say _traveller_: it was always _throlliver_. + +There is a tendency here as elsewhere to shorten many words: You will hear +_garner_ for _gardener_, _ornary_ for _ordinary_. The late Cardinal Cullen +was always spoken of by a friend of mine who revered him, as _The Carnal_. + +_My_ and _by_ are pronounced _me_ and _be_ all over Ireland: Now _me_ boy I +expect you home _be_ six o'clock. + +The obscure sound of _e_ and _i_ heard in _her_ and _fir_ is hardly known +in Ireland, at least among the general run of people. _Her_ is made either +_herr_ or _hur_. They sound _sir_ either _surr_ (to rhyme with cur), {104} +or _serr_; but in this latter case they always give the _r_ or _rr_ what is +called the slender sound in Irish, which there is no means of indicating by +English letters. _Fir_ is also sounded either _fur_ or _ferr_ (a _fur_ tree +or a _ferr_ tree). _Furze_ is pronounced rightly; but they take it to be a +plural, and so you will often hear the people say _a fur bush_ instead of +_a furze bush_. + +In other classes of words _i_ before _r_ is mispronounced. A young fellow, +Johnny Brien, objected to go by night on a message that would oblige him to +pass by an empty old house that had the reputation of being haunted, +because, as he said, he was afeard of the _sperrit_. + +In like manner, _miracle_ is pronounced _merricle_. Jack Finn--a little +busybody noted for perpetually jibing at sacred things--Jack one day, with +innocence in his face, says to Father Tom, 'Wisha I'd be terrible thankful +entirely to your reverence to tell me what a merricle is, for I could never +understand it.' 'Oh yes Jack,' says the big priest good-naturedly, as he +stood ready equipped for a long ride to a sick call--poor old Widow Dwan up +in the mountain gap: 'Just tell me exactly how many cows are grazing in +that field there behind you.' Jack, chuckling at the fun that was coming +on, turned round to count, on which Father Tom dealt him a hearty kick that +sent him sprawling about three yards. He gathered himself up as best he +could; but before he had time to open his mouth the priest asked, 'Did you +feel that Jack?' 'Oh Blood-an ... Yerra of course I did your reverence, why +the blazes wouldn't I!' 'Well Jack,' replied Father Tom, benignly, 'If you +didn't feel it--_that_ would be a _merricle_.' {105} + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PROVERBS. + +The Irish delighted in sententious maxims and apt illustrations compressed +into the fewest possible words. Many of their proverbs were evolved in the +Irish language, of which a collection with translations by John O'Donovan +may be seen in the 'Dublin Penny Journal,' I. 258; another in the Rev. +Ulick Bourke's Irish Grammar; and still another in the Ulster Journ. of +Archaeology (old series) by Mr. Robert MacAdam, the Editor. The same +tendency continued when the people adopted the English language. Those that +I give here in collected form were taken from the living lips of the people +during the last thirty or forty years. + +'Be first in a wood and last in a bog.' If two persons are making their +way, one behind the other, through a wood, the hinder man gets slashed in +the face by the springy boughs pushed aside by the first: if through a bog, +the man behind can always avoid the dangerous holes by seeing the first +sink into them. This proverb preserves the memory of a time when there were +more woods and bogs than there are now: it is translated from Irish. + +In some cases a small amount added on or taken off makes a great difference +in the result: 'An inch is a great deal in a man's nose.' In the Crimean +war an officer happened to be walking past an Irish soldier on duty, who +raised hand to cap to salute. {106} But the hand was only half way when a +stray bullet whizzed by and knocked off the cap without doing any injury. +Whereupon Paddy, perfectly unmoved, stooped down, replaced the cap and +completed the salute. The officer, admiring his coolness, said 'That was a +narrow shave my man!' 'Yes your honour: an inch is as good as a mile.' This +is one of our commonest sayings. + +A person is reproved for some trifling harmless liberty, and replies:--'Oh +a cat can look at a king.' (A translation from Irish.) + +A person who fails to get what he was striving after is often glad to +accept something very inferior: 'When all fruit fails welcome haws.' + +When a person shows no sign of gratitude for a good turn as if it passed +completely from his memory, people say 'Eaten bread is soon forgotten.' + +A person is sent upon some dangerous mission, as when the persons he is +going to are his deadly enemies:--that is 'Sending the goose on a message +to the fox's den.' + +If a dishonest avaricious man is put in a position of authority over people +from whom he has the power to extort money; that is 'putting the fox to +mind the geese.' + +'You have as many kinds of potatoes on the table as if you took them from a +beggarman's bag': referring to the good old time when beggarmen went about +and usually got a _lyre_ of potatoes in each house. + +'No one can tell what he is able to do till he tries,' as the duck said +when she swallowed a dead kitten. {107} + +You say to a man who is suffering under some continued hardship:--'This +distress is only temporary: have patience and things will come round soon +again.' 'O yes indeed; _Live horse till you get grass_.' + +A person in your employment is not giving satisfaction; and yet you are +loth to part with him for another: 'Better is the devil you know than the +devil you don't know.' + +'Least said, soonest mended.' + +'You spoke too late,' as the fool said when he swallowed a bad egg, and +heard the chicken chirp going down his throat. + +'Good soles bad uppers.' Applied to a person raised from a low to a high +station, who did well enough while low, but in his present position is +overbearing and offensive. + +I have done a person some service: and now he ill-naturedly refuses some +reasonable request. I say: 'Oh wait: _apples will grow again_.' He +answers--'Yes _if the trees baint cut_'--a defiant and ungrateful answer, +as much as to say--you may not have the opportunity to serve me, or I may +not want it. + +Turf or peat was scarce in Kilmallock (Co. Limerick): whence the proverb, +'A Kilmallock fire--two sods and a _kyraun_' (a bit broken _off of_ a sod). + +People are often punished even in this world for their misdeeds: 'God +Almighty often pays debts without money.' (Wicklow.) + +I advise you not to do so without the master's permission:--'Leave is +light.' A very general saying. {108} + +When a person gives much civil talk, makes plausible excuses or fair +promises, the remark is made 'Soft words butter no parsnips.' Sometimes +also 'Talk is cheap.' + +A person who is too complaisant--over anxious to please everyone--is 'like +Lanna Mochree's dog--he will go a part of the road with everyone.' (Moran +Carlow.) (A witness said this of a policeman in the Celbridge +courthouse--Kildare--last year, showing that it is still alive.) + +'The first drop of the broth is the hottest': the first step in any +enterprise is usually the hardest. (Westmeath.) + +The light, consisting of a single candle, or the jug of punch from which +the company fill their tumblers, ought always to be placed on the middle of +the table when people are sitting round it:--'Put the priest in the middle +of the parish.' + +'After a gathering comes a scattering.' 'A narrow gathering, a broad +scattering.' Both allude to the case of a thrifty man who gathers up a +fortune during a lifetime, and is succeeded by a spendthrift son who soon +_makes ducks and drakes_ of the property. + +No matter how old a man is he can get a wife if he wants one: 'There never +was an old slipper but there was an old stocking to match it.' (Carlow.) + +'You might as well go to hell with a load as with a _pahil_': 'You might as +well hang for a sheep as for a lamb': both explain themselves. A _pahil_ or +_paghil_ is a bundle of anything. (Derry.) + +If a man treats you badly in any way, you threaten to pay him back in his +own coin by saying, 'The cat hasn't eaten the year yet.' (Carlow.) {109} + +'A fool and his money are easily parted.' + +'A dumb priest never got a parish,' as much as to say if a man wants a +thing he must ask and strive for it. + +'A slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind.' (Munster.) + +You merely hint at something requiring no further explanation:--'A nod is +as good as a wink to a blind horse.' (Sam Lover: but heard everywhere.) + +A very wise proverb often heard among us is:--'Let well enough alone.' + +'When a man is down, down with him': a bitter allusion to the tendency of +the world to trample down the unfortunate and helpless. + +'The friend that can be bought is not worth buying.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +'The life of an old hat is to cock it.' To cock an old hat is to set it +jauntingly on the head with the leaf turned up at one side. (S. E. +counties.) + +'The man that wears the shoe knows where it pinches.' It is only the person +holding any position that knows the troubles connected with it. + +'Enough and no waste is as good as a _faist_.' + +'There are more ways of killing a dog than by choking him with butter.' +Applied when some insidious cunning attempt that looks innocent is made to +injure another. + +'Well James are you quite recovered now?' 'Oh yes, I'm _on the baker's +list_ again': i.e., I am well and have recovered my appetite. + +'An Irishman before answering a question always asks another': he wants to +know why he is asked. + +Dan O'Loghlin, a working man, drove up to our {110} house one day on an +outside car. It was a sixpenny drive, but rather a long one; and the carman +began to grumble. Whereupon Dan, in the utmost good humour, replied:--'Oh +you must take the little potato with the big potato.' A very apt maxim in +many of life's affairs, and often heard in and around Dublin. + +'Good goods are tied up in small parcels': said of a little man or a little +woman, in praise or mitigation. (Moran: Carlow.) + +'Easy with the hay, there are boys on the ladder.' When a man is on the top +of the stack forking down hay, he is warned to look out and be careful if +other _boys_ are mounting up the ladder, lest he may pitch it on their +heads. The proverb is uttered when a person is incautiously giving +expression to words likely to offend some one present. (Moran: Carlow.) + +Be cautious about believing the words of a man speaking ill of another +against whom he has a grudge: 'Spite never spoke well.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +Don't encroach too much on a privilege or it may be withdrawn: don't ask +too much or you may get nothing at all:--'Covetousness bursts the bag.' + +Three things not to be trusted--a cow's horn, a dog's tooth, and a horse's +hoof. + +Three disagreeable things at home:--a scolding wife; a squalling child; and +a smoky chimney. + +Three good things to have. I heard this given as a toast exactly as I give +it here, by a fine old gentleman of the old times:--'Here's that we may +always have a _clane_ shirt; a _clane_ conscience; and a guinea in our +pocket.' {111} + +Here is another toast. A happy little family party round the farmer's fire +with a big jug on the table (a jug of what, do you think?) The old blind +piper is the happiest of all, and holding up his glass says:--'Here's, if +this be war may we never have peace.' (Edw. Walsh.) + +Three things no person ever saw:--a highlander's kneebuckle, a dead ass, a +tinker's funeral. + +'Take care to lay by for the sore foot': i.e., Provide against accidents, +against adversity or want; against the rainy day. + +When you impute another person's actions to evil or unworthy motives: that +is 'measuring other people's corn in your own bushel.' + +A person has taken some unwise step: another expresses his intention to do +a similar thing, and you say:--'One fool is enough in a parish.' + +In the middle of last century, the people of Carlow and its neighbourhood +prided themselves on being able to give, on the spur of the moment, toasts +suitable to the occasion. Here is one such: 'Here's to the herring that +never took a bait'; a toast reflecting on some person present who had been +made a fool of in some transaction. (Moran: Carlow.) + +'A man cannot grow rich without his wife's leave': as much as to say, a +farmer's wife must co-operate to ensure success and prosperity. (Moran: +Carlow.) + +When something is said that has a meaning under the surface the remark is +made 'There's gravel in that.' + + 'Pity people barefoot in cold frosty weather, + But don't make them boots with other people's leather.' + +{112} That is to say: don't be generous at other people's expense. Many +years ago this proverb was quoted by the late Serjeant Armstrong in +addressing a jury in Wicklow. + +'A wet night: a dry morning': said to a man who is _craw-sick_--thirsty and +sick--after a night's boozing. (Moran: Carlow.) + +This last reminds me of an invitation I once got from a country gentleman +to go on a visit, holding out as an inducement that he would give me 'a dry +bed and a wet bottle.' + +'If he's not fishing he's mending his nets': said of a man who always makes +careful preparations and lays down plans for any enterprise he may have in +view. + +'If he had a shilling in his pocket it would burn a hole through it': said +of a man who cannot keep his money together--a spendthrift. + +'A bird with one wing can't fly': said to a person to make him take a +second glass. (Moran: Carlow.) + +Protect your rights: 'Don't let your bone go with the dog.' + +'An old dog for a hard road': said in commendation of a wary person who has +overcome some difficulty. _Hard_ in this proverb means 'difficult.' (Moran: +Carlow.) + +'No use sending a boy on a man's errand': Don't be satisfied with +inadequate steps when undertaking a difficult work: employ a sure person to +carry out a hard task. + +Oh however he may have acted towards you he has been a good friend to me at +any rate; and I go by the old saying, 'Praise the ford as you find it.' +This {113} proverb is a translation from the Irish. It refers to a time +when bridges were less general than now; and rivers were commonly crossed +by fords--which were sometimes safe, sometimes dangerous, according to the +weather. + +'Threatened dogs live long.' Abuses often go on for a long time, though +people are constantly complaining and threatening to correct them. +(Ulster.) + +He who expects a legacy when another man dies thinks the time long. 'It is +long waiting for a dead man's boots.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +A person waiting impatiently for something to come on always thinks the +time longer than usual:--'A watched pot never boils.' + +'A poor man must have a poor wedding': people must live according to their +means. + +'I could carry my wet finger to him': i.e. he is here present, but I won't +name him. + +'Oh that's all _as I roved out_': to express unbelief in what someone says +as quite unworthy of credit. In allusion to songs beginning 'As I roved +out,' which are generally fictitious. + +'Your father was a bad glazier': said to a person who is standing in one's +light. + +'As the old cock crows the young cock learns': generally applied to a son +who follows the evil example of his father. + +A person remarks that the precautions you are taking in regard to a certain +matter are unnecessary or excessive, and you reply 'Better be sure than +sorry.' + +'She has a good many nicks in her horn': said of a girl who is becoming an +old maid. A cow is said to have a nick in her horn for every year. {114} + +A man of property gets into hopeless debt and difficulty by neglecting his +business, and his creditors sell him out. 'Well, how did he get out of it?' +asks a neighbour. 'Oh, he got out of it just by a break-up, _as Katty got +out of the pot_.' This is how Katty got out of the pot. One day at dinner +in the kitchen Katty Murphy the servant girl sat down on a big pot (as I +often saw women do)--for seats were scarce; and in the middle of the +dinner, through some incautious movement, down she went. She struggled to +get up, but failed. Then the others came to help her, and tugged and pulled +and tried in every way, but had to give it up; till at last one of them +brought a heavy hammer, and with one blow made smithereens of the pot. + +'Putting a thing on the long finger' means postponing it. + +On the evil of procrastination:--'_Time enough_ lost the ducks.' The ducks +should have been secured at once as it was known that a fox was prowling +about. But they were not, and---- + +'_Will you_ was never a good fellow.' The bad fellow says 'Will you have +some lunch?' (while there is as yet nothing on the table), on the chance +that the visitor will say 'No, thank you.' The good hospitable man asks no +questions, but has the food brought up and placed before the guest. + +'Cut the _gad_ next the throat': that is to say, attend to the most urgent +need first. You find a man hanging by a _gad_ (withe), and you cut him down +to save him. Cutting the _gad_ next the throat explains itself. + +When a work must be done slowly:--'I will do {115} it by degrees as lawyers +go to heaven.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +'That's not a good fit,' as the serpent said when he swallowed a buck goat, +horns and all. + +Time and patience would bring a snail to America. + +'The cold stone leaves the water on St. Patrick's Day.' About the 17th +March (St. Patrick's Day), the winter's cold is nearly gone, and the +weather generally takes a milder turn. + +'There are more turners than dishmakers'; meaning, there may be many +members of a profession, but only few of them excel in it: usually pointed +at some particular professional man, who is considered not clever. It is +only the most skilful turners that can make wooden dishes. + +A person who talks too much cannot escape saying things now and then that +would be better left unsaid:--'The mill that is always going grinds coarse +and fine.' + +'If you lie down with dogs you will get up with fleas': if you keep company +with bad people you will contract their evil habits. (Moran: Carlow.) + +If you do a kindness don't mar it by any unpleasant drawback: in other +words do a kind act graciously:--'If you give away an old coat don't cut +off the buttons.' + +Two good things:--A young man courting, an old man smoking: Two bad +things:--An old man courting, a young man smoking. (MacCall: Wexford.) + +What is the world to a man when his wife is a widow. + +Giving help where it is needed is 'helping the lame dog over the stile.' +{116} + +'Leave him to God': meaning don't you attempt to punish him for the injury +he has done you: let God deal with him. Often carried too far among us. + +A hard man at driving a bargain:--'He always wants an egg in the +penn'orth.' (Kildare.) + +A satirical expression regarding a close-fisted ungenerous man:--'If he had +only an egg he'd give you the shell.' (Kildare.) + +A man wishes to say to another that they are both of about the same age; +and this is how he expresses it:--'When I die of old age you may quake with +fear.' (Kildare.) + +Speaking of a man with more resources than one:--'It wasn't on one leg St. +Patrick came to Ireland.' + +When there is a prospect of a good harvest, or any mark of +prosperity:--'That's no sign of small potatoes.' (Kildare.) + +Your friend is in your pocket. (Kildare.) + +[As a safe general principle]:--'If anybody asks you, say you don't know.' + +'A good run is better than a bad stand.' When it becomes obvious that you +cannot defend your position (whatever it is), better yield than encounter +certain defeat by continuing to resist. (Queenstown.) + +A man depending for success on a very uncertain contingency:--'God give you +better meat than a running hare.' (Tyrone.) + +To express the impossibility of doing two inconsistent things at the same +time:--'You can't whistle and chaw meal.' {117} + +A man who has an excess of smooth plausible talk is 'too sweet to be +wholesome.' + +'The fox has a good name in his own parish.' They say that a fox does not +prey on the fowls in his own neighbourhood. Often said of a rogue whose +friends are trying to _whitewash_ him. + +'A black hen lays white eggs.' A man with rough manners often has a gentle +heart and does kindly actions. + +Much in the same sense:--'A crabtree has a sweet blossom.' + +A person who has smooth words and kind professions for others, but never +acts up to them, 'has a hand for everybody but a heart for nobody.' +(Munster.) + +A person readily finds a lost article when it is missed, and is suspected +to have hidden it himself:--'What the Pooka writes he can read.' (Munster.) + +A man is making no improvement in his character or circumstances but rather +the reverse as he advances in life:--'A year older and a year worse.' + +'A shut mouth catches no flies.' Much the same as the English 'Speech is +silvern, silence is golden.' + +To the same effect is 'Hear and see and say nothing.' + +A fool and his money are easily parted. + +Oh I see you expect that Jack (a false friend) will stand at your back. +Yes, indeed, 'he'll stand at your back while your nose is breaking.' + +'You wouldn't do that to your match' as Mick Sheedy said to the fox. Mick +Sheedy the gamekeeper had a hut in the woods where he often took {118} +shelter and rested and smoked. One day when he had arrived at the doorway +he saw a fox sitting at the little fire warming himself. Mick instantly +spread himself out in the doorway to prevent escape. And so they continued +to look at each other. At last Reynard, perceiving that some master-stroke +was necessary, took up in his mouth one of a fine pair of shoes that were +lying in a corner, brought it over, and deliberately placed it on the top +of the fire. We know the rest! (Limerick.) + +'There's a hole in the house'; meant to convey that there is a tell-tale +listening. (Meath.) + +We are inclined to magnify distant or only half known things: 'Cows far off +have long horns.' + +'He'll make Dungarvan shake': meaning he will do great things, cut a great +figure. Now generally said in ridicule. (Munster.) + +A man is told something extraordinary:--'That takes the coal off my pipe'; +i.e. it surpasses all I have seen or heard. + +A man fails to obtain something he was looking after--a house or a farm to +rent--a cow to buy--a girl he wished to marry, &c.--and consoles himself by +reflecting or saying:--'There's as good fish in the _say_ as ever was +caught.' + +Well, you were at the dance yesterday--who were there? Oh 'all the world +and Garrett Reilly' were there. (Wicklow and Waterford.) + +When a fellow puts on empty airs of great consequence, you say to him, 'Why +you're _as grand as Mat Flanagan with the cat_': always said +contemptuously. Mat Flanagan went to London one time. After two years he +came home on a visit; but he was {119} now transformed into such a mass of +grandeur that he did not recognise any of the old surroundings. He didn't +know what the old cat was. 'Hallo, mother,' said he with a lofty air and a +killing Cockney accent, 'What's yon long-tailed fellow in yon _cawner_?' + +A person reproaching another for something wrong says:--'The back of my +hand to you,' as much as to say 'I refuse to shake hands with you.' + +To a person hesitating to enter on a doubtful enterprise which looks fairly +hopeful, another says:--Go on Jack, try your fortune: 'faint heart never +won fair lady.' + +A person who is about to make a third and determined attempt at anything +exclaims (in assonantal rhyme):-- + + 'First and second go alike: + The third throw takes the bite.' + +I express myself confident of outwitting or circumventing a certain man who +is notoriously cautious and wide-awake, and the listener says to me:--'Oh, +what a chance you have--_catch a weasel asleep_' (general). + +In connexion with this may be given another proverb: of a notoriously +wide-awake cautious man, it is said:--'He sleeps a hare's sleep--with one +eye open.' For it was said one time that weasels were in the habit of +sucking the blood of hares in their sleep; and as weasels had much +increased, the hares took to the plan of sleeping with one eye at a time; +'and when that's rested and _slep_ enough, they open it and shut the +other.' (From 'The Building of Mourne,' by Dr. Robert Dwyer Joyce.) {120} + +This last perpetuates a legend as old as our literature. In one of the +ancient Irish classical tales, the story is told of a young lady so +beautiful that all the young chiefs of the territory were in love with her +and laying plans to take her off. So her father, to defeat them, slept with +only one eye at a time. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER IX. + +EXAGGERATION AND REDUNDANCY. + +I have included both in this Chapter, for they are nearly related; and it +is often hard to draw a precise line of distinction. + +We in Ireland are rather prone to exaggeration, perhaps more so than the +average run of peoples. Very often the expressions are jocose, or the +person is fully conscious of the exaggeration; but in numerous cases there +is no joke at all: but downright seriousness: all which will be seen in the +following examples. + +A common saying about a person of persuasive tongue or with a beautiful +voice in singing:--'He would coax the birds off the bushes.' This is +borrowed from the Irish. In the 'Lament of Richard Cantillon' (in Irish) he +says that at the musical voice of the lady 'the seals would come up from +the deep, the stag down from the mist-crag, and the thrush from the tree.' +(Petrie: 'Anc. Mus. of Ireland.') + +Of a noted liar and perjurer it was said 'He would swear that a coal porter +was a canary.' {121} + +A man who is unlucky, with whom everything goes wrong:--'If that man got a +hen to hatch duck eggs, the young ducks would be drowned.' Or again, 'If +that man sowed oats in a field, a crop of turnips would come up.' Or: 'He +is always in the field when luck is on the road.' + +The following expression is often heard:--'Ah, old James Buckley is a fine +piper: _I'd give my eyes_ to be listening to him.' + +That fellow is so dirty that if you flung him against a wall he'd stick. +(Patterson: Ulster.) + +Two young men are about to set off to seek their fortunes, leaving their +young brother Rory to stay with their mother. But Rory, a hard active merry +cute little fellow, proposes to go with them:--'I'll follow ye to the +world's end.' On which the eldest says to him--a half playful threat:--'You +presumptious little atomy of a barebones, if I only see the size of a +thrush's ankle of you follyin' us on the road, I'll turn back and bate that +wiry and freckled little carcase of yours into frog's-jelly!' (Robert Dwyer +Joyce: 'The Building of Mourne.') + +'Did Johnny give you any of his sugar-stick?' 'Oh not very much indeed: +hardly the size of a thrush's ankle.' This term is often used. + +Of a very morose sour person you will hear it said:--'If that man looked at +a pail of new milk he'd turn it into curds and whey.' + +A very thin man, or one attenuated by sickness:--'You could blow him off +your hand.' + +A poor fellow complains of the little bit of meat he got for his +dinner:--'It was no more than a daisy in a bull's mouth!' Another says of +_his_ dinner {122} when it was in his stomach:--'It was no more than a +midge in the Glen of the Downs.' + +Exhorting a messenger to be quick:--'Don't be there till you're back +again.' Another way:--'Now run as quick as you can, and if you fall don't +wait to get up.' Warning a person to be expeditious in any work you put him +to:--'Now don't let grass grow under your feet.' Barney urging on the ass +to go quickly:--'Come Bobby, don't let grass grow under your feet.' +('Knocknagow.') + +If a person is secretly very willing to go to a place--as a lover to the +house of the girl's parents:--'You could lead him there with a halter of +snow.' + +'Is this razor sharp?' 'Sharp!--why _'twould shave a mouse asleep_.' + +A lazy fellow, fond of sitting at the fire, _has the A B C on his shins_, +i.e. they are blotched with the heat. + +Of an inveterate talker:--That man would talk the teeth out of a saw. + +A young fellow gets a great fright:--'It frightened him out of a year's +growth.' + +When Nancy saw the master so angry she was frightened out of her wits: or +frightened out of her seven senses. When I saw the horse ride over him I +was frightened out of my life. + +A great liar, being suddenly pressed for an answer, told the truth for +once. He told the truth because he was _shook_ for a lie; i.e. no lie was +ready at hand. _Shook_, to be bad, in a bad way: shook for a thing, to be +badly in want of it and not able to get it. + +Of a very lazy fellow:--He would not knock a coal off his foot: i.e. when a +live coal happens to {123} fall on his foot while sitting by the fire, he +wouldn't take the trouble to knock it off. + +Says the dragon to Manus:--'If ever I see you here again I'll hang a +quarter of you on every tree in the wood.' (Crofton Croker.) + +If a person is pretty badly hurt, or suffers hardship, he's _kilt_ +(killed): a fellow gets a fall and his friend comes up to inquire:--'Oh let +me alone I'm kilt and speechless.' I heard a Dublin nurse say, 'Oh I'm kilt +minding these four children.' 'The bloody throopers are coming to kill and +quarther an' murther every mother's sowl o' ye.' (R. D. Joyce.) The parlour +bell rings impatiently for the third time, and Lowry Looby the servant +says, 'Oh murther there goes the bell again, I'll be kilt entirely.' +(Gerald Griffin.) If a person is really badly hurt he's _murthered +entirely_. A girl telling about a fight in a fair:--'One poor boy was kilt +dead for three hours on a car, breathing for all the world like a corpse!' + +If you don't stop your abuse I'll give you a shirt full of sore bones. + +Yes, poor Jack was once well off, but now he hasn't as much money as would +jingle on a tombstone. + +That cloth is very coarse: why you could shoot straws through it. + +Strong dislike:--I don't like a bone in his body. + +'Do you know Bill Finnerty well?' 'Oh indeed I know every bone in his +body,' i.e. I know him and all his ways intimately. + +A man is low stout and very fat: if you met him in the street you'd rather +jump over him than walk round him. {124} + +He knew as much Latin as if he swallowed a dictionary. (Gerald Griffin.) + +The word _destroy_ is very often used to characterize any trifling damage +easily remedied:--That car splashed me, and my coat is all destroyed. + +'They kept me dancin' for 'em in the kitchen,' says Barney Broderick, 'till +I hadn't a leg to put under me.' ('Knocknagow.') + +This farm of mine is as bad land as ever a crow flew over. + +He's as great a rogue as ever stood in shoe-leather. + +When Jack heard the news of the money that was coming to him he was +_jumping out of his skin_ with delight. + +I bought these books at an auction, and I got them for a song: in fact I +got them for half nothing. + +Very bad slow music is described as _the tune the old cow died of_. + +A child is afraid of a dog: '_Yerra_ he won't touch you': meaning 'he won't +bite you.' + +A man having a very bad aim in shooting:--'He wouldn't hit a hole in a +ladder.' + +Carleton's blind fiddler says to a young girl: 'You could dance _the +Colleen dhas dhown_ [a jig] upon a spider's cobweb without breaking it.' + +An ill-conducted man:--'That fellow would shame a field of tinkers.' The +tinkers of sixty years ago, who were not remarkable for their honesty or +good conduct, commonly travelled the country in companies, and camped out +in fields or wild places. + +I was dying to hear the news; i.e. excessively anxious. {125} + +Where an Englishman will say 'I shall be pleased to accept your +invitation,' an Irishman will say 'I will be delighted to accept,' &c. + +Mick Fraher is always eating garlick and his breath has a terrible smell--a +smell of garlick strong enough to hang your hat on. + +A mean thief:--He'd steal a halfpenny out of a blind beggarman's hat. (P. +Reilly: Kild.) + +A dexterous thief:--He'd steal the sugar out of your punch. + +An inveterate horse thief:--Throw a halter in his grave and he'll start up +and steal a horse. + +Of an impious and dexterous thief:--'He'd steal the cross off an ass's +back,' combining skill and profanation. According to the religious legend +the back of the ass is marked with a cross ever since the day of our Lord's +public entry into Jerusalem upon an ass. + +A man who makes unreasonably long visits--who outstays his welcome:--'If +that man went to a wedding he'd wait for the christening.' + +I once asked a young Dublin lady friend was she angry at not getting an +invitation to the party: 'Oh I was fit to be tied.' A common expression +among us to express great indignation. + +A person is expressing confidence that a certain good thing will happen +which will bring advantage to everyone, but which after all is very +unlikely, and someone replies:--'Oh yes: when the sky falls we'll all catch +larks.' + +A useless unavailing proceeding, most unlikely to be attended with any +result, such as trying to persuade a person who is obstinately bent on +having his {126} own way:--'You might as well be whistling jigs to a +milestone' [expecting it to dance]. + +'Would you know him if you saw him?' 'Would I know him!--why I'd know his +skin in a tan-yard'--'I'd know his shadow on a furze-bush!' + +A person considered very rich:--That man is _rotten with money_. He doesn't +know what to do with his money. + +You gave me a great start: you put the heart across in me: my heart jumped +into my mouth. The people said that Miss Mary Kearney put the heart across +in Mr. Lowe, the young Englishman visitor. ('Knocknagow.') + +I heard Mat Halahan the tailor say to a man who had just fitted on a new +coat:--That coat fits you just as if you were melted into it. + +He is as lazy as the dog that always puts his head against the wall to +bark. (Moran: Carlow.) + +In running across the field where the young people were congregated Nelly +Donovan trips and falls: and Billy Heffernan, running up, says:--'Oh Nelly +did you fall: come here till I take you up.' ('Knocknagow.') + +'The road flew under him,' to express the swiftness of a man galloping or +running afoot. + +Bessie Morris was such a flirt that Barney Broderick said she'd coort a +haggard of sparrows. ('Knocknagow.') + + I wish I were on yonder hill, + 'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill, + Till ev'ry tear would turn a mill. + + (_Shool Aroon_: 'Old Irish Folk Song.') + +{127} + +But after all this is not half so great an exaggeration as what the +cultivated English poet wrote:-- + + I found her on the floor + In all the storm of grief, yet beautiful, + Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate, + That were the world on fire it might have drowned + The wrath of Heaven and quenched the mighty ruin. + +A great dandy wears his hat on three hairs of his head. + +He said such funny things that the company were _splitting their sides_ +laughing. + +Matt Donovan (in 'Knocknagow') says of his potatoes that had fine stalks +but little produce--_desavers_ as he called them--Every stalk of 'em would +make a rafter for a house. But put the best man in the parish to dig 'em +and a duck would swallow all he'd be able to turn out from morning till +night. + +Sometimes distinct numbers come in where they hardly apply. Not long ago I +read in an article in the 'Daily Mail' by Mr. Stead, of British 'ships all +over the seven seas.' So also here at home we read 'round the four seas of +Ireland' (which is right enough): and 'You care for nothing in the world +but your own four bones' (i.e. nothing but yourself). 'Come on then, old +beer-swiller, and try yourself against the four bones of an Irishman' (R. +D. Joyce: 'The House of Lisbloom.') _Four bones_ in this sense is very +common. + +A person meeting a friend for the first time after a long interval says +'Well, it's a cure for sore eyes to see you.' 'I haven't seen you now for a +month of {128} Sundays,' meaning a long time. _A month of Sundays_ is +thirty-one Sundays--seven or eight months. + +Said jokingly of a person with very big feet:--He wasn't behind the door +anyway when the feet were giving out. + +When a man has to use the utmost exertion to accomplish anything or to +escape a danger he says: 'That business put me to the pin of my collar.' +The allusion is to a fellow whose clothes are falling off him for want of +buttons and pins. At last to prevent the final catastrophe he has to pull +out the brass pin that fastens his collar and pin waistcoat and +trousers-band together. + +A poor woman who is about to be robbed shrieks out for help; when the +villain says to her:--'Not another word or I'll stick you like a pig and +give you your guts for garters.' ('Ir. Penny Magazine.') + +A man very badly off--all in rags:--'He has forty-five ways of getting into +his coat now.' (MacCall: Wexford.) + +A great miser--very greedy for money:--He heard the money jingling in his +mother's pockets before he was born. (MacCall: Wexford.) + + A drunken man is a terrible curse, + But a drunken woman is twice as worse; + For she'd drink Lough Erne dry. + + (MACCALL.) + +To a person who habitually uses unfortunate blundering expressions:--'You +never open your mouth but you put your foot in it.' + +A girl to express that it is unlikely she will ever be married says: 'I +think, miss, my husband's intended mother died an old maid.' ('Penelope in +Ireland.') {129} + +A young man speaking of his sweetheart says, in the words of the old +song:-- + + 'I love the ground she walks upon, _mavourneen gal mochree_' + (thou fair love of my heart). + +A conceited pompous fellow approaches:--'Here comes _half the town_!' A +translation from the Irish _leath an bhaile_. + +Billy Heffernan played on his fife a succession of jigs and reels that +might 'cure a paralytic' [and set him dancing]. ('Knocknagow.') + +In 'Knocknagow' Billy Heffernan being requested to play on his fife longer +than he considered reasonable, asked did they think that he had the bellows +of Jack Delany the blacksmith in his stomach? + +Said of a great swearer:--'He'd swear a hole in an iron pot.' + +Of another:--'He'd curse the bladder out of a goat.' + +Of still another:--'He could quench a candle at the other side of the +kitchen with a curse.' + +A person is much puzzled, or is very much elated, or his mind is disturbed +for any reason:--'He doesn't know whether it is on his head or his heels +he's standing. + +A penurious miserable creature who starves himself to hoard up:--He could +live on the smell of an oil-rag. (Moran: Carlow.) + +A man complaining that he has been left too long fasting says:--'My stomach +will think that my throat is cut.' (MacCall: Wexford.) + +'Do you like the new American bacon?' 'Oh not at all: I tried it once and +that's enough for me: _I_ {130} _wouldn't touch it with a tongs._' Very +common and always used in depreciation as here. + +We in Ireland are much inclined to redundancy in our speech. It is quite +observable--especially to an outsider--that even in our ordinary +conversation and in answering simple questions we use more words than we +need. We hardly ever confine ourselves to the simple English _yes_ or _no_; +we always answer by a statement. 'Is it raining, Kitty?' 'Oh no sir, it +isn't raining at all.' 'Are you going to the fair to-day?' 'No indeed I am +not.' 'Does your father keep on the old business still?' 'Oh yes certainly +he does: how could he get on without it?' 'Did last night's storm injure +your house?' 'Ah you may well say it did.' A very distinguished Dublin +scholar and writer, having no conscious leanings whatever towards the Irish +language, mentioned to me once that when he went on a visit to some friends +in England they always observed this peculiarity in his conversation, and +often laughed at his roundabout expressions. He remarked to me--and an +acute remark it was--that he supposed there must be some peculiarity of +this kind in the Irish language; in which conjecture he was quite correct. +For this peculiarity of ours--like many others--is borrowed from the Irish +language, as anyone may see for himself by looking through an Irish book of +question and answer, such as a Catechism. 'Is the Son God?' 'Yes certainly +He is.' 'Will God reward the good and punish the wicked?' 'Certainly: there +is no doubt He will.' 'Did God always exist?' 'He did; because He has +neither beginning nor end.' And questions and answers like these--from +Donlevy's {131} Irish Catechism for instance--might be given to any length. + +But in many other ways we show our tendency to this wordy overflow--still +deriving our mannerism from the Irish language--that is to say, from modern +and middle Irish. For in very old Irish--of the tenth, eleventh, and +earlier centuries for instance, the tendency is the very reverse. In the +specimens of this very old language that have come down to us, the words +and phrases are so closely packed, that it is impossible to translate them +either into English or Latin by an equal number of words.[3] But this old +language is too far off from us to have any influence in our present +every-day English speech; and, as already remarked, we derive this +peculiarity from modern Irish, or from middle Irish through modern. Here is +a specimen in translation of over-worded modern Irish (Battle of Gavra, p. +141), a type of what was very common:--'Diarmuid himself [fighting] +continued in the enjoyment of activity, strength, and vigour, without +intermission of action, of weapons, or of power; until at length he dealt a +full stroke of his keen hard-tempered sword on the king's head, by which he +clove the skull, and by a second stroke swept his head off his huge body.' +Examples like this, from Irish texts, both modern and middle, might be +multiplied to any extent. + +{132} + +But let us now have a look at some of our Anglo-Irish redundancies, mixed +up as they often are with exaggeration. A man was going to dig by night for +a treasure, which of course had a supernatural guardian, like all hidden +treasures, and what should he see running towards him but 'a great big red +mad bull, with fire flaming out of his eyes, mouth, and nose.' (Ir. Pen. +Mag.) Another man sees a leprechaun walking up to him--'a weeny deeny dawny +little atomy of an idea of a small taste of a gentleman.' (_Ibid._) Of a +person making noise and uproar you will be told that he was roaring and +screeching and bawling and making a terrible hullabulloo all through the +house. + +Of an emaciated poor creature--'The breath is only just in and out of him, +and the grass doesn't know of him walking over it.' + +'The gentlemen are not so pleasant _in themselves_' [now as they used to +be]. (Gerald Griffin.) Expressions like this are very often heard: 'I was +dead in myself,' i.e., I felt dull and lifeless. + +[Dermot struck the giant and] 'left him dead without life.' ('Dermot and +Grainne.') Further on we find the same expression--_marbh gan anam_, dead +without life. This Irish expression is constantly heard in our English +dialect: 'he fell from the roof and was _killed dead_.' + + Oh brave King Brian, he knew the way + To keep the peace and to make the hay: + For those who were bad he cut off their head; + And those who were worse he killed them dead. + +Similarly the words 'dead and buried' are used all through Munster:--Oh +indeed poor Jack Lacy is {133} dead and buried for the last two years: or +'the whole family are dead and gone these many years.' + +A very common Irish expression is 'I invited _every single one_ of them.' +This is merely a translation from Irish, as we find in 'Gabhra':--_Do +bhearmaois gach aon bhuadh_: we were wont to win every single victory. + +'We do not want any single one of them,' says Mr. Hamilton Fyfe ('Daily +Mail'). He puts the saying into the mouth of another; but the phraseology +is probably his own: and at any rate I suppose we may take it as a phrase +from Scotch Gaelic, which is all but the same as Irish Gaelic. + +Emphatic particles and words, especially the pronouns with _self_, are +often used to excess. I heard a highly educated fellow-countryman say, 'I +must say myself that I don't believe it': and I am afraid I often use such +expressions myself. 'His companions remained standing, but he found it more +convenient to sit down himself.' A writer or speaker has however to be on +his guard or he may be led into a trap. A writer having stated that some +young ladies attended a cookery-class, first merely looking on, goes on to +say that after a time they took part in the work, and soon learned _to cook +themselves_. + +I once heard a man say:--'I disown the whole family, _seed, breed and +generation_.' Very common in Ireland. Goldsmith took the expression from +his own country, and has immortalised it in his essay, 'The Distresses of a +Common Soldier.' + +He was on the tip-top of the steeple--i.e., the very top. This expression +is extended in application: that {134} meadow is tip-top, i.e., very +excellent: he is a tip-top hurler. 'By no means' is sometimes expanded:--'I +asked him to lend me a pound, but he answered that _by no manner of means_ +would he do any such thing.' + +'If you do that you'll be crying down salt tears,' i.e., 'you'll deeply +regret it.' _Salt tears_ is however in Shakespeare in the same sense. +('Hen. VI.') + +'Down with you now on your two bended knees and give thanks to God.' + +If you don't stop, I'll wring the head off o' your neck. (Rev. Maxwell +Close.) + +The roof of the house fell down on the top of him. (Father Higgins.) + +The Irish _air se_ ('says he') is very often repeated in the course of a +narrative. It is correct in Irish, but it is often heard echoed in our +English where it is incorrect:--And says he to James 'where are you going +now?' says he. + +In a trial in Dublin a short time ago, the counsel asked of witness:--'Now +I ask you in the most solemn manner, had you hand, act, or part in the +death of Peter Heffernan?' + +A young man died after injuries received in a row, and his friend +says:--'It is dreadful about the poor boy: they made at him in the house +and killed him there; then they dragged him out on the road and killed him +entirely, so that he lived for only three days after. I wouldn't mind if +they shot him at once and put an end to him: but to be murdering him like +that--it is terrible.' + +The fairy says to Billy:--'I am a thousand years old to-day, and I think it +is time for me to get {135} married.' To which Billy replies:--'I think it +is quite time without any kind of doubt at all.' (Crofton Croker.) + +The squire walks in to Patrick's cabin: and Patrick says:--'Your honour's +honour is quite welcome entirely.' (Crofton Croker.) + +An expression you will often hear even in Dublin:--'Lend me the loan of +your umbrella.' + +'She doats down on him' is often used to express 'She is very fond of him.' + + 'So, my Kathleen, you're going to leave me + All alone by myself in this place.' + + (LADY DUFFERIN.) + +He went to America seven years ago, and from that day to this we have never +heard any tale or tidings of him. + +'Did he treat you hospitably?' 'Oh indeed he pretended to forget it +entirely, and I never took bit, bite, or sup in his house.' This form of +expression is heard everywhere in Ireland. + +We have in Ireland an inveterate habit--from the highest to the +lowest--educated and uneducated--of constantly interjecting the words 'you +know' into our conversation as a mere expletive, without any particular +meaning:--'I had it all the time, you know, in my pocket: he had a seat, +you know, that he could arrange like a chair: I was walking, you know, into +town yesterday, when I met your father.' 'Why in the world did you lend him +such a large sum of money?' 'Well, you know, the fact is I couldn't avoid +it.' This expression is often varied to 'don't you know.' + +In Munster a question is often introduced by the {136} words 'I don't +know,' always shortened to _I'd'no_ (three syllables with the _I_ long and +the _o_ very short--barely sounded) 'I'd'no is John come home yet?' This +phrase you will often hear in Dublin from Munster people, both educated and +uneducated. + +'The t'other' is often heard in Armagh: it is, of course, English:-- + + 'Sirs,' cried the umpire, cease your pother, + The creature's neither one nor t'other. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER X. + +COMPARISONS. + +Some of the items in this chapter would fit very well in the last; but this +makes no matter; for 'good punch drinks well from either dandy or tumbler.' + +You attempt in vain to bring a shameless coarse-minded man to a sense of +the evil he has done:--'Ye might as well put a blister on a hedgehog.' +(Tyrone.) + +You're as cross all this day as _a bag of cats_. + +If a man is inclined to threaten much but never acts up to his +threats--severe in word but mild in act:--His bark is worse than his bite. + +That turf is as dry as a bone (very common in Munster.) _Bone-dry_ is the +term in Ulster. + +When a woman has very thick legs, thick almost down to the feet, she is +'like a Mullingar heifer, beef to the heels.' The plains of Westmeath round +Mullingar are noted for fattening cattle. {137} + +He died roaring like Doran's bull. + +A person restless, uneasy, fidgety, and impatient for the time being, is +'like a hen on a hot griddle.' + +Of a scapegrace it is said he is past _grace_ like a limeburner's brogue +(shoe). The point will be caught up when it is remembered that _grease_ is +pronounced _grace_ in Ireland. + +You're as blind as a bat. + +When a person is boastful--magnifies all his belongings--'all his geese are +swans.' + +She has a tongue that would _clip a hedge_. The tongue of another would +_clip clouts_ (cut rags). (Ulster.) + +He went _as fast as hops_. When a fellow is hopping along on one leg, he +has to go fast, without stopping. + +Of a coarse ill-mannered man who uses unmannerly language:--'What could you +expect from a pig but a _grunt_.' (Carlow.) + +A person who seems to be getting smaller is growing down like a cow's tail. + +Of a wiry muscular active man people say 'he's as hard as nails.' + +A person who acts inconsiderately and rudely without any restraint and +without respect for others, is 'like a bull in a china shop.' + +Of a clever artful schemer: 'If he didn't go to school he met the +scholars.' + +An active energetic person is 'all alive like a bag of fleas.' + +That man knows no more about farming _than a cow knows of a holiday_. + +A tall large woman:--'That's a fine doorful of a woman.' (MacCall: +Wexford.) {138} + +He has a face as yellow as a kite's claw. (Crofton Croker: but heard +everywhere.) + +Jerry in his new clothes is as proud as a whitewashed pig. (MacCall: +Wexford.) + +That man is as old as a field. (Common in Tipperary.) + +'Are you well protected in that coat?' 'Oh yes I'm _as warm as wool_.' +(Very common in the south.) + +Idle for want of weft _like the Drogheda weavers_. Said of a person who +runs short of some necessary material in doing any work. (Limerick.) + +I watched him as closely as a cat watches a mouse. + +He took up the book; but seeing the owner suddenly appear, he dropped it +_like a hot potato_. + +'You have a head and so has a pin,' to express contempt for a person's +understanding. + +How are your new stock of books selling? Oh they are _going like hot +cakes_. Hot cakes are a favourite viand, and whenever they are brought to +table disappear quickly enough. + +He's as poor as a church mouse. + +A person expressing love mockingly:--'Come into my heart and pick sugar.' + +An extremely thin emaciated person is _like death upon wires_; alluding to +a human skeleton held together by wires. + +Oh you need never fear that Mick O'Brien will cheat you: _Mick is as honest +as the sun_. + +A person who does not persevere in any one study or pursuit, who is +perpetually changing about from one thing to another, is 'like a +daddy-long-legs dancing on a window.' {139} + +A bitter tongue that utters cutting words is like the keen wind of March +that blows at every side of the hedge. + +A person praising strong whiskey says:--I felt it like a torchlight +procession going down my throat. + +A man with a keen sharp look in his face:--'He has an eye like a questing +hawk.' Usually said in an unfavourable sense. + +If any commodity is supplied plentifully it is knocked about _like snuff at +a wake_. Snuff was supplied free at wakes; and the people were not sparing +of it as they got it for nothing. + +A chilly day:--'There's a stepmother's breath in the air.' + +Now Biddy clean and polish up those spoons and knives and forks carefully; +don't stop till you make them shine _like a cat's eye under a bed_. +(Limerick.) + +It is foolish to threaten unless you have--and show that you have--full +power to carry out your threats:--'Don't show your teeth till you're able +to bite.' + +_Greasing the fat sow's lug_: i.e. giving money or presents to a rich man +who does not need them. (Kildare.) + +I went on a visit to Tom and he _fed me like a fighting cock_. + +That little chap is as cute as a pet fox. + +A useless worthless fellow:--He's fit to mind mice at a cross-roads. +(Kildare.) + +How did he look? Oh he had a weaver's blush--pale cheek and a red nose. +(Wexford.) + +When a person clinches an argument, or puts a hard fact in opposition, or a +poser of any kind hard to answer:--'Put that in your pipe and smoke it.' +{140} + +'My stomach is as dry as a lime-burner's wig.' There were professional +lime-burners then: alas, we have none now. + +I want a drink badly: my throat is as dry as the pipe of Dick the +blacksmith's bellows. + +Poor Manus was terribly frightened; he stood shaking _like a dog in a wet +sack_. (Crofton Croker: but heard everywhere in Ireland.) + +'As happy as the days are long': that is to say happy while the days +last--uninterruptedly happy. + +Spending your money before you get it--going in debt till pay day comes +round: that's 'eating the calf in the cow's belly.' + +He hasn't as much land as would sod a lark; as much as would make a sod for +a lark in a cage. + +That fellow is _as crooked an a ram's horn_; i.e. he is a great schemer. +Applied also in general to anything crooked. + +'Do you mean to say he is a thief?' 'Yes I do; last year he stole sheep _as +often as he has fingers and toes_' (meaning very often). + +You're as welcome as the flowers of May. + +'Biddy, are the potatoes boiling?' Biddy takes off the lid to look, and +replies 'The _white horses_ are on 'em ma'am.' The _white horses_ are +patches of froth on the top of the pot when the potatoes are coming near +boiling. + +That's as firm as the Rock of Cashel--as firm as the hob of hell. + +That man would tell lies as fast as a horse would trot. + +A person who does his business briskly and energetically 'works like a +hatter'--'works like a {141} nailer'--referring to the fussy way of these +men plying their trade. + +A conceited fellow having a dandy way of lifting and placing his legs and +feet in moving about 'walks like a hen in stubbles.' + +A person who is cool and collected under trying circumstances is 'as cool +as a cucumber.' Here the alliteration helps to popularise the saying. + +I must put up the horses now and have them 'as clean as a new pin' for the +master. + +A person who does good either to an individual or to his family or to the +community, but afterwards spoils it all by some contrary course of conduct, +is like a cow that fills the pail, but kicks it over in the end. + +A person quite illiterate 'wouldn't know a B from a bull's foot.' The +catching point here is partly alliteration, and partly that a bull's foot +has some resemblance to a B. + +Another expression for an illiterate man:--He wouldn't know a C from a +chest of drawers--where there is a weak alliteration. + +He'll tell you a story as long as to-day and to-morrow. Long enough: for +you have to wait on indefinitely for 'to-morrow': or as they say 'to-morrow +come never.' + +'You'll lose that handkerchief _as sure as a gun_.' + +That furrow is _as straight as a die_. + +A person who does neither good nor harm--little ill, little good--is 'like +a chip in porridge': almost always said as a reproach. + +I was _on pins and needles_ till you came home: i.e. I was very uneasy. +{142} + +The story went round like wildfire: i.e. circulated rapidly. + +Of a person very thin:--He's 'as fat as a hen in the forehead.' + +A man is staggering along--not with drink:--That poor fellow is 'drunk with +hunger like a showman's dog.' + +Dick and Bill are 'as great as inkle-weavers:' a saying very common in +Limerick and Cork. _Inkle_ is a kind of broad linen tape: a Shakespearian +word. 'Several pieces of it were formerly woven in the same loom, by as +many boys, who sat close together on the same seat-board.' (Dr. A. Hume.) + +William is 'the spit out of his father's mouth'; i.e. he is strikingly like +his father either in person or character or both. Another expression +conveying the same sense:--'Your father will never die while you are +alive': and 'he's a chip off the old block.' Still another, though not +quite so strong:--'He's his father's son.' Another saying to the same +effect--'kind father for him'--is examined elsewhere. + +'I'm a man in myself like Oliver's bull,' a common saying in my native +place (in Limerick), and applied to a confident self-helpful person. The +Olivers were the local landlords sixty or seventy years ago. (For a tune +with this name see my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' p. 46.) + +A person is asked to do any piece of work which ought to be done by his +servant:--'Aye indeed, _keep a dog and bark myself_.' + +That fellow walks as straight up and stiff as if he took _a breakfast of +ramrods_. + +A man who passes through many dangers or {143} meets with many bad +accidents and always escapes has 'as many lives as a cat.' Everyone knows +that a cat has nine lives. + +_Putting on the big pot_ means empty boasting and big talk. Like a woman +who claps a large pot of water on the fire to boil a weeny little bit of +meat--which she keeps out of sight--pretending she has _launa-vaula_, +_lashings and leavings_, full and plenty. + +If a man is in low spirits--depressed--down in the mouth--'his heart is as +low as a keeroge's kidney' (_keeroge_, a beetle or clock). This last now +usually said in jest. + +James O'Brien is a good scholar, but he's not _in it_ with Tom Long: +meaning that he is not at all to be compared with Tom Long. + +If a person is indifferent about any occurrence--doesn't care one way or +the other--he is 'neither glad nor sorry like a dog at his father's wake.' +(South.) + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE MEMORY OF HISTORY AND OF OLD CUSTOMS. + +_Church_, _Chapel_, _Scallan_. All through Ireland it is customary to call +a Protestant place of worship a 'church,' and that belonging to Roman +Catholics a 'chapel': and this usage not only prevails among the people, +but has found its way into official documents. For instance, take the +Ordnance maps. In almost every village and town on the map you will {144} +see in one place the word 'Church,' while near by is printed 'R.C. Chapel.' +This custom has its roots far back in the time when it was attempted to +extend the doctrines of the Reformation to Ireland. Then wherever the +authority of the government prevailed, the church belonging to the +Catholics was taken from them; the priest was expelled; and a Protestant +minister was installed. But the law went much farther, and forbade under +fearful penalties the celebration of Mass--penalties for both priest and +congregation. As the people had now no churches, the custom began of +celebrating Mass in the open air, always in remote lonely places where +there was little fear of discovery. Many of these places retain to this day +names formed from the Irish word _Affrionn_ [affrin], the Mass; such as the +mountain called Knockanaffrinn in Waterford (the hill of the Mass), +Ardanaffrinn, Lissanaffrinn, and many others. While Mass was going on, a +watcher was always placed on an adjacent height to have a look-out for the +approach of a party of military, or of a spy with the offered reward in +view. + +After a long interval however, when the sharp fangs of the Penal Laws began +to be blunted or drawn, the Catholics commenced to build for themselves +little places of worship: very timidly at first, and always in some +out-of-the-way place. But they had many difficulties to contend with. +Poverty was one of them; for the great body of the congregations were +labourers or tradesmen, as the Catholic people had been almost crushed out +of existence, soul and body, for five or six generations, by the terrible +Penal Laws, which, with careful attention to details, omitted nothing {145} +that could impoverish and degrade them. But even poverty, bad as it was, +never stood decidedly in the way; for the buildings were not expensive, and +the poor people gladly contributed shillings coppers and labour for the +luxury of a chapel. A more serious obstacle was the refusal of landlords in +some districts to lease a plot of land for the building. In Donegal and +elsewhere they had a movable little wooden shed that just sheltered the +priest and the sacred appliances while he celebrated Mass, and which was +wheeled about from place to place in the parish wherever required. A shed +of this kind was called a _scallan_ (Irish: a shield, a protecting +shelter). Some of these _scallans_ are preserved with reverence to this +day, as for instance one in Carrigaholt in Clare, where a large district +was for many years without any Catholic place of worship, as the local +landlord obstinately refused to let a bit of land. You may now see that +very _scallan_--not much larger than a sentry-box--beside the new chapel in +Carrigaholt. + +And so those humble little buildings gradually rose up all over the +country. Then many of the small towns and villages through the country +presented this spectacle. In one place was the 'decent church' that had +formerly belonged to the Catholics, now in possession of a Protestant +congregation of perhaps half a dozen--church, minister, and clerk +maintained by contributions of tithes forced from the Catholic people; and +not far off a poor little thatched building with clay floor and rough walls +for a Roman Catholic congregation of 500, 1000, or more, all except the few +that found room within kneeling on {146} the ground outside, only too glad +to be able to be present at Mass under any conditions. + +These little buildings were always called 'chapels,' to distinguish them +from what were now the Protestant churches. Many of these primitive places +of worship remained in use to a period within living memory--perhaps some +remain still. When I was a boy I generally heard Mass in one of them, in +Ballyorgan, Co. Limerick: clay floor, no seats, walls of rough stone +unplastered, thatch not far above our heads. Just over the altar was +suspended a level canopy of thin boards, to hide the thatch from the sacred +spot: and on its under surface was roughly painted by some rustic artist a +figure of a dove--emblematic of the Holy Ghost--which to my childish fancy +was a work of art equal at least to anything ever executed by Michael +Angelo. Many and many a time I heard exhortations from that poor altar, +sometimes in English, sometimes in Irish, by the Rev. Darby Buckley, the +parish priest of Glenroe (of which Ballyorgan formed a part), delivered +with such earnestness and power as to produce extraordinary effects on the +congregation. You saw men and women in tears everywhere around you, and at +the few words of unstudied peroration they flung themselves on their knees +in a passionate burst of piety and sorrow. Ah, God be with Father Darby +Buckley: a small man, full of fire and energy: somewhat overbearing, and +rather severe in judging of small transgressions; but all the same, a great +and saintly parish priest. + +That little chapel has long been superseded by a solid structure, suitable +to the neighbourhood and its people. {147} + +What has happened in the neighbouring town of Kilfinane is still more +typical of the advance of the Catholics. There also stood a large thatched +chapel with a clay floor: and the Catholics were just beginning to emerge +from their state of servility when the Rev. Father Sheehy was appointed +parish priest about the beginning of the last century. He was a tall man of +splendid physique: when I was a boy I knew him in his old age, and even +then you could not help admiring his imposing figure. At that time the lord +of the soil was Captain Oliver, one of that Cromwellian family to whom was +granted all the district belonging to their Catholic predecessors, Sir John +Ponsonby and Sir Edward Fitzharris, both of whom were impeached and +disinherited, + +On the Monday morning following the new priest's first Mass he strolled +down to have a good view of the chapel and grounds, and was much astonished +to find in the chapel yard a cartload of oats in sheaf, in charge of a man +whom he recognized as having been at Mass on the day before. He called him +over and questioned him, on which the man told him that the captain had +sent him with the oats to have it threshed on the chapel floor, as he +always did. The priest was amazed and indignant, and instantly ordered the +man off the grounds, threatening him with personal chastisement, +which--considering the priest's brawny figure and determined look--he +perhaps feared more than bell book and candle. The exact words Father +Sheehy used were, 'If ever I find you here again with a load of oats or a +load of anything else, _I'll break your back for you_: and then I'll go up +and break your master's back too!' The {148} fellow went off hot foot with +his load, and told his master, expecting all sorts of ructions. But the +captain took it in good part, and had his oats threshed elsewhere: and as a +matter of fact he and the priest soon after met and became acquainted. + +In sending his corn to be threshed on the chapel floor, it is right to +remark that the captain intended no offence and no undue exercise of power; +and besides he was always careful to send a couple of men on Saturday +evening to sweep the floor and clean up the chapel for the service of next +day. But it was a custom of some years' standing, and Father Sheehy's +predecessor never considered it necessary to expostulate. It is likely +enough indeed that he himself got a few scratches in his day from the Penal +Laws, and thought it as well to let matters go on quietly. + +After a little time Father Sheehy had a new church built, a solid +slate-roofed structure suitable for the time, which, having stood for +nearly a century, was succeeded by the present church. This, which was +erected after almost incredible labour and perseverance in collecting the +funds by the late parish priest, the Very Rev. Patrick Lee, V.F., is one of +the most beautiful parish churches in all Ireland. What has happened in +Ballyorgan and Kilfinane may be considered a type of what has taken place +all over the country. Within the short space of a century the poor thatched +clay-floor chapels have been everywhere replaced by solid or beautiful or +stately churches, which have sprung up all through Ireland as if by magic, +through the exertions of the pastors, and the contributions of the people. +{149} + +This popular application of the terms 'chapel' and 'church' found--and +still finds--expression in many ways. Thus a man who neglects religion: 'he +never goes to Church, Mass, or Meeting' (this last word meaning +Non-conformist Service). A man says, 'I didn't see Jack Delany at Mass +to-day': 'Oh, didn't you hear about him--sure he's going to _church_ now' +(i.e. he has turned Protestant). 'And do they never talk of those [young +people] who go to church' [i.e. Protestants]. (Knocknagow.) + +The term 'chapel' has so ingrained itself in my mind that to this hour the +word instinctively springs to my lips when I am about to mention a Catholic +place of worship; and I always feel some sort of hesitation or reluctance +in substituting the word 'church.' I positively could not bring myself to +say, 'Come, it is time now to set out for church': it must be either 'Mass' +or 'the chapel.' + +I see no reason against our retaining these two words, with their +distinction; for they tell in brief a vivid chapter in our history. + +_Hedge-Schools._ Evil memories of the bad old penal days come down to us +clustering round this word. At the end of the seventeenth century, among +many other penal enactments,[4] a law was passed that Catholics were not to +be educated. Catholic schoolmasters were forbidden to teach, either in +schools or in private houses; and Catholic parents were forbidden to send +their children to any foreign country to be educated--all under heavy +penalties; from which it will be seen that care was taken to {150} deprive +Catholics--as such--altogether of the means of education. + +But priests and schoolmasters and people combined all through the +country--and not without some measure of success--to evade this unnatural +law. Schools were kept secretly, though at great risk, in remote places--up +in the mountain glens or in the middle of bogs. Half a dozen young men with +spades and shovels built up a rude cabin in a few hours, which served the +purpose of a schoolhouse: and from the common plan of erecting these in the +shelter of hedges, walls, and groves, the schools came to be known as +'Hedge Schools.' These hedge schools held on for generations, and kept +alive the lamp of learning, which burned on--but in a flickering +ineffective sort of way--'burned through long ages of darkness and +storm'--till at last the restrictions were removed, and Catholics were +permitted to have schools of their own openly and without let or hindrance. +Then the ancient hereditary love of learning was free to manifest itself +once more; and schools sprang up all over the country, each conducted by a +private teacher who lived on the fees paid by his pupils. Moreover, the old +designation was retained; for these schools, no longer held in wild places, +were called--as they are sometimes called to this day--'hedge schools.' + +The schools that arose in this manner, which were of different classes, +were spread all over the country during the eighteenth century and the +first half of the nineteenth. The most numerous were little elementary +schools, which will be described farther on. The higher class of schools, +which {151} answered to what we now call Intermediate schools, were found +all over the southern half of Ireland, especially in Munster. Some were for +classics, some for science, and not a few for both; nearly all conducted by +men of learning and ability; and they were everywhere eagerly attended. +'Many of the students had professions in view, some intended for the +priesthood, for which the classical schools afforded an admirable +preparation; some seeking to become medical doctors, teachers, surveyors, +&c. But a large proportion were the sons of farmers, tradesmen, +shopkeepers, or others, who had no particular end in view, but, with the +instincts of the days of old, studied classics or mathematics for the pure +love of learning. I knew many of that class. + +'These schools continued to exist down to our own time, till they were +finally broken up by the famine of 1847. In my own immediate neighbourhood +were some of them, in which I received a part of my early education; and I +remember with pleasure several of my old teachers; rough and unpolished men +many of them, but excellent solid scholars and full of enthusiasm for +learning--which enthusiasm they communicated to their pupils. All the +students were adults or grown boys; and there was no instruction in the +elementary subjects--reading, writing, and arithmetic--as no scholar +attended who had not sufficiently mastered these. Among the students were +always half a dozen or more "poor scholars" from distant parts of Ireland, +who lived free in the hospitable farmers' houses all round: just as the +scholars from Britain and elsewhere {152} were supported in the time of +Bede--twelve centuries before.'[5] + +In every town all over Munster there was--down to a period well within my +memory--one of those schools, for either classics or science--and in most +indeed there were two, one for each branch, besides one or more smaller +schools for the elementary branches, taught by less distinguished men. + +There was extraordinary intellectual activity among the schoolmasters of +those times: some of them indeed thought and dreamed and talked of nothing +else but learning; and if you met one of them and fell into conversation, +he was sure to give you a strong dose as long as you listened, heedless as +to whether you understood him or not. In their eyes learning was the main +interest of the world. They often met on Saturdays; and on these occasions +certain subjects were threshed out in discussion by the principal men. +There were often formal disputations when two of the chief men of a +district met, each attended by a number of his senior pupils, to discuss +some knotty point in dispute, of classics, science, or grammar. + +There was one subject that long divided the teachers of Limerick and +Tipperary into two hostile camps of learning--the verb _To be_. There is a +well-known rule of grammar that 'the verb _to be_ takes the same case after +it as goes before it.' One party headed by the two Dannahys, father and +son, very scholarly men, of north Limerick, held that the verb {153} _to be +governed_ the case following; while the other, at the head of whom was Mr. +Patrick Murray of Kilfinane in south Limerick, maintained that the +correspondence of the two cases, after and before, was mere _agreement_, +not _government_. And they argued with as much earnestness as the +Continental Nominalists and Realists of an older time. + +Sometimes the discussions on various points found their way into print, +either in newspapers or in special broadsheets coarsely printed; and in +these the mutual criticisms were by no means gentle. + +There were poets too, who called in the aid of the muses to help their +cause. One of these, who was only a schoolmaster in embryo--one of +Dannahy's pupils--wrote a sort of pedagogic Dunciad, in which he impaled +most of the prominent teachers of south Limerick who were followers of +Murray. Here is how he deals with Mr. Murray himself:-- + + Lo, forward he comes, in oblivion long lain, + Great Murray, the soul of the light-headed train; + A punster, a mimic, a jibe, and a quiz, + His acumen stamped on his all-knowing phiz: + He declares that the subsequent noun should _agree_ + With the noun or the pronoun preceding _To be_. + +Another teacher, from Mountrussell, was great in astronomy, and was +continually holding forth on his favourite subject and his own knowledge of +it. The poet makes him say:-- + + The course of a comet with ease I can trail, + And with my ferula I measure his tail; + On the wings of pure Science without a balloon + Like Baron Munchausen I visit the moon; + Along the ecliptic and great milky way, + In mighty excursions I soaringly stray; + With legs wide extended on the poles I can stand, + And like marbles the planets I toss in my hand. + +{154} + +The poet then, returning to his own words, goes on to say + + The gods being amused at his logical blab, + They built him a castle near Cancer the Crab. + +But this same astronomer, though having as we see a free residence, never +went to live there: he emigrated to Australia where he entered the +priesthood and ultimately became a bishop. + +One of the ablest of all the Munster teachers of that period was Mr. +Patrick Murray, already mentioned, who kept his school in the upper story +of the market house of Kilfinane in south Limerick. He was particularly +eminent in English Grammar and Literature. I went to his school for one +year when I was very young, and I am afraid I was looked upon as very slow, +especially in his pet subject Grammar. I never could be got to parse +correctly such complications as 'I might, could, would, or should have been +loving.' Mr. Murray was a poet too. I will give here a humorous specimen of +one of his parodies. It was on the occasion of his coming home one night +very late, and not as sober as he should be, when he got 'Ballyhooly' and +no mistake from his wife. It was after Moore's 'The valley lay smiling +before me'; and the following are two verses of the original with the +corresponding two of the parody, of which the opening line is 'The candle +was lighting before me.' But I have the whole parody in my memory. + + MOORE: I flew to her chamber--'twas lonely + As if the lov'd tenant lay dead; + Ah would it were death and death only, + But no, the young false one had fled. + {155} + And _there_ hung the lute that could soften + My very worst pains into bliss, + And the hand that had waked it so often + Now throbb'd to my proud rival's kiss. + + Already the curse is upon her + And strangers her valleys profane; + They come to divide--to dishonour-- + And tyrants there long will remain: + But onward--the green banner rearing, + Go flesh ev'ry brand to the hilt: + On _our_ side is Virtue and Erin, + And _theirs_ is the Saxon and Guilt. + + . . . . . . + + MURRAY: I flew to the room--'twas _not_ lonely: + My wife and her _grawls_ were in bed; + You'd think it was then and then only + The tongue had been placed in her head. + For there raged the voice that could soften + My very worst pains into bliss, + And those lips that embraced me so often + I dared not approach with a kiss. + + A change has come surely upon her:-- + The child which she yet did not _wane_ + She flung me--then rolled the clothes on her, + And naked we both now remain. + But had I been a man less forbearing + Your blood would be certainly spilt, + For on _my_ side there's plunging and tearing + And on _yours_ both the blankets and quilt. + +I was a pupil in four of the higher class of schools, in which was finished +my school education such as it was. The best conducted was that of Mr. John +Condon which was held in the upper story of the market house in +Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, a large apartment fully and properly furnished, +forming an admirable schoolroom. This was one of the best {156} schools in +Munster. It was truly an excellent Intermediate school, and was attended by +all the school-going students of the town, Protestant as well as +Catholic--with many from the surrounding country. Mr. Condon was a cultured +and scholarly man, and he taught science, including mathematics, surveying, +and the use of the globes, and also geography and English grammar. He had +an assistant who taught Greek and Latin. I was one of the very few who +attempted the double work of learning both science and classics. To learn +surveying we went once a week--on Saturdays--to Mr. Condon's farm near the +town, with theodolite and chain, in the use of which we all--i.e. those of +us learning the subject--had to take part in turn. Mr. Condon was thorough +master of the science of the Use of the Globes, a very beautiful branch of +education which gave the learners a knowledge of the earth, of the solar +system, and of astronomy in general. But the use of the globes no longer +forms a part of our school teaching:--more's the pity. + +The year before going to Mitchelstown I attended a science school of a very +different character kept by Mr. Simon Cox in Galbally, a little village in +Limerick under the shadow of the Galty Mountains. This was a very rough +sort of school, but mathematics and the use of the globes were well taught. +There were about forty students. Half a dozen were grown boys, of whom I +was one; the rest were men, mostly young, but a few in middle +life--schoolmasters bent on improving their knowledge of science in +preparation for opening schools in their own parts of the country. {157} + +In that school, and indeed in all schools like it through the country, +there were 'poor scholars,' a class already spoken of, who paid for +nothing--they were taught for nothing and freely entertained, with bed, +supper, and breakfast in the farmers' houses of the neighbourhood. We had +four or five of these, not one of whom knew in the morning where he was to +sleep at night. When school was over they all set out in different +directions, and called at the farmers' houses to ask for lodging; and +although there might be a few refusals, all were sure to be put up for the +night. They were expected however to help the children at their lessons for +the elementary school before the family retired. + +In some cases if a farmer was favourably impressed with a poor scholar's +manner and character he kept him--lodging and feeding him in his +house--during the whole time of his schooling--the young fellow paying +nothing of course, but always helping the little ones at their lessons. As +might be expected many of these poor scholars were made of the best stuff; +and I have now in my eye one who was entertained for a couple of years in +my grandmother's house, and who subsequently became one of the ablest and +most respected teachers in Munster. + +Let us remark here that this entertainment of poor scholars was not looked +upon in the light of a charity: it was regarded as a duty; for the instinct +ran in the people's blood derived from ancient times when Ireland was the +'Island of Saints and Scholars.'[6] It was a custom of long standing; for +{158} the popular feeling in favour of learning was always maintained, even +through the long dark night of the Penal Laws. + +'Tis marvellous how I escaped smoking: I had many opportunities in early +life, of which surely the best of all was this Galbally school. For every +one I think smoked except the half dozen boys, and even of these one or two +were learning industriously. And each scholar took his smoke without +ceremony in the schoolroom whenever he pleased, so that the room was never +quite clear of the fragrant blue haze. I remember well on one occasion, a +class of ten, of whom I was one, sitting round the master, whose chair +stood on a slightly elevated platform, and all, both master and scholars, +were smoking, except myself. The lesson was on some of the hard problems in +Luby's Euclid, which we had been unable to solve, and of which Mr. Cox was +now showing us the solutions. He made his diagram for each problem on a +large slate turned towards us; and as we knew the meaning of almost every +turn and twist of his pencil as he developed the solution, he spoke very +little; and we followed him over the diagram, _twigging_ readily the +function of every point, line, angle, and circle. And when at last someone +had to ask a brief question, Mr. Cox removed his pipe with his left hand +and uttered a few monosyllabic words, which enabled us to pick up the lost +thread; then replacing the pipe, he went on in silence as before. + +I was the delight and joy of that school; for I generally carried in my +pocket a little fife from which I could roll off jigs, reels, hornpipes, +hop-jigs, {159} song tunes, &c., without limit. The school was held in a +good-sized room in the second story of a house, of which the landlady and +her family lived in the kitchen and bedrooms beneath--on the ground-floor. +Some dozen or more of the scholars were always in attendance in the +mornings half an hour or so before the arrival of the master, of whom I was +sure to be one--what could they do without me?--and then out came the fife, +and they cleared the floor for a dance. It was simply magnificent to see +and hear these athletic fellows dancing on the bare boards with their +thick-soled well-nailed heavy shoes--so as to shake the whole house. And +not one in the lot was more joyous than I was; for they were mostly good +dancers and did full justice to my spirited strains. At last in came the +master: there was no cessation; and he took his seat, looking on +complacently till that bout was finished, when I put up my fife, and the +serious business of the day was commenced. + +We must now have a look at the elementary schools--for teaching Reading, +Writing, and Arithmetic to children. They were by far the most numerous, +for there was one in every village and hamlet, and two or three or more in +every town. These schools were very primitive and rude. The parish priests +appointed the teachers, and kept an eye over the schools, which were +generally mixed--boys and girls. There was no attempt at classification, +and little or no class teaching; the children were taught individually. +Each bought whatever Reading Book he or his parents pleased. So there was +an odd mixture. A very usual book was a 'Spelling and {160} Reading book,' +which was pretty sure to have the story of Tommy and Harry. In this there +were almost always a series of lessons headed 'Principles of Politeness,' +which were in fact selected from the writings of Chesterfield. In these +there were elaborate instructions how we were to comport ourselves in a +drawing room; and we were to be particularly careful when entering not to +let our sword get between our legs and trip us up. We were to bear offences +or insults from our companions as long as possible, but if a fellow went +too far we were to 'call him out.' It must be confessed there was some of +the 'calling out' business--though not in Chesterfield's sense; and if the +fellows didn't fight with pistols and swords, they gave and got some black +eyes and bloody noses. But this was at their peril; for if the master came +to hear of it, they were sure to get further punishment, though not exactly +on the face. + +Then some scholars had 'The Seven Champions of Christendom,' others 'St. +George and the Dragon,' or 'Don Bellianis of Greece,' 'The Seven Wonders of +the World,' or 'The History of Reynard the Fox,' a great favourite, +translated from an old German mock heroic. And sometimes I have seen girls +learning to read from a Catholic Prayerbook. Each had his lesson for next +day marked in pencil by the master, which he was to prepare. The pupils +were called up one by one each to read his own lesson--whole or part--for +the master, and woe betide him if he stumbled at too many words. + +The schools were nearly always held in the small ordinary dwelling-houses +of the people, or perhaps a {161} barn was utilised: at any rate there was +only one room. Not unfrequently the family that owned the house lived in +that same room--the kitchen--and went on with their simple household work +while the school was buzzing about their ears, neither in any way +interfering with the other. There was hardly ever any _school_ +furniture--no desks of any kind. There were seats enough, of a motley +kind--one or two ordinary forms placed at the walls: some chairs with +_sugaun_ seats; several little stools, and perhaps a few big stones. In +fine weather the scholars spent much of their time in the front yard in the +open air, where they worked their sums or wrote their copies with the +copybooks resting on their knees. + +When the priest visited one of these schools, which he did whenever in the +neighbourhood, it was a great event for both master and scholars. Conor +Leahy was one of those masters--a very rough diamond indeed, though a good +teacher and not over severe--whose school was in Fanningstown near my home. +One day Billy Moroney ran in breathless, with eyes starting out of his +head, to say--as well as he could get it out--that Father Bourke was coming +up the road. Now we were all--master and scholars--mortally afraid of +Father Bourke and his heavy brows--though never was fear more misplaced (p. +71). The master instantly bounced up and warned us to be of good +behaviour--not to stir hand or foot--while the priest was present. He +happened to be standing at the fireplace; and he finished up the brief and +vigorous exhortation by thumping his fist down on the hob:--'By this stone, +if one of ye opens your mouth while the priest is here, I'll knock your +{162} brains out after he's gone away!' That visit passed off in great +style. + +These elementary teachers, or 'hedge teachers,' as they were commonly +called, were a respectable body of men, and were well liked by the people. +Many of them were rough and uncultivated in speech, but all had sufficient +scholarship for their purpose, and many indeed very much more. They were +poor, for they had to live on the small fees of their pupils; but they +loved learning--so far as their attainments went--and inspired their pupils +with the same love. These private elementary schools gradually diminished +in numbers as the National Schools spread, and finally disappeared about +the year 1850. + +These were the schools of the small villages and hamlets, which were to be +found everywhere--all over the country: and such were the schools that the +Catholic people were only too glad to have after the chains had been struck +off--the very schools in which many men that afterwards made a figure in +the world received their early education. + +The elementary schools of the towns were of a higher class. The attendance +was larger; there were generally desks and seats of the ordinary kind; and +the higher classes were commonly taught something beyond Reading, Writing, +and Arithmetic; such as Grammar, or Book-keeping, with occasionally a spice +of Euclid, Mensuration, Surveying, or Algebra. + +It very often happened that the school took its prevailing tone from the +taste of the master; so that the higher classes in one were great at +Grammar, those of another at Penmanship, some at Higher {163} Arithmetic, +some at 'Short Accounts' (i.e. short methods of Mental Arithmetic), others +at Book-keeping. For there were then no fixed Programmes and no Inspectors, +and each master (in addition to the ordinary elementary subjects) taught +just whatever he liked best, and lit up his own special tastes among his +pupils. + +So far have these words, _church_, _chapel_, _scallan_, _hedge-school_, led +us through the bye-ways of History; and perhaps the reader will not be +sorry to turn to something else. + +_Rattle the hasp: Tent pot._ During Fair-days--all over the country--there +were half a dozen or more booths or tents on the fair field, put up by +publicans, in which was always uproarious fun; for they were full of +people--young and old--eating and drinking, dancing and singing and +match-making. There was sure to be a piper or a fiddler for the young +people; and usually a barn door, lifted off its hinges--hasp and all--was +laid flat, or perhaps two or three doors were laid side by side, for the +dancers; a custom adopted elsewhere as well as in fairs-- + + 'But they couldn't keep time on the cold earthen floor, + So to humour the music they danced on the door.' + + (CROFTON CROKER: _Old Song_.) + +There was one particular tune--a jig--which, from the custom of dancing on +a door, got the name of 'Rattle the hasp.' + +Just at the mouth of the tent it was common to have a great pot hung on +hooks over a fire sunk in the ground underneath, and full of pigs cheeks, +flitches of bacon, pigs' legs and _croobeens_ galore, kept {164} +perpetually boiling like the chiefs' caldrons of old, so that no one need +be hungry or thirsty so long as he had a penny in his pocket. These pots +were so large that they came to be spoken of as a symbol of plenty: 'Why +you have as much bacon and cabbage there as would fill a tent-pot.' + +One day--long long ago--at the fair of Ardpatrick in Limerick--I was then a +little boy, but old enough to laugh at the story when I heard it in the +fair--a fellow with a wattle in his hand having a sharp iron spike on the +end, walked up to one of these tent-pots during the momentary absence of +the owner, and thrusting the spike into a pig's cheek, calmly stood there +holding the stick in his hand till the man came up. 'What are you doing +there?'--When the other looking sheepish and frightened:--'Wisha sir I have +a little bit of a pig's cheek here that isn't done well enough all out, and +I was thinking that may be you wouldn't mind if I gave it a couple of +_biles_ in your pot.' 'Be off out of that you impudent blaa-guard, yourself +and your pig's cheek, or I'll break every bone in your body.' The poor +innocent boy said nothing, but lifted the stick out of the pot with the +pig's cheek on the end of it, and putting it on his shoulder, walked off +through the fair with meek resignation. + +More than a thousand years ago it was usual in Ireland for ladies who went +to banquets with their husbands or other near relations to wear a mask. +This lady's mask was called _fethal_, which is the old form of the word, +modern form _fidil_. The memory of this old custom is preserved in the name +now given to a mask by both English and Irish speakers--_i fiddle_, +_eye-fiddle_, _hi-fiddle_, or _hy-fiddle_ (the first two {165} being the +most correct). The full Irish name is _aghaidh-fidil_, of which the first +part _agaidh_, pronounced _i_ or _eye_, means the face:--_agaidh-fidil_, +'face-mask.' This word was quite common in Munster sixty or seventy years +ago, when we, boys, made our own _i-fiddles_, commonly of brown paper, +daubed in colour--hideous-looking things when worn--enough to frighten a +horse from his oats. + +Among those who fought against the insurgents in Ireland during the +Rebellion of 1798 were some German cavalry called Hessians. They wore a +sort of long boots so remarkable that boots of the same pattern are to this +day called _Hessian boots_. One day in a skirmish one of the rebels shot +down a Hessian, and brought away his fine boots as his lawful prize. One of +his comrades asked him for the boots: and he answered 'Kill a Hessian for +yourself,' which has passed into a proverb. When by labour and trouble you +obtain anything which another seeks to get from you on easy terms, you +answer _Kill a Hessian for yourself_. + +During the War of the Confederation in Ireland in the seventeenth century +Murrogh O'Brien earl of Inchiquin took the side of the Government against +his own countrymen, and committed such merciless ravages among the people +that he is known to this day as 'Murrogh the Burner'; and his name has +passed into a proverb for outrage and cruelty. When a person persists in +doing anything likely to bring on heavy punishment of some kind, the people +say 'If you go on in that way _you'll see Murrogh_,' meaning 'you will +suffer for it.' Or when a person seems scared or frightened:--'He saw +Murrogh or {166} the bush next to him.' The original sayings are in Irish, +of which these are translations, which however are now heard oftener than +the Irish. + +In Armagh where Murrogh is not known they say in a similar sense, 'You'll +catch Lanty,' Lanty no doubt being some former local bully. + +When one desires to give another a particularly evil wish he says, 'The +curse of Cromwell on you!' So that Cromwell's atrocities are stored up in +the people's memories to this day, in the form of a proverb. + +In Ulster they say 'The curse of _Crummie_.' + +'Were you talking to Tim in town to-day?' 'No, but I saw him _from me_ as +the soldier saw Bunratty.' Bunratty a strong castle in Co. Clare, so strong +that besiegers often had to content themselves with viewing it from a +distance. 'Seeing a person from me' means seeing him at a distance. 'Did +you meet your cousin James in the fair to-day?' 'Oh I just caught sight of +him _from me_ for a second, but I wasn't speaking to him.' + +_Sweating-House._--We know that the Turkish bath is of recent introduction +in these countries. But the hot-air or vapour bath, which is much the same +thing, was well known in Ireland from very early times, and was used as a +cure for rheumatism down to a few years ago. The structures in which these +baths were given are known by the name of _tigh 'n alluis_ [teenollish], or +in English, 'sweating-house' (_allus_, 'sweat'). They are still well known +in the northern parts of Ireland--small houses entirely of stone, from five +to seven feet long inside, with a low little door through which one must +creep: {167} always placed remote from habitations: and near by was +commonly a pool or tank of water four or five feet deep. They were used in +this way. A great fire of turf was kindled inside till the house became +heated like an oven; after which the embers and ashes were swept out, and +water was splashed on the stones, which produced a thick warm vapour. Then +the person, wrapping himself in a blanket, crept in and sat down on a bench +of sods, after which the door was closed up. He remained there an hour or +so till he was in a profuse perspiration: and then creeping out, plunged +right into the cold water; after emerging from which he was well rubbed +till he became warm. After several baths at intervals of some days he +commonly got cured. Persons are still living who used these baths or saw +them used. (See the chapter on 'Ancient Irish Medicine' in 'Smaller Soc. +Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' from which the above passage is taken.) + +The lurking conviction that times long ago were better than at present--a +belief in 'the good old times'--is indicated in the common opening to a +story:--'Long and merry ago, there lived a king,' &c. + +'That poor man is as thin as a _whipping_ post': a very general saying in +Ireland. Preserving the memory of the old custom of tying culprits to a +firm post in order to be whipped. A whipping post received many of the +slashes, and got gradually worn down. + +The hardiness of the northern rovers--the Danes--who made a great figure in +Ireland, as in England and elsewhere, is still remembered, after nine or +ten centuries, in the sayings of our people. Scores of {168} times I heard +such expressions as the following:--'Ah shut that door: there's a breeze in +through it that _would perish the Danes_.' + +The cardinal points are designated on the supposition that the face is +turned to the east: a custom which has descended in Ireland from the +earliest times of history and tradition, and which also prevailed among +other ancient nations. Hence in Irish 'east' is 'front'; 'west' is 'behind' +or 'back'; north is 'left hand'; and south is 'right hand.' The people +sometimes import these terms into English. 'Where is the tooth?' says the +dentist. 'Just here sir, in the _west_ of my jaw,' replies the +patient--meaning at the back of the jaw. + +Tailors were made the butt of much good-natured harmless raillery, often +founded on the well-known fact that a tailor is the ninth part of a man. If +a person leaves little after a meal, or little material after any +work--that is 'tailor's leavings'; alluding to an alleged custom of the +craft. According to this calumny your tailor, when sending home your +finished suit, sends with it a few little scraps as what was left of the +cloth you gave him, though he had really much left, which he has cribbed. + +When you delay the performance of any work, or business with some secret +object in view, you 'put the pot in the tailor's link.' Formerly tailors +commonly worked in the houses of the families who bought their own material +and employed them to make the clothes. The custom was to work till supper +time, when their day ended. Accordingly the good housewife often hung the +pot-hangers on the highest hook or link of the pot-hooks so as to raise +{169} the supper-pot well up from the fire and delay the boiling. (Ulster.) + +The following two old rhymes are very common:-- + + Four and twenty tailors went out to kill a snail, + The biggest of them all put his foot upon his tail-- + The snail put out his horns just like a cow: + 'O Lord says the tailor we're all killed now!' + + As I was going to Dub-l-in + I met a pack of tailors, + I put them in my pocket, + In fear the ducks might _ait_ them. + +In the Co. Down the Roman Catholics are called 'back-o'-the-hill folk': an +echo of the Plantations of James I--three centuries ago--when the +Catholics, driven from their rich lowland farms, which were given to the +Scottish Presbyterian planters, had to eke out a living among the glens and +mountains. + +When a person does anything out of the common--which is not expected of +him--especially anything with a look of unusual prosperity:--'It is not +every day that Manus kills a bullock.' (Derry.) This saying, which is +always understood to refer to Roman Catholics, is a memorial, in one flash, +of the plantation of the northern districts. Manus is a common Christian +name among the Catholics round Derry, who are nearly all very poor: how +could they be otherwise? That Manus--i.e. a Catholic--should kill a bullock +is consequently taken as a type of things very unusual, unexpected and +exceptional. Maxwell, in 'Wild Sports of the West,' quotes this saying as +he heard it in Mayo; but naturally enough the saying alone had reached the +west without its background of history, which is not known there as it is +in Derry. {170} + +Even in the everyday language of the people the memory of those Plantations +is sometimes preserved, as in the following sayings and their like, which +are often heard. 'The very day after Jack Ryan was evicted, he _planted +himself_ on the bit of land between his farm and the river.' 'Bill came and +_planted_ himself on my chair, right in front of the fire.' + +'He that calls the tune should pay the piper' is a saying that commemorates +one of our dancing customs. A couple are up for a dance: the young man asks +the girl in a low voice what tune she'd like, and on hearing her reply he +calls to the piper (or fiddler) for the tune. When the dance is ended and +they have made their bow, he slips a coin into her hand, which she brings +over and places in the hand of the piper. That was the invariable formula +in Munster sixty years ago. + +The old Irish name of May-day--the 1st May--was _Belltaine_ or _Beltene_ +[Beltina], and this name is still used by those speaking Irish; while in +Scotland and Ulster they retain it as a common English word--Beltane:-- + + 'Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, + Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade.' + + ('Lady of the Lake.') + +Before St. Patrick's time there was a great pagan festival in Ireland on +1st May in honour of the god _Bel_ [Bail], in which fire played a prominent +part: a custom evidently derived in some way from the Phoenician fire +festival in honour of the Phoenician god _Baal_. For we know that the +Phoenicians were well acquainted with Ireland, and that wherever they went +they introduced the worship of Baal with his festivals. {171} + +Among other usages the Irish drove cattle through or between big fires to +preserve them from the diseases of the year; and this custom was practised +in Limerick and Clare down a period within my own memory: I saw it done. +But it was necessary that the fires should be kindled from _tenaigin_ [_g_ +sounded as in _pagan_]--'forced fire'--i.e., fire produced by the friction +of two pieces of dry wood rubbed together till they burst into a flame: +Irish _teine-eigin_ from _tein[)e]_, fire, and _eigean_, force. This word +is still known in the South; so that the memory of the old pagan May-day +festival and its fire customs is preserved in these two words _Beltane_ and +_tenaigin_. + +Mummers were companies of itinerant play-actors, who acted at popular +gatherings, such as fairs, _patterns_, weddings, wakes, &c. Formerly they +were all masked, and then young _squireens_, and the young sons of strong +farmers, often joined them for the mere fun of the thing; but in later +times masking became illegal, after which the breed greatly degenerated. On +the whole they were not unwelcome to the people, as they were generally the +source of much amusement; but their antics at weddings and wakes were +sometimes very objectionable, as well as very offensive to the families. +This was especially the case at wakes, if the dead person had been +unpopular or ridiculous, and at weddings if an old woman married a boy, or +a girl an old man for the sake of his money. Sometimes they came bent on +mischievous tricks as well as on a _shindy_; and if wind of this got out, +the faction of the family gathered to protect them; and then there was sure +to be a fight. (Kinahan.) {172} + +Mummers were well known in England, from which the custom was evidently +imported to Ireland. The mummers are all gone, but the name remains. + +We know that in former times in Ireland the professions ran in families; so +that members of the same household devoted themselves to one particular +Science or Art--Poetry, History, Medicine, Building, Law, as the case might +be--for generations (of this custom a full account may be seen in my +'Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland,' chap. vii., especially page +184). A curious example of how the memory of this is preserved occurs in +Armagh. There is a little worm called _dirab_ found in bog-water. If this +be swallowed by any accident it causes a swelling, which can be cured only +by a person of the name of Cassidy, who puts his arms round the patient, +and the worm dies. The O'Cassidys were hereditary physicians to the +Maguires, chiefs of Fermanagh. Several eminent physicians of the name are +commemorated in the Irish Annals: and it is interesting to find that they +are still remembered in tradition--though quite unconsciously--for their +skill in leechcraft. + +'I'll make you dance Jack Lattin'--a threat of chastisement, often heard in +Kildare. John Lattin of Morristown House county Kildare (near Naas) wagered +that he'd dance home to Morristown from Dublin--more than twenty +miles--changing his dancing-steps every furlong: and won the wager. 'I'll +make you dance' is a common threat heard everywhere: but 'I'll make you +dance Jack Lattin' is ten times worse--'I'll make you dance excessively.' +{173} + +Morristown, Jack Lattin's residence, is near Lyons the seat of Lord +Cloncurry, where Jack was often a guest, in the first half of the last +century. Lady Morgan has an entry in her Memoirs (1830):--'Returned from +Lyons--Lord Cloncurry's, a large party--the first day good--Sheil, Curran, +Jack Lattin.' + +It is worthy of remark that there is a well-known Irish tune called 'Jack +Lattin,' which some of our Scotch friends have quietly appropriated; and +not only that, but have turned Jack himself into a Scotchman by calling the +tune 'Jockey Latin'! They have done precisely the same with our 'Eileen +Aroon' which they call 'Robin Adair.' The same Robin Adair--or to call him +by his proper name Robert Adair--was a well-known county Wicklow man and a +member of the Irish Parliament. + +The word _sculloge_ or _scolloge_ is applied to a small farmer, especially +one that does his own farm work: it is often used in a somewhat +depreciatory sense to denote a mere rustic: and in both senses it is well +known all over the South. This word has a long history. It was originally +applied--a thousand years ago or more--to the younger monks of a monastery, +who did most of the farm work on the land belonging to the religious +community. These young men were of course students indoors, as well as +tillers outside, and hence the name, from _scol_, a school:--_scolog_ a +young scholar. But as farm work constituted a large part of their +employment the name gradually came to mean a working farmer; and in this +sense it has come down to our time. + +To a rich man whose forefathers made their {174} money by smuggling +_pottheen_ (illicit whiskey) from Innishowen in Donegal (formerly +celebrated for its pottheen manufacture), they say in Derry 'your granny +was a Dogherty who wore a tin pocket.' (Doherty a prevalent name in the +neighbourhood.) For this was a favourite way of smuggling from the +highlands--bringing the stuff in a tin pocket. Tom Boyle had a more +ambitious plan:--he got a tinker to make a hollow figure of tin, something +like the figure of his wife, who was a little woman, which Tom dressed up +in his wife's clothes and placed on the pillion behind him on the +horse--filled with pottheen: for in those times it was a common custom for +the wife to ride behind her husband. At last a sharp-eyed policeman, seeing +the man's affectionate attention so often repeated, kept on the watch, and +satisfied himself at last that Tom had a tin wife. So one day, coming +behind the animal he gave the poor little woman a whack of a stick which +brought forth, not a screech, but a hard metallic sound, to the +astonishment of everybody: and then it was all up with poor Tom and his +wife. + +There are current in Ireland many stories of gaugers and pottheen +distillers which hardly belong to my subject, except this one, which I may +claim, because it has _left its name on_ a well-known Irish tune:--'Paddy +outwitted the gauger,' also called by three other names, 'The Irishman's +heart for the ladies,' 'Drops of brandy,' and _Cummilum_ (Moore's: 'Fairest +put on Awhile'). Paddy Fogarty kept a little public-house at the +cross-roads in which he sold 'parliament,' i.e. legal whiskey on which the +duty had been paid; but it was well known that friends could get a little +drop {175} of pottheen too, on the sly. One hot July day he was returning +home from Thurles with a ten-gallon cag on his back, slung by a strong +_soogaun_ (hay rope). He had still two good miles before him, and he sat +down to rest, when who should walk up but the new gauger. 'Well my good +fellow, what have you got in that cask?' Paddy dropped his jaw, looking the +picture of terror, and mumbled out some tomfoolery like an excuse. 'Ah, my +man, you needn't think of coming over me: I see how it is: I seize this +cask in the name of the king.' Poor Paddy begged and prayed, and talked +about Biddy and the childher at home--all to no use: the gauger slung up +the cag on his back (about a hundredweight) and walked on, with Paddy, +heart-broken, walking behind--for the gauger's road lay towards Paddy's +house. At last when they were near the cross-roads the gauger sat down to +rest, and laying down the big load began to wipe his face with his +handkerchief. 'Sorry I am,' says Paddy, 'to see your honour so dead _bet_ +up: sure you're sweating like a bull: maybe I could relieve you.' And with +that he pulled his legal _permit_ out of his pocket and laid it on the cag. +The gauger was astounded: 'Why the d---- didn't you show me that before?' +'Why then 'tis the way your honour,' says Paddy, looking as innocent as a +lamb, 'I didn't like to make so bould as I wasn't axed to show it?' So the +gauger, after a volley of something that needn't be particularised here, +walked off _with himself without an inch of the tail_. 'Faix,' says Paddy, +''tis easy to know 'twasn't our last gauger, ould Warnock, that was here: +'twouldn't be so easy to come round him; for he had a nose that would +_smell a needle in a forge_.' {176} + +In Sligo if a person is sick in a house, and one of the cattle dies, they +say 'a life for a life,' and the patient will recover. Mr. Kinahan says, +'This is so universal in the wilds of Sligo that Protestants and Catholics +believe it alike.' + +As an expression of welcome, a person says, 'We'll spread green rushes +under your feet'; a memory of the time when there were neither boards nor +carpets on the floors--nothing but the naked clay--in Ireland as well as in +England; and in both countries, it was the custom to strew the floors of +the better class of houses with rushes, which were renewed for any +distinguished visitor. This was always done by the women-servants: and the +custom was so general and so well understood that there was a knife of +special shape for cutting the rushes. (See my 'Smaller Social Hist. of +Ancient Ireland,' p. 305.) + +A common exclamation of drivers for urging on a horse, heard everywhere in +Ireland, is _hupp, hupp!_ It has found its way even into our nursery +rhymes; as when a mother is dancing her baby up and down on her knee, she +sings:-- + + 'How many miles to Dub-l-in? + Three score and ten, + Will we be there by candle light? + Yes and back again: + _Hupp, hupp_ my little horse, + _Hupp, hupp_ again.' + +This Irish word, insignificant as it seems, has come down from a period +thirteen or fourteen hundred years ago, or probably much farther back. In +the library of St. Gall in Switzerland there is a manuscript written in the +eighth century by some scholarly Irish {177} monk--who he was we cannot +tell: and in this the old writer _glosses_ or explains many Latin words by +corresponding Irish words. Among others the Latin interjection _ei_ or +_hei_ (meaning ho! quick! come on) is explained by _upp_ or _hupp_ (Zeuss). + +Before Christianity had widely spread in Ireland, the pagans had a numerous +pantheon of gods and goddesses, one of which was _Badb_ [bibe], a terrible +war-fury. Her name is pronounced _Bibe_ or _Bybe_, and in this form it is +still preserved all over Cork and round about, not indeed for a war-fury, +but for what--in the opinion of some people--is nearly as bad, a _scolding +woman_. (For _Badb_ and all the other pagan Irish gods and goddesses, see +my 'Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland,' chap. v.) + +From the earliest times in Ireland animals were classified with regard to +grazing; and the classification is recognised and fully laid down in the +Brehon Law. The legal classification was this:--two geese are equivalent to +a sheep; two sheep to a _dairt_ or one-year-old heifer; two _dairts_ to one +_colpach_ or _collop_ (as it is now called) or two-year-old heifer; two +_collops_ to one cow. Suppose a man had a right to graze a certain number +of cows on a common (i.e. pasture land not belonging to individuals but +common to all the people of the place collectively); he might turn out the +exact number of cows or the equivalent of any other animals he pleased, so +long as the total did not exceed the total amount of his privilege. + +In many parts of Ireland this system almost exactly as described above is +kept up to this day, the collop being taken as the unit: it was universal +in my native place sixty years ago; and in a way it exists {178} there +still. The custom is recognised in the present-day land courts, with some +modifications in the classification--as Mr. Maurice Healy informs me in an +interesting and valuable communication--the _collop_ being still the +unit--and constantly referred to by the lawyers in the conduct of cases. So +the old Brehon Law process has existed continuously from old times, and is +repeated by the lawyers of our own day; and its memory is preserved in the +word _collop_. (See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 431.) + +In pagan times the religion of Ireland was Druidism, which was taught by +the druids: and far off as the time is the name of these druids still +exists in our popular speech. The Irish name for a druid is _drui_ [dree]; +and in the South any crabbed cunning old-fashioned-looking little boy is +called--even by speakers of English--a _shoundree_, which exactly +represents in sound the Irish _sean-drui_, old druid; from _sean_ [shoun or +shan], old. (See 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 98.) + +There are two words much in use in Munster, of which the phonetic +representations are _thoothach_ or _thoohagh_ and _hochan_ (_o_ long), +which tell a tale of remote times. A _thoothach_ or _thoohagh_ is an +ignorant unmannerly clownish fellow: and _hochan_ means much the same +thing, except that it is rather lower in the sense of ignorance or +uncouthness. Passing through the Liberties of Dublin I once heard a +woman--evidently from Limerick--call a man a dirty _hochan_. Both words are +derived from _tuath_ [thooa], a layman, as distinguished from a cleric or a +man of learning. The Irish form of the first is _tuathtach_: of the second +_thuathchain_ (vocative). Both are a memory of the {179} time when +illiterate people were looked down upon as boorish and ill-mannered as +compared with clerics or with men of learning in general. + +The people had great respect and veneration for the old families of landed +gentry--the _real old stock_ as they were called. If a man of a lower class +became rich so as to vie with or exceed in possessions many of the old +families, he was never recognised as on their level or as a gentleman. Such +a man was called by the people a _half-sir_, which bears its meaning on its +face. + +Sixty years ago people very generally used home-made and home-grown +produce--frieze--linen--butter--bacon--potatoes and vegetables in general. +A good custom, for 'a cow never burst herself by chewing her cud.' +(MacCall: Wexford.) + +To see one magpie or more is a sign of bad or good luck, viz.:--'One for +sorrow; two for mirth; three for a wedding; four for a birth.' (MacCall: +Wexford.) + +The war-cry of the great family of O'Neill of Tyrone was _Lauv-derg-aboo_ +(the Red Hand to Victory: the Red Hand being the cognisance of the +O'Neills): and this cry the clansmen shouted when advancing to battle. It +is many a generation since this same cry was heard in battle; and yet it is +remembered in popular sayings to this day. In Tyrone when a fight is +expected one man will say to another 'there will be _Dergaboos_ to-day': +not that the cry will be actually raised; but _Dergaboo_ has come to be a +sort of symbolic name for a fight. + +In and around Ballina in Mayo, a great strong fellow is called an +_allay-foozee_, which represents the {180} sound of the French +_Allez-fusil_ (musket or musketry forward), preserving the memory of the +landing of the French at Killala (near Ballina) in 1798. + +When a person looks as if he were likely to die soon:--'He's in the raven's +book.' Because when a person is about to die, the raven croaks over the +house. (MacCall: Wexford.) + +A 'cross' was a small old Irish coin so called from a figure of St. Patrick +stamped on it with a conspicuous cross. Hence a person who has no money +says 'I haven't a cross.' In Wexford they have the same saying with a +little touch of drollery added on:--'There isn't as much as a cross in my +pocket to keep the devil from dancing in it.' (MacCall.) For of course the +devil dare not come near a cross of any shape or form. + +A _keenoge_ (which exactly represents the pronunciation of the Irish +_cianog_) is a very small coin, a farthing or half a farthing. It was +originally applied to a small foreign coin, probably Spanish, for the Irish +_cian_ is 'far off,' 'foreign': _og_ is the diminutive termination. It is +often used like 'cross': 'I haven't as much as a keenoge in my pocket.' +'Are you not going to lend me any money at all?' 'Not a keenoge.' + +A person not succeeding in approaching the house or spot he wants to reach; +hitting wide of the mark in shooting; not coming to the point in argument +or explanation:--'Oh you didn't come within the bray of an ass of it.' This +is the echo of a very old custom. More than a thousand years ago distance +was often vaguely measured in Ireland by sound. A man felling a tree was +'bound by the Brehon Law {181} to give warning as far as his voice could +reach,' so as to obviate danger to cattle or people. We find a like measure +used in Donegal to this day:--[The Dublin house where you'll get the book +to buy is on the Quays] 'about a mountain man's call below the Four +Courts.' (Seumas MacManus.) The crow of a cock and the sound of a bell +(i.e. the small hand-bell then used) as measures of distances are very +often met with in ancient Irish writings. An old commentator on the Brehon +Laws defines a certain distance to be 'as far as the sound of the bell or +the crow of a barn-door cock could be heard. This custom also prevailed +among other ancient nations. (See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' +p. 473.) + +_The 'Duty'._ Formerly all through Ireland the tenants were obliged to work +for their landlords on a certain number of days free, except that they +generally got food. Such work was commonly called in English the 'duty.' In +Wicklow for example--until very recently--or possibly still--those who had +horses had to draw home the landlord's turf on certain days. In Wexford +they had in a similar way to draw stones for the embankments on the Barrow. +The tenants commonly collected in numbers on the same day and worked all +together. The Irish word used to designate such gatherings was _bal_--still +so called in Connaught. It was usual to hear such English expressions +as--'Are you going to the duty?' or 'Are you going to the bal?' (Kinahan.) + +(N.B. I do not know the Irish word _bal_ in this sense, and cannot find it +in the Dictionaries.) + +'Duty' is used in a religious sense by Roman {182} Catholics all through +Ireland to designate the obligation on all Catholics to go to Confession +and Holy Communion at Easter time. 'I am going to my duty, please God, next +week.' + +'I'll return you this book on next Saturday _as sure as the hearth-money_': +a very common expression in Ireland. The old English oppressive impost +called _hearth-money_--a tax on hearths--which every householder had to +pay, was imported into Ireland by the English settlers. Like all other +taxes it was certain to be called for and gathered at the proper time, so +that our saying is an apt one; but while the bad old impost is gone, its +memory is preserved in the everyday language of the people. + +A king, whether of a small or large territory, had in his service a +champion or chief fighting man whose duty it was to avenge all insults or +offences offered to the families of the king and tribe, particularly +murder; like the 'Avenger of blood' of the Jews and other ancient nations. +In any expected danger from without he had to keep watch--with a sufficient +force--at the most dangerous ford or pass--called _bearna baoghaill_ [barna +beel] or gap of danger--on that part of the border where invasion was +expected, and prevent the entrance of any enemy. This custom, which is as +old as our race in Ireland, is remembered in our present-day speech, +whether Irish or Anglo-Irish; for the man who courageously and successfully +defends any cause or any position, either by actual fighting or by speeches +or written articles, is 'the man in the gap.' Of the old Irish chiefs +Thomas Davis writes:-- + + 'Their hearts were as soft as the child in the lap, + Yet they were the men in the gap.' + +{183} + +In the old heroic semi-historic times in Ireland, a champion often gave a +challenge by standing in front of the hostile camp or fort and striking a +few resounding blows with the handle of his spear either on his own shield +or on a shield hung up for the purpose at the entrance gate outside.[7] + +The memory of this very old custom lives in a word still very common in the +South of Ireland--_boolimskee_, Irish _buailim-sciath_, 'I strike the +shield,' applied to a man much given to fighting, a quarrelsome fellow, a +swaggering bully--a swash-buckler. + +Paying on the nail, paying down on the nail; paying on the spot--ready +cash. This expression had its origin in a custom formerly prevailing in +Limerick city. In a broad thoroughfare under the Exchange stood a pillar +about four feet high, on the top of which was a circular plate of copper +about three feet in diameter. This pillar was called 'The Nail.' The +purchaser of anything laid down the stipulated price or the earnest _on the +nail_, i.e. on the brass plate, which the seller took up: when this was +done before witnesses the transaction was as binding as if entered on +parchment. (O'Keeffe's Recollections.) 'The Nail' is still to the fore, and +may now be seen in the Museum of the Carnegie Library building, to which it +was transferred a short time ago. + +The change in the Calendar from the old style to the new style, a century +and a half ago, is noted in the names for Christmas. All through the South, +{184} and in other parts of Ireland, the 6th January ('Twelfth Day') is +called 'Old Christmas' and 'Little Christmas' (for before the change of +style it was _the_ Christmas): and in many parts of the north our present +Christmas is called New Christmas. So in Donegal the 12th of May is called +by the people 'Old May day.' (Seumas MacManus.) + +_Palm, Palm-Sunday._ The usual name in Ireland for the yew-tree is 'palm,' +from the custom of using yew branches instead of the real palm, to +celebrate Palm Sunday--the Sunday before Easter--commemorating the palm +branches that were strewed before our Lord on His public entry into +Jerusalem. I was quite a grown boy before I knew the yew-tree by its proper +name--it was always _palm-tree_. + +_Oliver's Summons._--When a lazy fellow was driven to work either by hunger +or by any unavoidable circumstance he was said to have got _Oliver's +Summons_, a common household word in parts of the county Limerick in my +younger days, originating in the following circumstance. When a good +plentiful harvest came round, many of the men of our neighbourhood at this +time--about the beginning of last century--the good old easy-going +times--worked very little--as little as ever they could. What was the use +of working when they had plenty of beautiful floury potatoes for half +nothing, with salt or _dip_, or perhaps a piggin of fine thick milk to +crown the luxury. Captain Oliver, the local landlord, and absolute monarch +so far as ordinary life was concerned, often--in those seasons--found it +hard or impossible to get men to come to do the necessary work about his +grounds--though paying {185} the usual wages--till at last he hit on an +original plan. He sent round, the evening before, to the houses of the men +he wanted, a couple of fellows with a horse and cart, who seized some +necessary article in each house--a spinning-wheel, a bed, the pot, the +single table, &c.--and brought them all away body and bones, and kept them +impounded. Next morning he was sure to have half a dozen or more strapping +fellows, who fell to work; and when it was finished and wages paid, the +captain sent home the articles. I had this story from old men who saw the +carts going round with their loads. + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A VARIETY OF PHRASES. + +Among fireside amusements propounding riddles was very general sixty or +seventy years ago. This is a custom that has existed in Ireland from very +early times, as the reader may see by looking at my 'Old Celtic Romances,' +pp. 69, 186, 187, where he will find some characteristic ancient Irish +ones. And we know that it was common among other ancient nations. I have a +number of our modern Irish riddles, many in my memory, and some supplied to +me from Wexford by Mr. Patrick J. MacCall of Dublin, who knows Wexford +well. Some are easy enough: but there are others that might defy the Witch +of Endor to answer them. They hardly come within my scope, but I will give +a few examples. {186} + +A steel grey with a flaxen tail and a brass boy driving. Answer: needle and +thread; thimble. + + Little Jennie Whiteface has a red nose, + The longer she lives the shorter she grows. + +Answer: a lighted candle. + + A man without eyes + Went out to view the skies, + He saw a tree with apples on: + He took no apples, + He ate no apples, + And still he left no apples on. + +Answer: a one-eyed man: the tree had two apples: he took one. + +Long legs, crooked thighs, little head, no eyes. Answer: a tongs. + +Ink-ank under a bank ten drawing four. Answer: a girl milking a cow. + + Four-and-twenty white bulls tied in a stall: + In comes a red bull and over licks them all. + +Answer: teeth and tongue. + +These are perhaps not very hard, though not quite so easy as the Sphinx's +riddle to the Thebans, which Oedipus answered to his immortal renown. But I +should like to see Oedipus try his hand at the following. Samson's riddle +about the bees is hard enough, but ours beats it hollow. Though Solomon +solved all the puzzles propounded to him by the Queen of Sheba, I think +this would put him to the pin of his collar. I learned it in Limerick two +generations ago; and I have got a Wexford version from Mr. MacCall. Observe +the delightful inconsequence of riddle and answer. {187} + + Riddle me, riddle me right: + What did I see last night? + The wind blew, + The cock crew, + The bells of heaven + Struck eleven. + 'Tis time for my poor _sowl_ to go to heaven. + +Answer: the fox burying his mother under a holly tree. + + + +To a person who begins his dinner without saying grace: 'You begin your +meal like a fox': for a fox never says grace. A fox once ran off with a +cock--neck in mouth--to make a meal of him. Just as he was about to fall +to, the cock said--'Won't you thank God?' So the fox opened his mouth to +say grace, and the cock escaped and flew up into a tree. On which the fox +swore he'd never more say grace or any other prayer. (From Clare: Healy.) + +In depreciation of a person's honour: 'Your honour and goat's wool would +make good stockings': i.e. your honour is as far from true honour as goat's +hair is from wool. + +'For the life of me' I can't see why you vex yourself for so small a +matter. + +Of a pair of well-matched bad men:--'They might lick thumbs.' Also 'A pity +to spoil two houses with them.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +A person is said to be 'belled through the parish' when some discreditable +report concerning him has gone about in the neighbourhood. The allusion is +to a bellman announcing something to the public. (Moran: Carlow.) {188} + +A person addresses some abusive and offensive words to another, who replies +'Talk away: _your tongue is no scandal_.' The meaning is, 'You are so well +known for the foulness of your tongue that no one will pay any attention to +you when you are speaking evil of another.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +'Come and have a drink,' said the dragoon. 'I don't take anything; _thank +you all the same_,' replied Billy Heffernan. (Knocknagow.) Very general +everywhere in Ireland. + +Regarding a person in consumption:-- + + March will _sarch_ [search], + April will try, + May will see + Whether you'll live or die. + + (MACCALL: Wexford.) + +When a man inherits some failing from his parents, 'He didn't catch it in +the wind'--'It wasn't off the wind he took it.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +When a man declines to talk with or discuss matters with another, he says +'I owe you no discourse'--used in a more or less offensive sense--and heard +all through Ireland. + +When a person shows himself very cute and clever another says to him 'Who +let you out?'--an ironical expression of fun: as much as to say that he +must have been confined in an asylum as a confirmed fool. (Moran: Carlow.) + +When a person for any reason feels elated, he says 'I wouldn't call the +king my uncle.' ('Knocknagow'; but heard everywhere in Ireland.) + +When a person who is kind enough while he is with {189} you grows careless +about you once he goes away:--'Out of sight out of mind.' + +To go _with your finger in your mouth_ is to go on a fool's errand, to go +without exactly knowing why you are going--without knowing particulars. + +When a person singing a song has to stop up because he forgets the next +verse, he says (mostly in joke) 'there's a hole in the ballad'--throwing +the blame on the old ballad sheet on which the words were imperfect on +account of a big hole. + +Searching for some small article where it is hard to find it among a lot of +other things is 'looking for a needle in a bundle of straw.' + +When a mistake or any circumstance that entails loss or trouble is +irreparable--'there's no help for spilt milk.' + +Seventy or eighty years ago the accomplishments of an Irishman should be: + + To smoke his dudheen, + To drink his cruiskeen, + To flourish his alpeen, + To wallop a spalpeen. + + (MACCALL: Wexford.) + +It is reported about that Tom Fox stole Dick Finn's sheep: but he didn't. +Driven to desperation by the false report, Tom now really steals one, and +says:--'As I have the name of it, I may as well have the gain of it.' + +A person is told of some extraordinary occurrence and exclaims--'Well such +a thing as that was never before heard of _since Adam was a boy_.' This +last expression is very general. + +The Chairman of the Banbridge Board of Guardians {190} lately asked a tramp +what was his occupation: to which the fellow--cancelling his impudence by +his drollery--replied:--'I'm a hailstone maker out of work owing to the +want of snow.' + +My partner in any business has acted against my advice and has persisted, +notwithstanding my repeated friendly remonstrances, till at last he brings +failure and discredit. Yet when the trial comes I _stand black for him_; +i.e. I act loyally towards him--I defend him: I take my share of the blame, +and never give the least hint that the failure is all his doing. _Standing +black_ often heard. + +'He's not all there,' i.e. he is a little daft, a little _cracked_, +weak-minded, foolish, has a slight touch of insanity: 'there's a slate +off,' 'he has a bee in his bonnet' (Scotch): 'he wants a square' (this last +Old English). + +A man gets into an angry fit and you take no trouble to pacify him:--'Let +him cool in the skin he heated in.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +A person asks me for money: I give him all I have, which is less than he +asked for:--'That is all [the corn] there's threshed.' (Moran: Carlow.) + +A man with a very thin face 'could kiss a goat between the horns.' (Moran: +Carlow.) + +'Never put a tooth on it': an invitation to speak out plainly, whatever the +consequences. + +A woman giving evidence at Drumcondra Petty Sessions last year says 'I was +born and reared in Finglas, and there isn't one--man or woman--that dare +say _black was the white of my eye_': that is, no one could allege any +wrong-doing against her. Heard everywhere in Ireland. {191} + +A man who is going backwards or down the hill in circumstances is said to +be 'going after his back.' The sense is obvious. (Moran: Wexford.) + +'Come day go day God send Sunday,' applied to an easy-going idle +good-for-nothing person, who never looks to the future. + +When a person is asked about something of which for some reason he does not +wish to speak, he says 'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.' +(General.) + +A man who is of opinion that his friend has bought a cow too dear says 'You +bought every hair in her tail.' + +To a person everlastingly talking:--'Give your tongue a holiday.' + +He always visits us _of a Saturday_. Halliwell says this is common in +several English dialects. (Rev. Wm. Burke.) + +Johnny Dunn, a job gardener of Dublin, being asked about his young wife, +who was living apart from him:--'Oh she's just doing nothing, but walking +about town with a _mug of consequence_ on her.' + +'I'm blue-moulded for want of a beating,' says a fellow who pretends to be +anxious for a fight, but can find no one to fight with him. + + A whistling woman and a crowing hen + Will make a man wealthy but deer knows when. + + (Moran: Carlow.) + +The people have an almost superstitious dislike for both: they are +considered unlucky. + +'I'll make him scratch where he doesn't itch': meaning I'll punish him +sorely in some way. (Moran: Carlow.) {192} + +When flinging an abusive epithet at a person, 'you' is often put in twice, +first as an opening tip, and last as a finishing home blow:--'What else +could I expect from your like, _you unnatural vagabone, you_!' + +'I'm afraid he turns up his little finger too often'; i.e.--he is given to +drink: alluding to the position of the hand when a person is taking a +glass. + + My neighbour Jack Donovan asked me one day, + How many strawberries grew in the _say_; + I made him an answer as well as I could, + As many red herrings as grew in the wood. + +When a person is obliged to utter anything bordering on coarseness, he +always adds, by way of a sort of apology, 'saving your presence': or 'with +respect to you.' + +Small trifling things are expressed by a variety of words:--'Those sausages +are not worth a _mallamadee_': 'I don't care a _traneen_ what he says': 'I +don't care two rows of pins.' + +To be rid of a person or thing is expressed by 'I got shut of him,' or 'I +am done of it.' (Limerick.) + +'How did you travel to town?' 'Oh I went _on shanks' mare_:' i.e. I walked. + +'His bread is baked'; i.e. he is doomed to die soon. (See p. 109 bottom.) + +Banagher is a village in King's Co. on the Shannon: Ballinasloe is a town +in Galway at the other side of the river. When anything very unusual or +unexpected occurs, the people say,'Well that bangs Banagher!' or 'that +bangs Banagher and Ballinasloe!' + +'Have you got a shilling to spare for a friend?' 'Indeed I have not.' 'Ah +you must give it to me; it {193} is for your cousin Tom.' 'Oh, _that's a +horse of another colour_.' (So he gives it.) + +'_Well done mother!_' says the blacksmith when the tooth was out. This is +how it was pulled. He tied one end of a strong string round the tooth, and +the other end to the horn of the anvil, and made the old woman keep back +her head so as to tighten the string. '_Asy_ now mother,' says he. Then +taking the flaming horseshoe from the fire with the tongs he suddenly +thrust it towards her face. Anyone can finish the story. + +If she catches you she'll _comb your hair with the creepy stool_: i.e. +she'll whack and beat you with it. (Ulster.) + +They say pigs can see the wind, and that it is red. In very old times the +Irish believed that there were twelve different winds with twelve colours. +(For these see my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 527.) The people +also will tell you that a pig will swim till the water cuts its throat. + +Ah, I see you want _to walk up my sleeve_: i.e. you want to deceive me--_to +take me in_. (Kerry.) + +An expression often heard in the South:--Such and such a thing will happen +now and then _if you were to put your eyes on sticks_; i.e. however +watchful you may be. 'Well, if I was to put my eyes upon sticks, Misther +Mann, I never would know your sister again.' (Gerald Griffin.) + +He _is down in the mouth_, i.e. he is in low spirits. I suppose this is +from the dropping down of the corners of the mouth. + +To scold a person--to reprimand him--to give him a good 'setting down'--to +give him 'all sorts'--to give him 'the rough side of your tongue.' {194} + +Anything that cheers you up 'takes the cockles off your heart': 'Here drink +this [glass of punch, wine, &c.] and 'twill take the cockles off your +heart.' 'It raises the very cockles o' my heart to see you.' +('Collegians.') ''Twould rise the cockles av your heart to hear her singing +the Coolin.' ('Knocknagow.') Probably the origin is this:--Cares and +troubles clog the heart as cockles clog a ship. + +Instead of 'No blame to you' or 'Small blame to you,' the people often say, +''Tis a stepmother would blame you.' + +'Cut your stick, now,' 'cut away'; both mean _go away_: the idea being that +you want a walking stick and that it is time for you to cut it. + +'I hear William is out of his situation.' 'Yes indeed, that is true.' 'And +how is he living?' 'I don't know; I suppose he's living _on the fat of his +guts_': meaning he is living on whatever he has saved. But it is sometimes +used in the direct sense. Poor old Hill, while his shop prospered, had an +immense paunch, but he became poor and had to live on poor food and little +of it, so that the belly got flat; and the people used to say--he's living +now on the fat of his guts, poor old fellow. + +Tom Hogan is managing his farm in a way likely to bring him to poverty, and +Phil Lahy says to him--'Tom, you'll scratch a beggarman's back yet': +meaning that Tom will himself be the beggarman. ('Knocknagow.') Common all +over Munster. + +The people have a gentle laudable habit of mixing up sacred names and pious +phrases with their ordinary conversation, in a purely reverential spirit. +This is one of the many peculiarities of Anglo-Irish {195} speech derived +from the Irish language: for pious expressions pervaded Irish to its very +heart, of which the people lost a large part when they ceased to speak the +language. Yet it continues very prevalent among our English-speaking +people; and nearly all the expressions they use are direct translations +from Irish. + +'I hear there is a mad dog running about the town.' 'Oh do you tell me +so--the Lord between us and harm!' or 'the Lord preserve us!' both very +common exclamations in case of danger. + +Sudden news is brought about something serious happening to a neighbour, +and the people say:--'Oh, God bless the hearers,' or 'God bless the mark.' +This last is however generally used in derision. John Cox, a notorious +schemer and miser, 'has put down his name for L20 for a charity--God bless +the mark!' an intimation that the L20 will never be heard of again. + +When a person goes away for ever or dies, the friends and people say 'God +be with him,' a very beautiful expression, as it is the concentration of +human affection and regret, and also a prayer. It is merely the translation +of the Irish _Dia leis_, which has forms for all the three persons and two +genders:--'with her,' 'with you, 'with them,' &c. + +Under any discouraging or distressing circumstances, the expressions 'God +help me' and 'God help us' are continually in the mouths of the people. +They are merely translations of _go bh-foireadh Dia orruinn_, &c. +Similarly, expressions of pity for another such as 'That poor woman is in +great trouble, God help her,' are translations. {196} + +In Dublin, Roman Catholics when passing a Catholic church (or 'chapel') +remove the hat or cap for a moment as a mark of respect, and usually utter +a short aspiration or prayer under breath. This custom is I think +spreading. + +When one expresses his intention to do anything even moderately important, +he always adds 'please God.' Even in our English speech this is of old +standing. During the Irish wars of Elizabeth, it was told to an Irish chief +that one of the English captains had stated he would take such and such a +castle, when the chief retorted, 'Oh yes, but did he say _please God_': as +much as to say, 'yes if God pleases, but not otherwise.' + +'This sickness kept me from Mass for a long time; but _with the help of +God_, I'll venture next Sunday.' 'Yes, poor Kitty is in great danger, but +_with the help of God_ she will pull through.' + +'I am afraid that poor Nellie will die after that accident.' 'Oh, God +forbid,' is the response. + +People have a pleasing habit of applying the word _blessed_ [2-syll.] to +many natural objects, to days, nights, &c. 'Well, you have teased me +terribly the whole of this blessed day--you young vagabone.' + + 'Were it not that full of sorrow from my people forth I go, + By the blessed sun 'tis royally I'd sing thy praise Mayo.' + + Translation of Irish Song on 'The County Mayo.' + +A mother says to her mischievous child, 'Oh blessed hour, what am I to do +with you at all at all!' + + 'Oh we're in a precious plight + By your means this blessed night.' + + (Repeal Song of 1843.) + +{197} + +'God help me this blessed night.' ('Mun Carberry and the Pooka' by Robert +Dwyer Joyce.) + +A man is on the verge of ruin, or in some other great trouble, and the +neighbours will say, 'the Lord will open a gap for him': meaning God will +find some means of extricating him. Father Higgins, who sent me this, truly +remarks:--'This is a fine expressive phrase showing the poetical +temperament of our people, and their religious spirit too.' + +When anything happens very much out of the common:--'Glory be to God, isn't +that wonderful.' + +At the mention of the name of a person that is dead, the Roman Catholic +people invariably utter the little prayer 'God rest his soul' or 'the Lord +have mercy on him.' + +The people thank God for everything, whatever it may be His will to send, +good or bad. 'Isn't this a beautiful day, Mike.' ''Tis indeed, thank God.' +'This is a terrible wet day, William, and very bad for the crops.' 'It is +indeed Tom, thanks be to God for all: He knows best.' + +As might be expected where expressions of this kind are so constantly in +the people's mouths, it happens occasionally that they come in rather +awkwardly. Little Kitty, running in from the dairy with the eyes starting +out of her head, says to her mother who is talking to a neighbour in the +kitchen: 'Oh, mother, mother, I saw a terrible thing in the cream.' 'Ah, +never mind, child,' says the mother, suspecting the truth and anxious to +hush it up, 'it's nothing but the grace of God.' 'Oh but mother, sure the +grace of God hasn't a long tail.' + +The following story was current when I was a {198} child, long before +Charles Kickham wrote 'Knocknagow,' in which he tells the story too: but I +will give it in his words. A station is held at Maurice Kearney's, where +the family and servants and the neighbours go to Confession and receive +Holy Communion: among the rest Barney Broderick the stable boy. After all +was over, Father MacMahon's driver provokes and insults Barney, who is kept +back, and keeps himself back with difficulty from falling on him and +'knocking his two eyes into one' and afterwards 'breaking every tooth in +his head.' 'Damn well the _blagard_ knows,' exclaims Barney, 'that I'm in a +state of grace to-day. But'--he continued, shaking his fist at the +fellow--'but, please God I won't be in a state of grace always.' + +When a person is smooth-tongued, meek-looking, over civil, and deceitful, +he is _plauzy_ [plausible], 'as mild as ever on stirabout smiled.' 'Oh she +is sly enough; she looks as if _butter wouldn't melt in her mouth_.' +(Charles Macklin--an Irish writer--in _The Man of the World_.) This last +expression of Macklin's is heard everywhere here. + +A person is in some sore fix, or there is trouble before him: 'I wouldn't +like to be _in his shoes_ just now.' + +A person falls in for some piece of good fortune:--'Oh you're _made up_, +John: you're a _med_ man; you're _on the pig's back_ now.' + +In a house where the wife is master--the husband henpecked:--'the grey mare +is the better horse.' (General.) + +He got the father of a beating; i.e. a great beating. {199} + +'How did poor Jack get that mark on his face?' 'Oh he fell over his +shadow': meaning he fell while he was drunk. + +A good dancer 'handles his feet well.' (MacCall: Wexford.) + +A pensioner, a loafer, or anyone that has nothing to do but walk about, is +_an inspector of public buildings_. + +Those who leave Ireland commonly become all the more attached to it: they +get to love _the old sod_ all the more intensely. A poor old woman was +dying in Liverpool, and Father O'Neill came and administered the last +sacraments. He noticed that she still hesitated as if she wished to say +something more; and after some encouragement she at length said:--'Well, +father, I only wanted to ask you, _will my soul pass through Ireland on its +journey?_' ('Knocknagow.') According to a religious legend in 'The Second +Vision of Adamnan' the soul, on parting from the body, visits four places +before setting out for its final destination:--the place of birth, the +place of death, the place of baptism, and the place of burial. So this poor +old woman got her wish. + +'Well, I don't like to say anything bad about you; and as for the other +side, _the less I praise you the less I lie_.' (North.) + +There is a touch of heredity in this:--'You're nothing but a schemer like +your seven generations before you.' (Kildare.) + +'Oh you need not be afraid: I'll call only very seldom henceforward.' +Reply:--'The seldomer the welcomer.' {200} + +'Never dread the winter till the snow is on the blanket': i.e. as long as +you have a roof over your head. An allusion to the misery of those poor +people--numerous enough in the evil days of past times--who were evicted +from house and home. (P. Reilly: Kildare.) + +Of a lucky man:--'That man's ducks are laying.' + +When a baby is born, the previous baby's 'nose is out of joint.' Said also +of a young man who is supplanted by another in courtship. + +A man who supplants another in any pursuit or design is said to 'come +inside him.' + +A person is speaking bitterly or uncharitably of one who is dead; and +another says reprovingly--'let the dead rest.' + +When it is proposed to give a person something he doesn't need or something +much too good for him, you oppose or refuse it by saying:--'_Cock him up +with it_--how much he wants it!--I'll do no such thing.' Two gentlemen +staying for a night in a small hotel in a remote country town ordered toast +for breakfast, which it seems was very unusual there. They sat down to +breakfast, but there was no sign of the toast. 'What about the toast?' asks +one. Whereupon the impudent waiter replies--'Ah, then cock yez up with +toast: how bad yez are for it.' + +A very general form of expression to point to a person's identity in a very +vague way is seen in the following example:--'From whom did you buy that +horse, James?' Reply:--'From _a man of the Burkes_ living over there in +Ballinvreena': i.e. a man named Burke. Mr. Seumas MacManus has adopted +{201} this idiom in the name of one of his books:--'A Lad of the O'Friels.' + +'I never saw the froth of your pot or the bead of your naggin': i.e. you +have never entertained me. _Bead_, the string of little bubbles that rise +when you shake whiskey in a bottle. (Kildare.) + +Of a man likely to die: 'he'll soon be a load for four': i.e. the four +coffin-bearers. (Reilly: Kildare.) + +When a person attempts to correct you when you are not in error:--'Don't +take me up till I fall.' + +When you make a good attempt:--'If I didn't knock it down, I staggered it.' + +'Love daddy, love mammy, love yourself best.' Said of a very selfish +person. + +An odd expression:--'You are making such noise that _I can't hear my +ears_.' (Derry; and also Limerick.) + +Plato to a young man who asked his advice about getting married:--'If you +don't get married you'll be sorry: and if you do you'll be sorry.' + +Our Irish cynic is more bitter:-- + + If a man doesn't marry he'll rue it sore: + And if he gets married he'll rue it more. + +The children were great pets with their grandmother: 'She wouldn't let +anyone _look crooked_ at them': i.e. she wouldn't permit the least +unkindness. + +'Can he read a Latin book?' 'Read one! why, he can write Latin books, _let +alone_ reading them.' _Let alone_ in this sense very common all over +Ireland. + +A person offers to do you some kindness, and you accept it jokingly with +'Sweet is your hand in a pitcher of honey.' (Crofton Croker.) {202} + +When a man falls into error, not very serious or criminal--gets drunk +accidentally for instance--the people will say, by way of +extenuation:--''Tis a good man's case.' + +You may be sure Tim will be at the fair to-morrow, _dead or alive or +a-horseback_. + +'You never spoke but you said something': said to a person who makes a +silly remark or gives foolish advice. (Kinahan). + +'He will never comb a grey hair': said of a young person who looks +unhealthy and is likely to die early. + +Two persons had an angry dispute; and _one word borrowed another_ till at +last they came to blows. Heard everywhere in Ireland. + +The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen. + +'I'll take the book _and no thanks to you_,' i.e. I'll take it in spite of +you, whether you like or no, against your will--'I'll take it in spite of +your teeth'--'in spite of your nose': all very common. + +A person arrives barely in time for his purpose or to fulfil his +engagement:--'You have just saved your distance.' + +To _put a person off the walk_ means to kill him, to remove him in some +way. (Meath.) + +A man has had a long fit of illness, and the wife, telling about it, +says:--'For six weeks coal nor candle never went out.' (Antrim.) + +'To cure a person's hiccup' means to make him submit, to bring him to his +senses, to make him acknowledge his error, by some decided course of +action. A shopkeeper goes to a customer for payment of a debt, and gets no +satisfaction, but, on the {203} contrary, impudence. 'Oh well, I'll send +you an attorney's letter to-morrow, and may be that will cure your hiccup.' +The origin of this expression is the general belief through Ireland that a +troublesome fit of hiccup may be cured by suddenly making some very +startling and alarming announcement to the person--an announcement in which +he is deeply concerned: such as that the stacks in the haggard are on +fire--that three of his cows have just been drowned, &c. Fiachra MacBrady, +a schoolmaster and poet, of Stradone in Cavan (1712), wrote a humorous +description of his travels through Ireland of which the translation has +this verse:-- + + 'I drank till quite mellow, then like a brave fellow, + Began for to bellow and shouted for more; + But my host held his stick up, which soon _cured my hiccup_, + As no cash I could pick up to pay off the score.' + +The host was the publican, and the stick that he held up was the tally +stick on which were marked in nicks all the drinks poor MacBrady had +taken--a usual way of keeping accounts in old times. The sight of the +_score_ brought him to his senses at once--_cured his hiccup_. + +A verse of which the following is a type is very often found in our +Anglo-Irish songs:-- + + 'The flowers in those valleys no more shall spring, + The blackbirds and thrushes no more shall sing, + The sea shall dry up and no water shall be, + At the hour I'll prove false to sweet graw-mochree.' + +So in Scotland:--'I will luve thee still, my dear, till a' the seas gang +dry.' (Burns.) + +A warning sometimes given to a messenger:--'Now don't forget it like Billy +and the pepper': This {204} is the story of Billy and the pepper. A gander +got killed accidentally; and as the family hardly ever tasted meat, there +was to be a great treat that day. To top the grandeur they sent little +Billy to town for a pennyworth of pepper. But Billy forgot the name, and +only remembered that it was something hot; so he asked the shopman for a +penn'orth of _hot-thing_. The man couldn't make head or tail of the +_hot-thing_, so he questioned Billy. Is it mustard? No. Is it ginger? No. +Is it pepper? Oh that's just it--_gandher's pepper_. + +A man has done me some intentional injury, and I say to him, using a very +common phrase:--'Oh, well, wait; _I'll pay you off_ for that': meaning +'I'll punish you for it--I'll have satisfaction.' + +_Dry_ for _thirsty_ is an old English usage; for in Middleton's Plays it is +found used in this sense. (Lowell.) It is almost universal in Ireland, +where of course it survives from old English. There is an old Irish air and +song called 'I think it no treason to drink when I'm _dry_': and in another +old Folk Song we find this couplet: + + 'There was an old soldier riding by, + He called for a quart because he was _dry_.' + +Instances of the odd perversion of sense by misplacing some little clause +are common in all countries: and I will give here just one that came under +my own observation. A young friend, a boy, had remained away an unusually +long time without visiting us; and on being asked the reason he +replied:--'I could not come, sir; I got a bite in the leg of dog'--an +example which I think is unique. {205} + +On the first appearance of the new moon, a number of children linked hands +and danced, keeping time to the following verse-- + + I see the moon, the moon sees me, + God bless the moon and God bless me: + There's grace in the cottage and grace in the hall; + And the grace of God is over us all. + +For the air to which this was sung see my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' +p. 60. + +'Do you really mean to drive that horse of William's to pound?' 'Certainly +I will.' 'Oh very well; let ye take what you'll get.' Meaning you are +likely to pay dear for it--you may take the consequences. (Ulster.) + +'If he tries to remove that stone without any help _it will take him all +his time_': it will require his utmost exertions. (Ulster: very common.) + +When rain is badly wanted and often threatens but still doesn't come they +say:--'It has great _hould_ [hold] of the rain.' On the other hand when +there is long continued wet weather:--'It is very fond of the rain.' + +When flakes of snow begin to fall:--'They are plucking the geese in +Connaught.' 'Formerly in all the congested districts of Ireland [which are +more common in Connaught than elsewhere] goose and duck feathers formed one +of the largest industries.' (Kinahan.) + +Now James you should put down your name for more than 5s.: there's Tom +Gallagher, not half so well off as you, _put the shame on you_ by +subscribing L1. (Kinahan: pretty general.) {206} + +In stories 'a day' is often added on to a period of time, especially to a +year. A person is banished out of Ireland for a year and a day. + +The battle of Ventry Harbour lasted for a year and a day, when at last the +foreigners were defeated. + + There's a colleen fair as May, + For a year and for a day + I have sought by ev'ry way + Her heart to gain. + + (PETRIE.) + +'Billy MacDaniel,' said the fairy, 'you shall be my servant for seven years +and a day.' (Crofton Croker.) Borrowed from the Irish. + +The word _all_ is often used by our rustic poets exactly as it is found in +English folk-songs. Gay has happily imitated this popular usage in +'Black-eyed Susan':-- + + 'All in the Downs the fleet was moored'-- + +and Scott in 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel':-- + + 'All as they left the listed plain.' + +Any number of examples might be given from our peasant songs, but these two +will be sufficient:-- + + 'As I roved out one evening two miles below Pomeroy + I met a farmer's daughter _all on_ the mountains high.' + + 'How a young lady's heart was won + _All by_ the loving of a farmer's son.' + +(The two lovely airs of these will be found in two of my books: for the +first, see 'The Mountains high' in 'Ancient Irish Music'; and for the +second {207} see 'Handsome Sally' in 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.') + +'He saw her on that day, and _never laid eyes on her_ alive afterwards.' +(Speech of Irish counsel in murder case: 1909.) A common expression. + +A wish for success either in life or in some particular undertaking--purely +figurative of course:--'That the road may rise under you.' As the road +continually rises under foot there is always an easy down hill in front. +(Kerry.) + +Regarding some proposal or offer:--'I never said against it'; i.e. I never +disapproved of it--declined it--refused it. + +Be said by me: i.e. take my advice. (General.) + +When a cart-wheel screeches because the axle-tree has not been greased, it +is _cursing for grease_. (Munster.) + +When a person wishes to keep out from another--to avoid argument or +conflict, he says:--'The child's bargain--let me alone and I'll let you +alone.' + +When a person goes to law expenses trying to recover a debt which it is +very unlikely he will recover, that is 'throwing good money after bad.' + +'I'm the second tallest man in Mitchelstown'--or 'I'm the next tallest.' +Both mean 'there is just one other man in Mitchelstown taller than me, and +I come next to him.' + +'Your honour.' Old English: very common as a term of courtesy in the time +of Elizabeth, and to be met with everywhere in the State papers and +correspondence of that period. Used now all through Ireland by the +peasantry when addressing persons very much above them. {208} + +_The cabman's answer._ I am indebted to this cabman for giving me an +opportunity of saying something here about myself. It is quite a common +thing for people to write to me for information that they could easily find +in my books: and this is especially the case in connexion with Irish +place-names. I have always made it a point to reply to these +communications. But of late they have become embarrassingly numerous, while +my time is getting more circumscribed with every year of my long life. Now, +this is to give notice to _all the world and Garrett Reilly_ that +henceforward I will give these good people the reply that the Dublin cabman +gave the lady. 'Please, sir,' said she, 'will you kindly tell me the +shortest way to St. Patrick's Cathedral.' He opened the door of his cab +with his left hand, and pointing in with the forefinger of his right, +answered--'In there ma'am.' {209} + + * * * * * + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +VOCABULARY AND INDEX. + +[In this Vocabulary, as well indeed as through the whole book, _gh_ and +_ch_ are to be sounded guttural, as in _lough_ and _loch_, unless otherwise +stated or implied. Those who cannot sound the guttural may take the sound +of _k_ instead, and they will not be far wrong.] + + Able; strong, muscular, and vigorous:--'Nagle was a strong able man.' + + Able dealer; a schemer. (Limerick.) + + Acushla; see Cushlamochree. + + Adam's ale; plain drinking-water. + + Affirming, assenting, and saluting, 9. + + Agra or Agraw: a term of endearment; my love: vocative of Irish + _gradh_, love. + + Ahaygar; a pet term; my friend, my love: vocative of Irish _teagur_, + love, a dear person. + + Aims-ace; a small amount, quantity, or distance. Applied in the + following way very generally in Munster:--'He was within an aim's-ace + of being drowned' (very near). A survival in Ireland of the old + Shakesperian word _ambs-ace_, meaning two aces or two single points in + throwing dice, the smallest possible throw. + + Air: a visitor comes in:--'Won't you sit down Joe and take an _air_ of + the fire.' (Very usual.) + + Airt used in Ulster and Scotland for a single point of the compass:-- + + 'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.' + + (BURNS.) + + It is the Irish _aird_, a point of the compass. + + {210} Airy; ghostly, fearsome: an _airy_ place, a haunted place. Same + as Scotch _eerie_. From Gaelic _aedharaigh_, same sound and meaning. A + survival of the old Irish pagan belief that air-demons were the most + malignant of all supernatural beings: see Joyce's 'Old Celtic + Romances,' p. 15. + + Alanna; my child: vocative case of Irish _leanbh_ [lannav], a child. + + Allow; admit. 'I allow that you lent me a pound': 'if you allow that + you cannot deny so and so.' This is an old English usage. (Ducange.) To + advise or recommend: 'I would not allow you to go by that road' ('I + would not recommend'). 'I'd allow you to sow that field with oats' + (advise). + + All to; means except:--'I've sold my sheep all to six,' i.e. except + six. This is merely a translation from the Irish as in _Do marbhadh na + daoine uile go haon triur_: 'The people were slain all to a single + three.' (Keating.) + + Along of; on account of. Why did you keep me waiting [at night] so long + at the door, Pat?' 'Why then 'twas all along of Judy there being so + much afraid of the fairies.' (Crofton Croker.) + + Alpeen, a stick or hand-wattle with a knob at the lower end: diminutive + of Irish _alp_, a knob. Sometimes called a _clehalpeen_: where _cleh_ + is the Irish _cleath_ a stick. _Clehalpeen_, a knobbed cudgel. + + Amadaun, a fool (man or boy), a half-fool, a foolish person. Irish + _amadan_, a fool: a form of _onmitan_; from _on_, a fool: see + _Oanshagh_. + + American wake; a meeting of friends on the evening before the departure + of some young people for {211} America, as a farewell celebration. (See + my 'Old Irish Folk-Music and Songs,' p. 191.) + + Amplush, a fix, a difficulty: he was in a great amplush. (North and + South.) (Edw. Walsh in Dub. Pen. Journal.) + + Amshagh; a sudden hurt, an accident. (Derry.) + + Ang-ishore; a poor miserable creature--man or woman. It is merely the + Irish word _aindeiseoir_. (Chiefly South.) + + Any is used for _no_ (in _no more_) in parts of West and North-west. + 'James, you left the gate open this morning and the calves got out.' + 'Oh I'm sorry sir; I will do it any more.' This is merely a + mistranslation of _nios mo_, from some confused idea of the sense of + two (Irish) negatives (_nios_ being one, with another preceding) + leading to the omission of an English negative from the correct + construction--'I will _not_ do it anymore:' _Nios mo_ meaning in + English 'no more' or 'any more' according to the omission or insertion + of an English negative. + + Aree often used after _ochone_ (alas) in Donegal and elsewhere. _Aree_ + gives the exact pronunciation of _a Righ_, and _neimhe_ (heaven) is + understood. The full Irish exclamation is _ochon a Righ neimhe_, 'alas, + O King of heaven.' + + Arnaun or arnaul, to sit up working at night later than usual. Irish + _airnean_ or _airneal_, same meaning. + + Aroon, a term of endearment, my love, my dear: _Eileen Aroon_, the name + of a celebrated Irish air: vocative of Irish _run_ [roon], a secret, a + secret treasure. In Limerick commonly shortened to _aroo_. 'Where are + you going now _aroo_?' + + {212} Art-loochra or arc-loochra, a harmless lizard five or six inches + long: Irish _art_ or _arc_ is a lizard: _luachra_, rushes; the 'lizard + of the rushes.' + + Ask, a water-newt, a small water-lizard: from _esc_ or _easc_ [ask], an + old Irish word for water. From the same root comes the next word, the + diminutive form-- + + Askeen; land made by cutting away bog, which generally remains more or + less watery. (Reilly: Kildare.) + + Asthore, a term of endearment, 'my treasure.' The vocative case of + Irish _stor_ [store], treasure. + + Athurt; to confront:--'Oh well I will athurt him with that lie he told + about me.' (Cork.) Possibly a mispronunciation of _athwart_. + + Avourneen, my love: the vocative case of Irish _muirnin_, a sweetheart, + a loved person. + + + + Baan: a field covered with short grass:--'A baan field': 'a _baan_ of + cows': i.e. a grass farm with its proper number of cows. Irish _ban_, + whitish. + + Back; a faction: 'I have a good back in the country, so I defy my + enemies.' + + Back of God-speed; a place very remote, out of the way: so far off that + the virtue of your wish of _God-speed_ to a person will not go with him + so far. + + Bacon: to 'save one's bacon'; to succeed in escaping some serious + personal injury--death, a beating, &c. 'They fled from the fight to + save their bacon': 'Here a lodging I'd taken, but loth to awaken, for + fear of my bacon, either man, wife, or babe.' (Old Anglo-Irish poem.) + + {213} Bad member; a doer of evil; a bad character; a treacherous + fellow: 'I'm ruined,' says he, 'for some bad member has wrote to the + bishop about me.' ('Wild Sports of the West.') + + Baffity, unbleached or blay calico. (Munster.) + + Bails or bales, frames made of perpendicular wooden bars in which cows + are fastened for the night in the stable. (Munster.) + + Baithershin; may be so, perhaps. Irish _b'feidir-sin_, same sound and + meaning. + + Ballowr (Bal-yore in Ulster); to bellow, roar, bawl, talk loudly and + coarsely. + + Ballyhooly, a village near Fermoy in Cork, formerly notorious for its + faction fights, so that it has passed into a proverb. A man is late + coming home and expects _Ballyhooly_ from his wife, i.e. 'the length + and breadth of her tongue.' Father Carroll has neglected to visit his + relatives, the Kearneys, for a long time, so that he knows he's _in the + black books_ with Mrs. Kearney, and expects Ballyhooly from her the + first time he meets her. ('Knocknagow.') + + Ballyorgan in Co. Limerick, 146. + + Banagher and Ballinasloe, 192. + + Bannalanna: a woman who sells ale over the counter. Irish + _bean-na-leanna_, 'woman of the ale,' 'ale-woman' (_leann_, ale). + + Ballyrag; to give loud abuse in torrents. (General.) + + Bandle; a 2-foot measure for home-made flannel. (Munster.) + + Bang-up; a frieze overcoat with high collar and long cape. + + {214} Banshee'; a female fairy: Irish _bean-sidhe_ [banshee], a 'woman + from the _shee_ or fairy-dwelling.' This was the original meaning; but + in modern times, and among English speakers, the word _banshee_ has + become narrowed in its application, and signifies a female spirit that + attends certain families, and is heard _keening_ or crying aloud at + night round the house when some member of the family is about to die. + + Barcelona; a silk kerchief for the neck:-- + + 'His clothes spick and span new without e'er a speck; + A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.' + + (EDWARD LYSAGHT, in 'The Sprig of Shillelah.') + + So called because imported from Barcelona, preserving a memory of the + old days of smuggling. + + Barsa, barsaun; a scold. (Kild. and Ulst.) + + Barth; a back-load of rushes, straw, heath, &c. Irish _beart_. + + Baury, baura, baur-y[)a], bairy; the goal in football, hurling, &c. + Irish _baire_ [2-syll.], a game, a goal. + + Bawn; an enclosure near a farmhouse for cattle, sheep, &c.; in some + districts, simply a farmyard. Irish _badhun_ [bawn], a cow-keep, from + _ba_, cows, and _dun_, a keep or fortress. Now generally applied to the + green field near the homestead where the cows are brought to be milked. + + Bawneen; a loose whitish jacket of home-made undyed flannel worn by men + at out-door work. Very general: _banyan_ in Derry. From Irish _ban_ + [bawn], whitish, with the diminutive termination. + + Bawnoge; a dancing-green. (MacCall: Leinster.) {215} From _ban_ [baan], + a field covered with short grass; and the dim. _og_ (p. 90). + + Bawshill, a _fetch_ or double. (See Fetch.) (MacCall: S. Wexford.) I + think this is a derivative of _Bow_, which see. + + Beestings; new milk from a cow that has just calved. + + Be-knownst; known: unbe-knownst; unknown. (Antrim.) + + Better than; more than:--'It is better than a year since I saw him + last'; 'better than a mile,' &c. (Leinster and Munster.) + + Bian' [by-ann']; one of Bianconi's long cars. (See Jingle.) + + Binnen; the rope tying a cow to a stake in a field. (Knowles: Ulster.) + + Birragh; a muzzle-band with spikes on a calf's or a foal's muzzle to + prevent it sucking its mother. From Irish _bir_, a sharp spit: + _birragh_, full of sharp points or spits. (Munster: see Gubbaun.) + + Blackfast: among Roman Catholics, there is a 'black fast' on Ash + Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, and Good Friday, i.e. no flesh meat or + _whitemeat_ is allowed--no flesh, butter, eggs, cheese, or milk. + + Blackfeet. The members of one of the secret societies of a century ago + were called 'Ribbonmen.' Some of them acknowledged the priests: those + were 'whitefeet': others did not--'blackfeet.' + + Black man, black fellow; a surly vindictive implacable irreconcilable + fellow. + + Black man; the man who accompanies a suitor to the house of the + intended father-in-law, to help to make the match. + + {216} Black of one's nail. 'You just escaped by the black of your + nail': 'there's no cloth left--not the size of the black of my nail.' + (North and South.) + + Black swop. When two fellows have two wretched articles--such as two + old penknives--each thinking his own to be the worst in the universe, + they sometimes agree for the pure humour of the thing to make a _black + swop_, i.e. to swop without first looking at the articles. When they + are looked at after the swop, there is always great fun. (See Hool.) + + Blarney; smooth, plausible, cajoling talk. From Blarney Castle near + Cork, in which there is a certain stone hard to reach, with this + virtue, that if a person kisses it, he will be endowed with the gift of + _blarney_. + + Blast; when a child suddenly fades in health and pines away, he has got + a blast,--i.e. a puff of evil wind sent by some baleful sprite has + struck him. _Blast_ when applied to fruit or crops means a blight in + the ordinary sense--nothing supernatural. + + Blather, bladdher; a person who utters vulgarly foolish boastful talk: + used also as a verb--to blather. Hence _blatherumskite_, applied to a + person or to his talk in much the same sense; 'I never heard such a + blatherumskite.' Ulster and Scotch form _blether_, _blethering_: Burns + speaks of stringing 'blethers up in rhyme.' ('The Vision.') + + Blaze, blazes, blazing: favourite words everywhere in Ireland. Why are + you in such a blazing hurry? Jack ran away like blazes: now work at + that job like blazes: he is blazing drunk. Used also by the English + _peasantry_:--'That's a blazing strange {217} answer,' says Jerry + Cruncher in 'A Tale of Two Cities.' There's a touch of slang in some of + these: yet the word has been in a way made classical by Lord Morley's + expression that Lord Salisbury never made a speech without uttering + 'some blazing indiscretion.' + + Blind Billy. In coming to an agreement take care you don't make 'Blind + Billy's Bargain,' by either overreaching yourself or allowing the other + party to overreach you. Blind Billy was the hangman in Limerick, and on + one particular occasion he flatly refused to do his work unless he got + L50 down on the nail: so the high sheriff had to agree and the hangman + put the money in his pocket. When all was over the sheriff refused + point-blank to send the usual escort without a fee of L50 down. So + Blind Billy had to hand over the L50--for if he went without an escort + he would be torn in pieces--and had nothing in the end for his job. + + Blind lane; a lane stopped up at one end. + + Blind window; an old window stopped up, but still plain to be seen. + + Blink; to exercise an evil influence by a glance of the 'evil eye'; to + 'overlook'; hence 'blinked,' blighted by the eye. When the butter does + not come in churning, the milk has been _blinked_ by some one. + + Blirt; to weep: as a noun, a rainy wind. (Ulster.) + + Blob (_blab_ often in Ulster), a raised blister: a drop of honey, or of + anything liquid. + + Blue look-out; a bad look-out, bad prospect. + + Boal or bole; a shelved recess in a room. (North.) + + Boarhaun; dried cowdung used for fuel like turf. Irish _boithrean_ + [boarhaun], from bo, a cow. + + {218} Boccach [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster, but elsewhere on 1st]; + a lame person. From the fact that so many beggars are lame or pretend + to be lame, _boccach_ has come to mean a beggar. Irish _bacach_, a lame + person: from _bac_, to halt. _Bockady_, another form of _boccach_ in + Munster. _Bockeen_ (the diminutive added on to _bac_), another form + heard in Mayo. + + Boddagh [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster; in Ulster on 1st], a rich + churlish clownish fellow. Tom Cuddihy wouldn't bear insult from any + purse-proud old _boddagh_. ('Knocknagow.') + + Body-coat; a coat like the present dress-coat, cut away in front so as + to leave a narrow pointed tail-skirt behind: usually made of frieze and + worn with the knee-breeches. + + Body-glass; a large mirror in which the whole body can be seen. + (Limerick.) + + Body-lilty; heels over head. (Derry.) + + Bog; what is called in England a 'peat moss.' Merely the Irish _bog_, + soft. Bog (verb), to be bogged; to sink in a bog or any soft soil or + swampy place. + + Bog-butter; butter found deep in bogs, where it had been buried in old + times for a purpose, and forgotten: a good deal changed now by the + action of the bog. (See Joyce's 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' + p. 260.) + + Bog-Latin; bad incorrect Latin; Latin that had been learned in the + hedge schools among the bogs. This derisive and reproachful epithet was + given in bad old times by pupils and others of the favoured, legal, and + endowed schools, sometimes with reason, {219} but oftener very + unjustly. For those _bog_ or hedge schools sent out numbers of + scholarly men, who afterwards entered the church or lay professions. + (See p. 151.) + + Boghaleen; the same as Crusheen, which see. + + Bohaun; a cabin or hut. Irish _both_ [boh], a hut, with the diminutive + _an_. + + Bold; applied to girls and boys in the sense of 'forward,' 'impudent.' + + Boliaun, also called _booghalaun bwee_ and _ge[=o]sadaun_; the common + yellow ragwort: all these are Irish words. + + Bolting-hole; the second or backward entrance made by rats, mice, + rabbits, &c., from their burrows, so that if attacked at the ordinary + entrance, they can escape by this, which is always left unused except + in case of attack. (Kinahan.) + + Bones. If a person magnifies the importance of any matter and talks as + if it were some great affair, the other will reply:--'Oh, you're + _making great bones_ about it.' + + Bonnive, a sucking-pig. Irish _banbh_, same sound and meaning. Often + used with the diminutive--bonniveen, bonneen. 'Oh look at the _baby + pigs_,' says an Irish lady one day in the hearing of others and myself, + ashamed to use the Irish word. After that she always bore the nickname + 'Baby pig':--'Oh, there's the Baby pig.' + + Bonnyclabber; thick milk. Irish _bainne_ [bonny] milk; and _clabar_, + anything thick or half liquid. 'In use all over America.' (Russell.) + + Boochalawn bwee; ragweed: same as boliaun, which see. + + {220} Boolanthroor; three men threshing together, instead of the usual + two: striking always in time. Irish _buail-an-triur_, 'the striking of + three.' + + Booley as a noun; a temporary settlement in the grassy uplands where + the people of the adjacent lowland village lived during the summer with + their cattle, and milked them and made butter, returning in + autumn--cattle and all--to their lowland farms to take up the crops. + Used as a verb also: _to booley_. See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. + Ireland,' p. 431; or 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 239. + + Boolthaun, boulhaun, booltheen, boolshin: the striking part of a flail: + from Irish _buail_ [bool], to strike, with the diminutive. + + Boon in Ulster, same as _Mihul_ elsewhere; which see. + + Boreen or bohereen, a narrow road. Irish _bothar_ [boher], a road, with + the diminutive. + + Borick; a small wooden ball used by boys in hurling or goaling, when + the proper leather-covered ball is not to hand. Called in Ulster a + _nag_ and also a _golley_. (Knowles.) + + Borreen-brack, 'speckled cake,' speckled with currants and raisins, + from Irish _bairghin_ [borreen], a cake, and _breac_ [brack], speckled: + specially baked for Hallow-eve. Sometimes corruptly called _barm-brack_ + or _barn-brack_. + + Bosthoon: a flexible rod or whip made of a number of green rushes laid + together and bound up with single rushes wound round and round. Made by + boys in play--as I often made them. Hence '_bosthoon_' is applied + contemptuously to a soft {221} worthless spiritless fellow, in much the + same sense as _poltroon_. + + Bother; merely the Irish word _bodhar_, deaf, used both as a noun and a + verb in English (in the sense of deafening, annoying, troubling, + perplexing, teasing): a person deaf or partially deaf is said to be + _bothered_:--'Who should come in but _bothered_ Nancy Fay. Now be it + known that _bothered_ signifies deaf; and Nancy was a little old cranky + _bothered_ woman.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You 'turn the _bothered_ ear' to a + person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request. + In these applications _bother_ is universal in Ireland among all + classes--educated as well as uneducated: accordingly, as Murray notes, + it was first brought into use by Irishmen, such as Sheridan, Swift, and + Sterne; just as Irishmen of to-day are bringing into currency _galore_, + _smithereens_, and many other Irish words. In its primary sense of deaf + or to deafen, _bother_ is used in the oldest Irish documents: thus in + the Book of Leinster we have:--_Ro bodrais sind oc imradud do maic_, + 'You have made us deaf (you have _bothered_ us) talking about your son' + (Kuno Meyer): and a similar expression is in use at the present day in + the very common phrase 'don't _bother_ me' (don't deafen me, don't + annoy me), which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish + phrase _na bi am' bhodradh_. Those who derive _bother_ from the English + _pother_ make a guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun. + + Bottheen, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irish _bata_ with the + diminutive:--_baitin_. + + Bottom; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricks {222} of girls on + Hallow-eve to find out the destined husband is to go out to the + limekiln at night with a ball of yarn; throw in the ball still holding + the thread; re-wind the thread, till it is suddenly stopped; call out + 'who _howlds_ my bottom of yarn?' when she expects to hear the name of + the young man she is to marry. + + Bouchal or boochal, a boy: the Irish _buachaill_, same meaning. + + Bouilly-bawn, white home-made bread of wheaten flour; often called + _bully-bread_. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irish _bul_ or _builidhe_, a + loaf, and _ban_, white. + + Boundhalaun, a plant with thick hollow stem with joints, of which boys + make rude syringes. From Irish _banndal_ or _bannlamh_, a _bandle_ + (which see), with the dim. termination _an_, I never saw true + boundhalauns outside Munster. + + Bourke, the Rev. Father, 71, 161. + + Bownloch, a sore on the sole of the foot always at the edge: from + _bonn_ the foot-sole [pron. bown in the South], and _loch_ a mere + termination. Also called a _Bine-lock_. + + Bowraun, a sieve-shaped vessel for holding or measuring out corn, with + the flat bottom made of dried sheepskin stretched tight; sometimes used + as a rude tambourine, from which it gets the name _bowraun_; Irish + _bodhur_ [pron. bower here], deaf, from the _bothered_ or indistinct + sound. (South.) + + Bow [to rhyme with _cow_]; a _banshee_, a _fetch_ (both which see. + MacCall: South Leinster). This word has come down to us from very old + times, for it preserves the memory of _Bugh_ [Boo], a _banshee_ or + fairy queen once very celebrated, the daughter of {223} Bove Derg king + of the Dedannans or faery-race, of whom information will be obtained in + the classical Irish story, 'The Fate of the Children of Lir,' the first + in my 'Old Celtic Romances.' She has given her name to many hills all + through Ireland. (See my 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 182, 183. See + Bawshill.) + + Box and dice; used to denote the whole lot: I'll send you all the books + and manuscripts, box and dice. + + Boxty; same as the Limerick _muddly_, which see. + + Boy. Every Irishman is a 'boy' till he is married, and indeed often + long after. (Crofton Croker: 'Ir. Fairy Legends.') + + Brablins: a crowd of children: a rabble. (Monaghan.) + + Bracket; speckled: a 'bracket cow.' Ir. _breac_, speckled. + + Braddach; given to mischief; roguish. Ir. _bradach_, a thief: in the + same sense as when a mother says to her child, 'You young thief, stop + that mischief.' Often applied to cows inclined to break down and cross + fences. (Meath and Monaghan.) + + Brander; a gridiron. (North.) From Eng. _brand_. + + Brash; a turn of sickness (North.) Water-brash (Munster), severe + acidity of the stomach with a flow of watery saliva from the mouth. + Brash (North), a short turn at churning, or at anything; a stroke of + the churndash: 'Give the churn a few brashes.' In Donegal you will hear + 'that's a good brash of hail.' + + Brave; often used as an intensive:--'This is a brave fine day'; 'that's + a brave big dog': (Ulster.) Also fine or admirable 'a brave stack of + hay': {224} tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in + fighting):--'I have as brave a set of sons as you'd find in a day's + walk.' 'How is your sick boy doing?' 'Oh bravely, thank you.' + + Braw; fine, handsome: Ir. _breagh_, same sound and meanings. (Ulster.) + + Break. You _break_ a grass field when you plough or dig it up for + tillage. 'I'm going to break the kiln field.' ('Knocknagow.') Used all + over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray's Elegy:--'Their + furrow oft the stubborn glebe _has broke_.' + + Break; to dismiss from employment: 'Poor William O'Donnell was _broke_ + last week.' This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very + old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:--'_Cid nod m-bris in + fer-so a bo-airechus?_' 'What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) + this man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position as _bo-aire_ or + chief)?' My car-driver asked me one time:--'Can an inspector of + National Schools be broke, sir?' By which he meant could he be + dismissed at any time without any cause. + + Breedoge [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _bathe_]; a figure dressed up to + represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a + procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve + of the saint's festival), to collect small money contributions. With + this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next + day, 1st Feb. 'Breedoge' means 'little _Brighid_ or _Brighit_,' _Breed_ + (or rather _Breedh_) representing the sound of Brighid, with _og_ the + old diminutive feminine termination. + + {225} Brecham, the straw collar put on a horse's or an ass's neck: + sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.) + + Brehon Law; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was + called a 'brehon.' + + Brew; a margin, a brink: 'that lake is too shallow to fish from the + brews': from the Irish _bru_, same sound and meaning. See Broo. + + Brief; prevalent: 'fever is very brief.' Used all over the southern + half of Ireland. Perhaps a mistake for _rife_. + + Brillauns or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in + a peasant's cottage. Dick O'Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married + as soon as they can gather up the few _brill-yauns_ of furniture. + (South-east of Ireland.) + + Brine-oge; 'a young fellow full of fun and frolic.' (Carleton: Ulster.) + + Bring: our peculiar use of this (for 'take') appears in such phrases + as:--'he brought the cows to the field': 'he brought me to the + theatre.' (Hayden and Hartog.) See Carry. + + Brock, brockish; a badger. It is just the Irish _broc_. + + Brock, brocket, brockey; applied to a person heavily pock-marked. I + suppose from _broc_, a badger. (Ulster.) + + Brogue, a shoe: Irish _brog_. Used also to designate the Irish accent + in speaking English: for the old Irish thong-stitched brogue was + considered so characteristically Irish that the word was applied to our + accent; as a clown is called a _cauboge_ (which see: Munster). + + {226} Brohoge or bruhoge; a small batch of potatoes roasted. See + Brunoge. + + Broken; bankrupt: quite a common expression is:--Poor Phil Burke is + 'broken horse and foot'; i.e. utterly bankrupt and ruined. + + Broo, the edge of a potato ridge along which cabbages are planted. + Irish _bru_, a margin, a brink. + + Brosna, brusna, bresna; a bundle of sticks for firing: a faggot. This + is the Irish _brosna_, universally used in Ireland at the present day, + both in Irish and English; and used in the oldest Irish documents. In + the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, written in Irish ten centuries ago, + we are told that when Patrick was a boy, his foster-mother sent him one + day for a _brossna_ of withered branches to make a fire. + + Broth of a boy; a _good_ manly brave boy: the essence of manhood, as + broth is the essence of meat. + + Brough; a ring or halo round the moon. It is the Irish _bruach_, a + border. + + Broughan; porridge or oatmeal stirabout. Irish _brochan_. (Ulster.) + + Bruggadauns [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _they_]; the stalks of ferns + found in meadows after mowing. (Kerry.) + + Brulliagh; a row, a noisy scuffle. (Derry.) + + Brunoge; a little batch of potatoes roasted in a fire made in the + potato field at digging time: always dry, floury and palatable. + (Roscommon.) Irish _bruithneog_. See Brohoge. + + Bruss or briss; small broken bits mixed up with dust: very often + applied to turf-dust. Irish _brus_, _bris_, same sounds and meaning. + (South.) + + {227} Brutteen, brutin, bruteens; the Ulster words for caulcannon; + which see. Irish _bruightin_. + + Buckaun; the upright bar of a hinge on which the other part with the + door hangs. Irish _bocan_. + + Buckley, Father Darby, 68, 146. + + Bucknabarra; any non-edible fungus. (Fermanagh.) See Pookapyle. + + Buck teeth; superfluous teeth which stand out from the ordinary row. + (Knowles: Ulster.) + + Buddaree [_dd_ sounded like _th_ in _they_]; a rich purse-proud vulgar + farmer. (Munster.) Irish. + + Buff; the skin; to strip to one's buff is to strip naked. Two fellows + going to fight with fists strip to their buff, i.e. naked from the + waist up. (Munster.) + + Buggaun (Munster), buggeen (Leinster); an egg without a shell. Irish + _bog_, soft, with the dim. termination. + + Bullaun, a bull calf. Irish, as in next word. + + Bullavaun, bullavogue; a strong, rough, bullying fellow. From _bulla_ + the Irish form of _bull_. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Bullaworrus; a spectral bull 'with fire blazing from his eyes, mouth, + and nose,' that guards buried treasure by night. (Limerick.) Irish. + + Bullia-bottha (or boolia-botha); a fight with sticks. (Simmons: + Armagh.) Irish _buaileadh_, striking; and _bata_, a stick. + + Bullagadaun [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _they_]; a short stout + pot-bellied fellow. (Munster.) From Irish _bolg_ [pron. bullog], a + belly, and the dim. _dan_. + + Bullshin, bullsheen; same as _Bullaun_. + + {228} Bum; to cart turf to market: _bummer_, a person who does so as a + way of living, like Billy Heffernan in 'Knocknagow.' Bum-bailiff, a bog + bailiff. (Grainger: Arm.) Used more in the northern half of Ireland + than in the southern. + + Bun; the tail of a rabbit. (Simmons: Arm.) Irish _bun_, the end. + + Bunnans; roots or stems of bushes or trees. (Meath.) From Irish _bun_ + as in last word. + + Bunnaun; a long stick or wattle. (Joyce: Limerick.) + + Bunnioch; the last sheaf bound up in a field of reaped corn. The binder + of this (usually a girl) will die unmarried. (MacCall: Wexford.) + + Butt; a sort of cart boarded at bottom and all round the sides, 15 or + 18 inches deep, for potatoes, sand, &c. (Limerick.) In Cork any kind of + horse-cart or donkey-cart is called a _butt_, which is a departure from + the (English) etymology. In Limerick any kind of cart except a butt is + called a _car_; the word _cart_ is not used at all. + + Butthoon has much the same meaning as _potthalowng_, which see. Irish + _butun_, same sound and meaning. (Munster.) + + Butter up; to flatter, to cajole by soft sugary words, generally with + some selfish object in view:--'I suspected from the way he was + buttering me up that he came to borrow money.' + + Byre: the place where the cows are fed and milked; sometimes a house + for cows and horses, or a farmyard. + + By the same token: this needs no explanation; it is a survival from + Tudor English. (Hayden and Hartog.) + + + + {229} Cabin-hunting; going about from house to house to gossip. + (South.) + + Cabman's Answer, The, 208. + + Cadday' [strong accent on -day] to stray idly about. As a noun an idle + _stray_ of a fellow. + + Cadge; to hawk goods for sale. (Simmons: Armagh.) To go about idly from + house to house, picking up _a bit and a sup_, wherever they are to be + had. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Caffler; a contemptible little fellow who gives saucy _cheeky_ foolish + talk. Probably a mispronunciation of _caviller_. (Munster.) + + Cagger; a sort of pedlar who goes to markets and houses selling small + goods and often taking others in exchange. (Kinahan: South and West.) + + Cahag; the little cross-piece on the end of a spade-handle, or of any + handle. (Mon.) + + Cailey; a friendly evening visit in order to have a gossip. There are + usually several persons at a cailey, and along with the gossiping talk + there are songs or music. Irish _ceilidh_, same sound and meaning. Used + all over Ireland, but more in the North than elsewhere. + + Calleach na looha [Colleagh: accented on 2nd syll. in South; on 1st in + North] 'hag of the ashes.' Children--and sometimes _old + children_--think that a little hag resides in the ashpit beside the + fire. Irish _cailleach_, an old woman: _luaith_, ashes. + + Calleach-rue ('red hag'); a little reddish brown fish about 4 inches + long, plentiful in small streams. We boys thought them delicious when + broiled on the turf-coals. We fished for them either with a loop-snare + made of a single {230} horsehair on the end of a twig, with which it + was very hard to catch them; for, as the boys used to say, 'they were + cute little divels'--or directly--like the sportsmen of old--with a + spear--the same spear being nothing but _an ould fork_. + + Caish; a growing pig about 6 months old. (Munster.) + + Call; claim, right: 'put down that spade; you have no call to it.' + + 'Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer, + My eyes it does bedizen--O; + What _call_ have you marauding here, + Or how daar you leave your prison--O?' + + (Repeal Song: 1843.) + + Need, occasion: they lived so near each other that there was no call to + send letters. 'Why are you shouting that way?' 'I have a good call to + shout, and that blackguard running away with my apples.' Father O'Flynn + could preach on many subjects:--'Down from mythology into thayology, + Troth! and conchology if he'd the call.' (A. P. Graves.) Used + everywhere in Ireland in these several senses. + + Call; custom in business: Our new shopkeeper is getting great call, + i.e. his customers are numerous. (South.) + + Cam or caum; a metal vessel for melting resin to make _sluts_ or long + torches; also used to melt metal for coining. (Simmons: Armagh.) Called + a _grisset_ in Munster. Usually of a curved shape: Irish _cam_, curved. + + Candle. 'Jack Brien is a good scholar, but he couldn't hold a candle to + Tom Murphy': i.e. he {231} is very inferior to him. The person that + holds a candle for a workman is a mere attendant and quite an inferior. + + Cannags; the stray ears left after the corn has been reaped and + gathered. (Morris: Mon.) Called _liscauns_ in Munster. + + Caper: oat-cake and butter. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Caravat and Shanavest; the names of two hostile factions in Kilkenny + and all round about there, of the early part of last century. Like + Three-year-old and Four-year-old. Irish _Caravat_, a cravat; and + _Shanavest_, old vest: which names were adopted, but no one can tell + why. + + Card-cutter; a fortune-teller by card tricks. Card-cutters were pretty + common in Limerick in my early days: but it was regarded as + disreputable to have any dealings with them. + + Cardia; friendship, a friendly welcome, additional time granted for + paying a debt. (All over Ireland.) Ir. _cairde_, same meanings. + + Cardinal Points, 168. + + Carleycue; a very small coin of some kind. Used like _keenoge_ and + _cross_. (Very general.) + + Carn; a heap of anything; a monumental pile of stones heaped up over a + dead person. Irish _carn_, same meanings. + + Caroline or 'Caroline hat'; a tall hat. ('Knocknagow': all over + Munster.) + + Caroogh, an expert or professional card-player. (Munster.) Irish + _cearrbhach_, same sound and meaning. + + Carra, Carrie; a weir on a river. (Derry.) Irish _carra_, same meaning. + + {232} Carrigaholt in Clare, 145. + + Carry; to lead or drive: 'James, carry down those cows to the river' + (i.e. drive): 'carry the horse to the forge' (lead). 'I will carry my + family this year to Youghal for the salt water.' (Kinahan: South, West, + and North-west.) See Bring. + + Case: the Irish _cas_, and applied in the same way: 'It is a poor case + that I have to pay for your extravagance.' _Nach dubhach bocht un cas + bheith ag tuitim le ghradh_: 'isn't it a poor case to be failing + through love.'--Old Irish Song. Our dialectical Irish _case_, as above, + is taken straight from the Irish _cas_; but this and the standard + English _case_ are both borrowed from Latin. + + Cassnara; respect, anything done out of respect: 'he put on his new + coat for a _casnara_.' (Morris: South Mon.) + + Castor oil was our horror when we were children. No wonder; for this + story went about of how it was made. A number of corpses were hanging + from hooks round the walls of the _factory_, and drops were continually + falling from their big toes into vessels standing underneath. This was + castor oil. + + Catin clay; clay mixed with rushes or straws used in building the mud + walls of cottages. (Simmons: Arm.) + + Cat of a kind: they're 'cat of a kind,' both like each other and both + objectionable. + + Cat's lick; used in and around Dublin to express exactly the same as + the Munster _Scotch lick_, which see. A cat has a small tongue and does + not do much licking. + + {233} Caubeen; an old shabby cap or hat: Irish _caibin_: he wore a + 'shocking bad caubeen.' + + Cauboge; originally an old hat, like caubeen; but now applied--as the + symbol of vulgarity--to an ignorant fellow, a boor, a bumpkin: 'What + else could you expect from that cauboge?' (South.) + + Caulcannon, Calecannon, Colecannon, Kalecannon; potatoes mashed with + butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs. In Munster + often made and eaten on Hallow Eve. The first syllable is the Irish + _cal_, cabbage; _cannon_ is also Irish, meaning speckled. + + Caur, kindly, good-natured, affable. (Morris: South Mon.) + + Cawmeen; a mote: 'there's a cawmeen in my eye.' (Moran: Carlow.) Irish + with the diminutive. + + Cawsha Pooka; the big fungus often seen growing on old trees or + elsewhere. From Irish _caise_, cheese: the 'Pooka's cheese.' See Pooka + and Pookapyle and Bucknabarra. + + Cead mile failte [caidh meela faultha], a hundred thousand welcomes. + Irish, and universal in Ireland as a salute. + + Ceolaun [keolaun], a trifling contemptible little fellow. (Munster.) + + Cess; very often used in the combination _bad cess_ (bad luck):--'Bad + cess to me but there's something comin' over me.' (Kickham: + 'Knocknagow.') Some think this is a contraction of _success_; others + that it is to be taken as it stands--a _cess_ or contribution; which + receives some little support from its use in Louth to mean 'a quantity + of corn in for threshing.' + + {234} Chalk Sunday; the first Sunday after Shrove Tuesday (first Sunday + in Lent), when those young men who should have been married, but were + not, were marked with a heavy streak of chalk on the back of the + _Sunday coat_, by boys who carried bits of chalk in their pockets for + that purpose, and lay in wait for the bachelors. The marking was done + while the congregation were assembling for Mass: and the young fellow + ran for his life, always laughing, and often singing the concluding + words of some suitable doggerel such as:--'And you are not married + though Lent has come!' This custom prevailed in Munster. I saw it in + full play in Limerick: but I think it has died out. For the air to + which the verses were sung, see my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' p. 12. + + Champ (Down); the same as 'caulcannon,' which see. Also potatoes mashed + with butter and milk; same as 'pandy,' which see. + + Chanter; to go about grumbling and fault-finding. (Ulster.) + + Chapel: Church: Scallan, 143. + + Chaw for _chew_, 97. 'Chawing the rag'; continually grumbling, jawing, + and giving abuse. (Kinahan.) + + Cheek; impudence; _brass_: cheeky; presumptuous. + + Chincough, whooping-cough: from _kink-cough_. See Kink. + + Chittering; constantly muttering complaints. (Knowles.) + + Chook chook [the _oo_ sounded rather short]; a call for hens. It is the + Irish _tiuc_, come. + + Christian; a human being as distinguished from one of the lower + animals:--'That dog has nearly as much sense as a Christian.' {235} + + Chuff: full.--'I'm chuffey after my dinner.' (MacCall: Wexford.) + + Clabber, clobber, or clawber; mud: thick milk. See Bonnyclabber. + + Clamp; a small rick of turf, built up regularly. (All through Ireland.) + + Clamper; a dispute, a wrangle. (Munster.) Irish _clampar_, same + meaning. + + Clarsha; a lazy woman. (Morris: South Monaghan.) + + Clart; an untidy dirty woman, especially in preparing food. (Simmons: + Armagh.) + + Clash, to carry tales: Clashbag, a tale-bearer. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Classy; a drain running through a byre or stable-yard. (Morris: South + Monaghan.) Irish _clais_, a trench, with the diminutive _y_ added. + + Clat; a slovenly untidy person; dirt, clay: 'wash the _clat_ off your + hands': clatty; slovenly, untidy--(Ulster): called _clotty_ in + Kildare;--a slattern. + + Clatch; a brood of chickens. (Ulster.) See Clutch. + + Cleean [2-syll.]; a relation by marriage--such as a father-in-law. Two + persons so related are _cleeans_. Irish _cliamhan_, same sound and + meaning. + + Cleever; one who deals in poultry; because he carries them in a + _cleeve_ or large wicker basket. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irish + _cliabh_ [cleeve], a basket. + + Cleevaun; a cradle: also a crib or cage for catching birds. The + diminutive of Irish _cliabh_ or cleeve, a wicker basket. + + Clegg; a horsefly. (Ulster and Carlow.) + + Clehalpeen; a shillelah or cudgel with a knob at the end. (South.) From + Irish _cleath_, a wattle, and _ailpin_ dim. of _alp_, a knob. {236} + + Clever is applied to a man who is tall, straight, and well made. + + Clevvy; three or four shelves one over another in a wall: a sort of + small open cupboard like a dresser. (All over the South.) + + Clibbin, clibbeen; a young colt. (Donegal.) Irish _clibin_, same sound + and meaning. + + Clibbock; a young horse. (Derry.) + + Clift; a light-headed person, easily roused and rendered foolishly + excited. (Ulster.) + + Clipe-clash: a tell-tale. (Ulster.) See Clash. + + Clochaun, clochan; a row of stepping-stones across a river. (General.) + From Irish _cloch_, a stone, with the diminutive _an_. + + Clock; a black beetle. (South.) + + Clocking hen; a hen hatching. (General.) From the sound or _clock_ she + utters. + + Clooracaun or cluracaun, another name for a leprachaun, which see. + + Close; applied to a day means simply warm:--'This is a very close day.' + + Clout; a blow with the hand or with anything. Also a piece of cloth, a + rag, commonly used in the diminutive form in Munster--_cloutheen_. + _Cloutheens_ is specially applied to little rags used with an infant. + _Clout_ is also applied to a clownish person:--'It would be well if + somebody would teach that _clout_ some manners.' + + Clove; to clove flax is to _scutch_ it--to draw each handful repeatedly + between the blades of a 'cloving tongs,' so as to break off and remove + the brittle husk, leaving the fibre smooth and free. (Munster.) + + {237} + + Clutch; a brood of chickens or of any fowls: same as clatch. I suppose + this is English: Waterton (an English traveller) uses it in his + 'Wanderings'; but it is not in the Dictionaries of Chambers and + Webster. + + Cluthoge; Easter eggs. (P. Reilly; Kildare.) + + Cly-thoran; a wall or ditch between two estates. (Roscommon.) Irish + _cladh_ [cly], a raised dyke or fence; _teora_, gen. _teorann_ + [thoran], a boundary. + + Cobby-house; a little house made by children for play. (Munster.) + + Cockles off the heart, 194. + + Cog; to copy surreptitiously; to crib something from the writings of + another and pass it off as your own. One schoolboy will sometimes copy + from another:--'You cogged that sum.' + + Coghil; a sort of long-shaped pointed net. (Armagh.) Irish _cochal_, a + net. + + Coldoy; a bad halfpenny: a spurious worthless article of jewellery. + (Limerick.) + + Colleen; a young girl. (All over Ireland.) Irish _cailin_, same sound + and meaning. + + Colley; the woolly dusty fluffy stuff that gathers under furniture and + in remote corners of rooms. Light soot-smuts flying about. + + Colloge; to talk and gossip in a familiar friendly way. An Irish form + of the Latin or English word 'colloquy.' + + Collop; a standard measure of grazing land, p. 177. + + Collop; the part of a flail that is held in the hand. (Munster.) See + Boolthaun. Irish _colpa_. + + Come-all-ye; a nickname applied to Irish Folk Songs and Music; an old + country song; from the {238} beginning of many of the songs:--'Come all + ye tender Christians,' &c. This name, intended to be reproachful, + originated among ourselves, after the usual habit of many 'superior' + Irishmen to vilify their own country and countrymen and all their + customs and peculiarities. Observe, this opening is almost equally + common in English Folk-songs; yet the English do not make game of them + by nicknames. Irish music, which is thus vilified by some of our + brethren, is the most beautiful Folk Music in the world. + + Comether; _come hether_ or _hither_, 97. + + Commaun, common; the game of goaling or hurley. So called from the + _commaun_ or crooked-shaped stick with which it is played: Irish _cam_ + or _com_, curved or crooked; with the diminutive--_caman_. Called + _hurling_ and _goaling_ by English speakers in Ireland, and _shinney_ + in Scotland. + + Commons; land held in common by the people of a village or small + district: see p. 177. + + Comparisons, 136. + + Conacre; letting land in patches for a short period. A farmer divides a + large field into small portions--1/4 acre, 1/2 acre, &c.--and lets + them to his poorer neighbours usually for one season for a single crop, + mostly potatoes, or in Ulster flax. He generally undertakes to manure + the whole field, and charges high rents for the little lettings. I saw + this in practice more than 60 years ago in Munster. Irish _con_, + common, and Eng. _acre_. + + Condition; in Munster, to 'change your condition' is to get married. + + Condon, Mr. John, of Mitchelstown, 155. + + {239} + + Conny, canny; discreet, knowing, cute. + + Contrairy, for _contrary_, but accented on second syll.; cross, + perverse, cranky, crotchety, 102. + + Convenient: see Handy. + + Cool: hurlers and football players always put one of their best players + to _mind cool_ or _stand cool_, i.e. to stand at their own goal or gap, + to intercept the ball if the opponents should attempt to drive it + through. Universal in Munster. Irish _cul_ [cool], the back. The full + word is _cool-baur-ya_ where 'baur-ya' is the goal or gap. The man + standing cool is often called 'the man in the gap' (see p. 182). + + Cool; a good-sized roll of butter. (Munster.) + + Cooleen or coulin; a fair-haired girl. This is the name of a celebrated + Irish air. From _cul_ the back [of the head], and _fionn_, white or + fair:--_cuil-fhionn_, [pron. cooleen or coolin]. + + Coonagh; friendly, familiar, _great_ (which see):--'These two are very + _coonagh_.' (MacCall: Wexford.) Irish _cuaine_, a family. + + Coonsoge, a bees' nest. (Cork.) Irish _cuansa_ [coonsa], a + hiding-place, with the diminutive _og_. + + Cooramagh; kindly, careful, thoughtful, provident:--'No wonder Mrs. + Dunn would look well and happy with such a _cooramagh_ husband.' Irish + _curamach_, same meaning. + + Coord [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _bathe_], a friendly visit to a + neighbour's house. Irish _cuaird_, a visit. Coordeeagh, same meaning. + (Munster.) + + Cope-curley; to stand on the head and throw the heels over; to turn + head over heels. (Ulster.) + + Core: work given as a sort of loan to be paid back. {240} I send a man + on _core_ for a day to my neighbour: when next I want a man he will + send me one for a day in return. So with horses: two one-horse farmers + who work their horses in pairs, borrowing alternately, are said to be + in _core_. Very common in Munster. Irish _cobhair_ or _cabhair_ [core + or co-ir, 2-syll.] help, support. + + Coreeagh; a man who has a great desire to attend funerals--goes to + every funeral that he can possibly reach. (Munster.) Same root as last. + + Corfuffle; to toss, shake, confuse, mix up. (Derry.) + + Correesk; a crane. (Kildare.) Irish _corr_, a bird of the crane kind, + and _riasc_ [reesk], a marsh. + + C[=o]sher [the _o_ long as in _motion_]; banqueting, feasting. In very + old times in Ireland, certain persons went about with news from place + to place, and were entertained in the high class houses: this was + called _coshering_, and was at one time forbidden by law. In modern + times it means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour's house to have a + quiet talk. Irish _coisir_; a banquet, feasting. + + Costnent. When a farm labourer has a cottage and garden from his + employer, and boards himself, he lives _costnent_. He is paid small + wages (called _costnent_ wages) as he has house and plot free. (Derry.) + + Cot; a small boat: Irish _cot_. See 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 226, + for places deriving their names from _cots_. + + Cowlagh; an old ruined house. (Kerry.) Irish _coblach_ [cowlagh]. + + Coward's blow; a blow given to provoke a boy to fight or else be + branded as a coward. {241} + + Cow's lick. When the hair in front over the forehead turns at the roots + upward and backward, that is a _cow's lick_, as if a cow had licked it + upwards. The idea of a cow licking the hair is very old in Irish + literature. In the oldest of all our miscellaneous Irish MSS.--The Book + of the Dun Cow--Cuculainn's hair is so thick and smooth that king + Laery, who saw him, says:--'I should imagine it is a cow that licked + it.' + + Cox, Mr. Simon, of Galbally, 156. + + Craags; great fat hands; big handfuls. (Morris: South Mon.) + + Crab; a cute precocious little child is often called an _old crab_. + 'Crabjaw' has the same meaning. + + Cracked; crazy, half mad. + + Cracklins; the browned crispy little flakes that remain after + _rendering_ or melting lard and pouring it off. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Crahauns or Kirraghauns; very small potatoes not used by the family: + given to pigs. (Munster.) Irish _creathan_. + + Crans (always in pl.); little tricks or dodges. (Limk). + + Crapper; a half glass of whiskey. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Craw-sick; ill in the morning after a drunken bout. + + Crawtha; sorry, mortified, pained. (Limerick.) Irish _craidhte_ + [crawtha], same meaning. + + Crawthumper; a person ostentatiously devotional. + + Creelacaun; see Skillaun. + + Creel; a strong square wicker frame, used by itself for holding turf, + &c., or put on asses' backs (in pairs), or put on carts for carrying + turf or for taking calves, _bonnives_, &c., to market. Irish _criol_. + (All through Ireland.) {242} + + Creepy; a small stool, a stool. (Chiefly in Ulster.) + + Crith; hump on the back. Irish _cruit_, same sound and meaning. From + this comes _critthera_ and _crittheen_, both meaning a hunchback. + + Cro, or cru: a house for cows. (Kerry.) Irish _cro_, a pen, a fold, a + shed for any kind of animals. + + Croaked; I am afraid poor Nancy is croaked, i.e. doomed to death. The + raven croaks over the house when one of the family is about to die. + (MacCall: Wexford.) + + Croft; a water bottle, usually for a bedroom at night. You never hear + _carafe_ in Ireland: it is always _croft_. + + Cromwell, Curse of, 166. + + Crumel'ly. (Limerick.) More correctly _curr amilly_. (Donegal.) An herb + found in grassy fields with a sweet root that children dig up and eat. + Irish 'honey-root.' + + Cronaun, croonaun; a low humming air or song, any continuous humming + sound: 'the old woman was cronauning in the corner.' + + Cronebane, cronebaun; a bad halfpenny, a worthless copper coin. From + Cronebane in Co. Wicklow, where copper mines were worked. + + Croobeen or crubeen; a pig's foot. Pigs' croobeens boiled are a grand + and favourite viand among us--all through Ireland. Irish _crub_ + [croob], a foot, with the diminutive. + + Croost; to throw stones or clods from the hand:--'Those boys are always + _croosting_ stones at my hens.' Irish _crusta_ [croostha], a missile, a + clod. + + Croudy: see Porter-meal. + + Crowl or Croil; a dwarf, a very small person: the smallest _bonnive_ of + the litter. An Irish word. {243} + + Cruiskeen; a little cruise for holding liquor. Used all over Ireland. + + 'In a shady nook one moonlight night + A _leprechaun_ I spied; + With scarlet cap and coat of green, + A _cruiskeen_ by his side.' + + The _Cruiskeen Laun_ is the name of a well-known Irish air--the Scotch + call it 'John Anderson my Jo.' Irish _cruiscin_, a pitcher: _lan_ + [laun], full: i.e. in this case full of _pottheen_. + + Crusheen; a stick with a flat crosspiece fastened at bottom for washing + potatoes in a basket. Irish _cros_, a cross, with the diminutive. Also + called a _boghaleen_, from Irish _bachal_, a staff, with diminutive. + (Joyce: Limerick.) + + Cuck; a tuft: applied to the little tuft of feathers on the head of + some birds, such as plovers, some hens and ducks, &c. Irish _coc_: same + sound and meaning. (General.) + + Cuckles; the spiky seed-pods of the thistle: thistle heads. (Limerick.) + + Cuckoo spit; the violet: merely the translation of the Irish name, + _sail-chuach_, spittle of cuckoos. Also the name of a small frothy + spittle-like substance often found on leaves of plants in summer, with + a little greenish insect in the middle of it. (Limerick.) + + Cugger-mugger; whispering, gossiping in a low voice: Jack and Bessie + had a great _cugger-mugger_. Irish _cogar_, whisper, with a similar + duplication meaning nothing, like tip-top, shilly-shally, + gibble-gabble, clitter-clatter, &c. I think {244} 'hugger-mugger' is a + form of this: for _hugger_ can't be derived from anything, whereas + _cugger_ (_cogur_) is a plain Irish word. + + Cull; when the best of a lot of any kind--sheep, cattle, books, + &c.--have been picked out, the bad ones that are left--the refuse--are + the _culls_. (Kinahan: general.) + + Culla-greefeen; when foot or hand is 'asleep' with the feeling of 'pins + and needles.' The name is Irish and means 'Griffin's sleep'; but why so + called I cannot tell. (Munster.) + + Cup-tossing; reading fortunes from tea-leaves thrown out on the saucer + from the tea-cup or teapot. (General.) + + Cur; a twist: a _cur_ of a rope. (Joyce: Limerick.) + + Curate; a common little iron poker kept in use to spare the grand one: + also a grocer's assistant. (Hayden and Hartog.) + + Curcuddiagh; cosy, comfortable. (Maxwell: 'Wild Sports of the West': + Irish: Mayo.) + + Curifixes; odd _curious_ ornaments or _fixtures_ of any kind. + (General.) Peter Brierly, looking at the knocker:--'I never see such + _curifixes_ on a _doore_ afore.' (Edw. Walsh: very general.) + + Curragh; a wicker boat covered formerly with hides but now with tarred + canvass. (See my 'Smaller Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland.') + + Current; in good health: he is not current; his health is not current. + (Father Higgins: Cork.) + + Curwhibbles, currifibbles, currywhibbles; any strange, odd, or unusual + gestures; or any unusual twisting of words, such as prevarication; wild + puzzles and puzzling talk:--'The horsemen are in regular currywhibles + about something.' (R. D. Joyce.) {245} + + Cush; a sort of small horse, from _Cushendall_ in Antrim. + + Cushlamochree; pulse of my heart. Irish _Cuisl[)e]_, vein or pulse; + _mo_, my; _croidhe_ [cree], heart. + + Cushoge; a stem of a plant; sometimes used the same as _traneen_, which + see. (Moran: Carlow; and Morris: Monaghan.) + + Cut; a county or barony cess tax; hence Cutman, the collector of it. + (Kinahan: Armagh and Donegal.) 'The three black _cuts_ will be levied.' + (Seumas MacManus: Donegal.) + + + + Daisy-picker; a person who accompanies two lovers in their walk; why so + called obvious. Brought to keep off gossip. + + Dalk, a thorn. (De Vismes Kane: North and South.) Irish _dealg_ + [dallog], a thorn. + + Dallag [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _that_]; any kind of covering to + blindfold the eyes (Morris: South Monaghan): 'blinding,' from Irish + _dall_, blind. + + Dallapookeen; blindman's buff. (Kerry.) From Irish _dalladh_ [dalla] + blinding; and _puicin_ [pookeen], a covering over the eyes. + + Daltheen [the _d_ sounded like _th_ in _that_], an impudent conceited + little fellow: a diminutive of _dalta_, a foster child. The diminutive + _dalteen_ was first applied to a horseboy, from which it has drifted to + its present meaning. + + Dancing customs, 170, 172. + + Dannagh; mill-dust and mill-grains for feeding pigs. (Moran: Carlow: + also Tip.) Irish _deanach_, same sound and meaning. {246} + + Dander [second _d_ sounded like _th_ in _hither_], to walk about + leisurely: a leisurely walk. + + Dandy; a small tumbler; commonly used for drinking punch. + + Darradail or daradeel [the _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _that_] a sort of + long black chafer or beetle. It raises its tail when disturbed, and has + a strong smell of apples. There is a religious legend that when our + Lord was escaping from the Jews, barefoot, the stones were marked all + along by traces of blood from the bleeding feet. The daradail followed + the traces of blood; and the Jews following, at length overtook and + apprehended our Lord. Hence the people regard the daradail with intense + hatred, and whenever they come on it, kill it instantly. Irish + _darbh-daol_. + + Dark; blind: 'a dark man.' (Very general.) Used constantly even in + official and legal documents, as in workhouse books, especially in + Munster. (Healy.) + + Darrol; the smallest of the brood of pigs, fowl, &c. (Mayo.) Irish + _dearoil_, small, puny, wretched. + + Davis, Thomas, vi. 83, &c. + + Dead beat or dead _bet_; tired out. + + Dear; used as a sort of intensive adjective:--'Tom ran for the dear + life' (as fast as he could). (Crofton Croker.) 'He got enough to + remember all the dear days of his life.' ('Dub. Pen. Journ.') + + Dell; a lathe. Irish _deil_, same sound and meaning. (All over + Munster.) + + Devil's needle; the dragon-fly. Translation of the Irish name + _snathad-a'-diabhail_ [snahad-a-dheel]. + + Deshort [to rhyme with _port_]; a sudden interruption, a surprise: 'I + was taken at a _deshort_.' (Derry.) {247} + + Devil, The, and his 'territory,' 56. + + Dickonce; one of the disguised names of the devil used in _white_ + cursing: 'Why then the dickonce take you for one gander.' (Gerald + Griffin.) + + Diddy; a woman's pap or breast: a baby sucks its mother's diddy. + Diminutive of Irish _did_, same. + + Dido; a girl who makes herself ridiculous with fantastic finery. + (Moran: Carlow.) + + Didoes (singular _dido_); tricks, antics: 'quit your didoes.' (Ulster.) + + Dildron or dildern; a bowraun, which see. + + Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, + formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (as _kitchen_), + and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by + basket-women in Dublin. Irish _duilesc_. + + Dip. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes + without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, + gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the + potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain + water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You + will sometimes read of 'potatoes and point,' namely, that each person, + before taking a bite, _pointed_ the potato at a salt herring or a bit + of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and + never occurred in real life. + + Disciple; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long + lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), + and another says to him--jibing and railing--'Away with ye, ye + miserable _disciple_. Arrah, by the hole {248} of my coat, after you + dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I'll coax + yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.' + (Edw. Walsh in 'Pen. Journ.') + + Disremember; to forget. Good old English; now out of fashion in + England, but common in Ireland. + + Ditch. In Ireland a ditch is a raised fence or earthen wall or mound, + and a dyke (or _sheuch_ as they call it in Donegal and elsewhere in + Ulster) is a deep cutting, commonly filled with water. In England both + words mean exactly the reverse. Hence 'hurlers on the ditch,' or 'the + best hurlers are on the ditch' (where speakers of pure English would + use 'fence') said in derision of persons who are mere idle spectators + sitting up on high watching the game--whatever it may be--and boasting + how they would _do the devil an' all_ if they were only playing. + Applied in a broad sense to those who criticise persons engaged in any + strenuous affair--critics who think they could do better. + + Dollop; to adulterate: 'that coffee is dolloped.' + + Donny; weak, in poor health. Irish _donaidhe_, same sound and meaning. + Hence _donnaun_, a poor weakly creature, same root with the diminutive. + From still the same root is _donsy_, sick-looking. + + Donagh-dearnagh, the Sunday before Lammas (1st August). (Ulster.) Irish + _Domnach_, Sunday; and _deireannach_, last, i.e. last Sunday of the + period before 1st August. + + Doodoge [the two _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _thus_]; a big pinch of + snuff. [Limk.] Irish _dudog_. + + Dooraght [_d_ sounded as in the last word]; tender care and kindness + shown to a person. Irish {249} _duthracht_, same sound and meaning. In + parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is + purchased (Simmons and Knowles); called elsewhere a _tilly_, which see. + This word, in its sense of kindness, is very old; for in the Brehon Law + we read of land set aside by a father for his daughter through + _dooraght_. + + Doorshay-daurshay [_d_ in both sounded as _th_ in _thus_], mere hearsay + or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound of + _dubhairt-se_, 'said he.' The second part is a mere doubling of the + first, as we find in many English words, such as 'fiddle-faddle,' + 'tittle-tattle' (which resembles our word). Often used by Munster + lawyers in court, whether Irish-speaking or not, in depreciation of + hearsay evidence in contradistinction to the evidence of looking-on. + 'Ah, that's all mere _doorshay-daurshay_.' Common all over Munster. The + information about the use of the term in law courts I got from Mr. + Maurice Healy. A different form is sometimes heard:--_D'innis bean dom + gur innis bean di_, 'a woman told me that a woman told her.' + + Dornoge [_d_ sounded as in doodoge above]; a small round lump of a + stone, fit to be cast from the hand. Irish _dorn_, the shut hand, with + the dim. _og_. + + Double up; to render a person helpless either in fight or in argument. + The old tinker in the fair got a blow of an amazon's fist which 'sent + him sprawling and _doubled_ him up for the rest of the evening.' + (Robert Dwyer Joyce: 'Madeline's Vow.') + + Down in the heels; broken down in fortune (one mark of which is the + state of the heels of shoes). {250} + + Down blow; a heavy or almost ruinous blow of any kind:--'The loss of + that cow was a down blow to poor widow Cleary.' + + Downface; to persist boldly in an assertion (whether true or no): He + downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never + did. + + Down-the-banks; a scolding, a reprimand, punishment of any kind. + + Dozed: a piece of timber is dozed when there is a dry rot in the heart + of it. (Myself for Limk.: Kane for North.) + + Drad; a grin or contortion of the mouth. (Joyce.) + + Drag home. (Simmons; Armagh: same as Hauling home, which see.) + + Drass; a short time, a turn:--'You walk a drass now and let me ride': + 'I always smoke a drass before I go to bed of a night.' ('Collegians,' + Limerick.) Irish _dreas_, same sound and meaning. + + Drench: a form of the English _drink_, but used in a peculiar sense in + Ireland. A _drench_ is a philtre, a love-potion, a love-compelling + drink over which certain charms were repeated during its preparation. + Made by boiling certain herbs (_orchis_) in water or milk, and the + person drinks it unsuspectingly. In my boyhood time a beautiful young + girl belonging to a most respectable family ran off with an + ill-favoured obscure beggarly diseased wretch. The occurrence was + looked on with great astonishment and horror by the people--no wonder; + and the universal belief was that the fellow's old mother had given the + poor girl a _drench_. To this hour I cannot make any guess at the cause + of that astounding elopement: and it is {251} not surprising that the + people were driven to the supernatural for an explanation. + + Dresser; a set of shelves and drawers in a frame in a kitchen for + holding plates, knives, &c. + + Drisheen is now used in Cork as an English word, to denote a sort of + pudding made of the narrow intestines of a sheep, filled with blood + that has been cleared of the red colouring matter, and mixed with meal + and some other ingredients. So far as I know, this viand and its name + are peculiar to Cork, where _drisheen_ is considered suitable for + persons of weak or delicate digestion. (I should observe that a recent + reviewer of one of my books states that drisheen is also made in + Waterford.) Irish _dreas_ or driss, applied to anything slender, as a + bramble, one of the smaller intestines, &c.--with the diminutive. + + Drizzen, a sort of moaning sound uttered by a cow. (Derry). + + Drogh; the worst and smallest bonnive in a litter. (Armagh.) Irish + _droch_, bad, evil. (See Eervar.) + + Droleen; a wren: merely the Irish word _dreoilin_. + + Drop; a strain of any kind 'running in the blood.' A man inclined to + evil ways 'has a bad drop' in him (or 'a black drop'): a miser 'has a + hard drop.' The expression carries an idea of heredity. + + Drugget; a cloth woven with a mixture of woollen and flaxen thread: so + called from Drogheda where it was once extensively manufactured. Now + much used as cheap carpeting. + + Druids and Druidism, 178. + + Drumaun; a wide back-band for a ploughing horse, {252} with hooks to + keep the traces in place. (Joyce: Limerick.) From Irish _druim_, the + back. + + Drummagh; the back strap used in yoking two horses. (Joyce: Limerick.) + Irish _druim_, the back, with the termination _-ach_, equivalent to + English _-ous_ and _-y_. + + Dry potatoes; potatoes eaten without milk or any other drink. + + Dry lodging; the use of a bed merely, without food. + + Drynaun-dun or drynan-dun [two _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _that_]; the + blackthorn, the sloe-bush. Irish _droigheanan_ [drynan or drynaun], and + _donn_, brown-coloured. + + Ducks; trousers of snow-white canvas, much used as summer wear by + gentle and simple fifty or sixty years ago. + + Dudeen [both _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _those_]; a smoking-pipe with a + very short stem. Irish _duidin_, _dud_, a pipe, with the diminutive. + + Duggins; rags: 'that poor fellow is all in duggins.' (Armagh.) + + Dull; a loop or eye on a string. (Monaghan.) + + Dullaghan [_d_ sounded as _th_ in _those_]; a large trout. (Kane: + Monaghan.) An Irish word. + + Dullaghan; 'a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in + churchyards, who can take off and put on his head at will.' (From + 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 193, which see for more about this spectre. + See Croker's 'Fairy Legends.') + + Dullamoo [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _those_]; a wastrel, a scapegrace, a + _ne'er-do-weel_. Irish _dul_, going; _amudha_ [amoo], astray, to + loss:--_dullamoo_, 'a person going to the bad,' 'going to the dogs.' + {253} + + Dundeen; a lump of bread without butter. (Derry.) + + Dunisheen; a small weakly child. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish _donaisin_, an + unfortunate being; from _donas_, with diminutive. See Donny. + + Dunner; to knock loudly at a door. (Ulster.) + + Dunt (sometimes _dunch_), to strike or butt like a cow or goat with the + head. A certain lame old man (of Armagh) was nicknamed 'Dunt the pad + (path'). (Ulster.) + + Durneen, one of the two handles of a scythe that project from the main + handle. Irish _doirnin_, same sound and meaning: diminutive from + _dorn_, the fist, the shut hand. + + Durnoge; a strong rough leather glove, used on the left hand by faggot + cutters. (MacCall: Wexford.) _Dornoge_, given above, is the same word + but differently applied. + + Duty owed by tenants to landlords, 181. + + + + Earnest; 'in earnest' is often used in the sense of 'really and + truly':--'You're a man in earnest, Cus, to strike the first blow on a + day [of battle] like this.' (R. D. Joyce.) + + Eervar; the last pig in a litter. This _bonnive_ being usually very + small and hard to keep alive is often given to one of the children for + a pet; and it is reared in great comfort in a warm bed by the kitchen + fire, and fed on milk. I once, when a child, had an eervar of my own + which was the joy of my life. Irish _iarmhar_ [eervar], meaning + 'something after all the rest'; the hindmost. (Munster.) See Drogh for + Ulster. + + Elder; a cow's udder. All over Ireland. {254} + + Elegant. This word is used among us, not in its proper sense, but to + designate anything good or excellent of its kind:--An elegant penknife, + an elegant gun: 'That's an elegant pig of yours, Jack?' Our milkman + once offered me a present for my garden--'An elegant load of dung.' + + I haven't the _janius_ for work, + For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys; + But I'd make a most _elegant_ Turk, + For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies. + + (LEVER.) + + 'How is she [the sick girl] coming on?' + + 'Elegant,' was the reply. ('Knocknagow.') + + Elementary schools, 159. + + Exaggeration and redundancy, 120. + + Existence, way of predicating, 23. + + Eye of a bridge; the arch. + + + + Faireen (south), fairin (north); a present either given in a fair or + brought from it. Used in another sense--a lasting injury of any + kind:--'Poor Joe got a faireen that day, when the stone struck him on + the eye, which I'm afraid the eye will never recover.' Used all over + Ireland and in Scotland. + + Ah Tam, ah Tam, thou'lt get thy fairin', + In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin'. + + (BURNS.) + + Fair-gurthra; 'hungry grass.' There is a legend all through Ireland + that small patches of grass grow here and there on mountains; and if a + person in walking along happens to tread on one of them he is instantly + overpowered with hunger so as to {255} be quite unable to walk, and if + help or food is not at hand he will sink down and perish. That persons + are attacked and rendered helpless by sudden hunger on mountains in + this manner is certain. Mr. Kinahan gives me an instance where he had + to carry his companion, a boy, on his back a good distance to the + nearest house: and Maxwell in 'Wild Sports of the West' gives others. + But he offers the natural explanation: that a person is liable to sink + suddenly with hunger if he undertakes a hard mountain walk with a long + interval after food. Irish _feur_, grass; _gorta_, hunger. + + Fairy breeze. Sometimes on a summer evening you suddenly feel a very + warm breeze: that is a band of fairies travelling from one fort to + another; and people on such occasions usually utter a short prayer, not + knowing whether the 'good people' are bent on doing good or evil. (G. + H. Kinahan.) Like the Shee-geeha, which see. + + Fairy-thimble, the same as 'Lusmore,' which see. + + Famished; distressed for want of something:--'I am famished for a + smoke--for a glass,' &c. + + Farbreaga; a scarecrow. Irish _fear_, a man: _breug_ falsehood: a false + or pretended man. + + Farl; one quarter of a griddle cake. (Ulster.) + + Faumera [the _r_ has the slender sound]; a big strolling beggarman or + idle fellow. From the Irish _Fomor_. The _Fomors_ or _Fomora_ or + Fomorians were one of the mythical colonies that came to Ireland (see + any of my Histories of Ireland, Index): some accounts represent them as + giants. In Clare the country people that go to the seaside in summer + for the benefit of the 'salt water' are {256} called _Faumeras_. In + Tramore they are called _olishes_ [o long]; because in the morning + before breakfast they go down to the strand and take a good _swig_ of + the salt water--an essential part of the cure--and when one meets + another he (or she) asks in Irish '_ar olish_,' 'did you drink?' In + Kilkee the dogfish is called _Faumera_, for the dogfish is among the + smaller fishes like what legend represents the Fomorians in Ireland. + + Faustus, Dr., in Irish dialect, 60. + + Fear is often used among us in the sense of _danger_. Once during a + high wind the ship's captain neatly distinguished it when a frightened + lady asked him:--'Is there any fear, sir?' 'There's plenty of fear, + madam, but no danger.' + + Feck or fack; a spade. From the very old Irish word, _fec_, same sound + and meaning. + + Fellestrum, the flagger (marsh plant). Irish _felestrom_. (South.) + + Fetch; what the English call a _double_, a preternatural apparition of + a living person, seen usually by some relative or friend. If seen in + the morning the person whose fetch it is will have a long and + prosperous life: if in the evening the person will soon die. + + Finane or Finaun; the white half-withered long grass found in marshy or + wet land. Irish _finn_ or _fionn_, white, with the diminutive. + + Finely and poorly are used to designate the two opposite states of an + invalid. 'Well, Mrs. Lahy, how is she?' [Nora the poor sick little + girl]. 'Finely, your reverence,' Honor replied (going on well). The old + sinner Rody, having accidentally {257} shot himself, is asked how he is + going on:--'Wisha, poorly, poorly' (badly). (G. Griffin.) + + Finger--to put a finger in one's eye; to overreach and cheat him by + cunning:--'He'd be a clever fellow that would put a finger in Tom's + eye.' + + First shot, in distilling pottheen; the weak stuff that comes off at + the first distillation: also called singlings. + + Flahoolagh, plentiful; 'You have a flahoolagh hand, Mrs. Lyons': 'Ah, + we got a flahoolagh dinner and no mistake.' Irish _flaith_ [flah], a + chief, and _amhail_ [ooal], like, with the adjectival termination + _ach_: _flahoolagh_, 'chieftain-like.' For the old Irish chiefs kept + open houses, with full and plenty--_launa-vaula_--for all who came. + (South.) + + Flipper; an untidy man. (Limerick.) + + Flitters; tatters, rags:--'His clothes were all in _flitters_.' + + Flog; to beat, to exceed:--'That flogs Europe' ('Collegians'), i.e. it + beats Europe: there's nothing in Europe like it. + + Fluke, something very small or nothing at all. 'What did you get from + him?' 'Oh I got flukes' (or 'flukes in a hand-basket')--meaning + nothing. Sometimes it seems to mean a small coin, like _cross_ and + _keenoge_. 'When I set out on that journey I hadn't a fluke.' (North + and South.) + + Fockle; a big torch made by lighting a sheaf of straw fixed on a long + pole: fockles were usually lighted on St. John's Eve. (Limerick.) It is + merely the German word _fackel_, a torch, brought to Limerick by the + Palatine colony. (See p. 65.) + + Fog-meal; a great meal or big feed: a harvest dinner. {258} + + Fooster; hurry, flurry, fluster, great fuss. Irish _fustar_, same sound + and meaning. (Hayden and Hartog.) + + 'Then Tommy jumped about elate, + Tremendous was his _fooster_--O; + Says he, "I'll send a message straight + To my darling Mr. Brewster--O!"' + + (Repeal Song of 1843.) + + Forbye; besides. (Ulster.) + + For good; finally, for ever: 'he left home for good.' + + Fornent, fornenst, forenenst; opposite: he and I sat fornenst each + other in the carriage. + + 'Yet here you strut in open day + Fornenst my house so freely--O.' + + (Repeal Song of 1843.) + + An old English word, now obsolete in England, but very common in + Ireland. + + Foshla; a marshy weedy rushy place; commonly applied to the ground left + after a cut-away bog. (Roscommon.) + + Four bones; 'Your own four bones,' 127. + + Fox; (verb) to pretend, to feign, to sham: 'he's not sick at all, he's + only foxing.' Also to cut short the ears of a dog. + + Frainey; a small puny child:--'Here, eat this bit, you little + _frainey_.' + + Fraughans; whortleberries. Irish _fraoch_, with the diminutive. See + Hurt. + + Freet; a sort of superstition or superstitious rite. (Ulster.) + + Fresh and Fresh:--'I wish you to send me the butter every morning: I + like to have it fresh and fresh.' {259} This is English gone out of + fashion: I remember seeing it in Pope's preface to 'The Dunciad.' + + Frog's jelly; the transparent jelly-like substance found in pools and + ditches formed by frogs round their young tadpoles, 121. + + Fum; soft spongy turf. (Ulster.) Called _soosaun_ in Munster. + + + + Gaatch [_aa_ long as in _car_], an affected gesture or movement of + limbs body or face: _gaatches_; assuming fantastic ridiculous + attitudes. (South.) + + Gad; a withe: 'as tough as a gad.' (Irish _gad_, 60.) + + Gadderman; a boy who puts on the airs of a man; a mannikin or + _manneen_, which see. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Gaffer; an old English word, but with a peculiar application in + Ireland, where it means a boy, a young chap. 'Come here, gaffer, and + help me.' + + Gag; a conceited foppish young fellow, who tries to figure as a swell. + + Gah'ela or gaherla; a little girl. (Kane: Ulster.) Same as _girsha_. + + Gaileen; a little bundle of rushes placed under the arms of a beginner + learning to swim. (Joyce: Limerick.) When you support the beginner's + head keeping it above water with your hands while he is learning the + strokes: that we used to designate '_giving a gaileen_.' + + Galbally, Co. Limerick, 156. + + Galoot: a clownish fellow. + + Galore; plenty, plentiful. Irish adverb _go leor_, 4. + + Gankinna; a fairy, a leprachaun. (Morris: South Mon.) Irish _gann_, + small. {260} + + Gannoge; an undefined small quantity. (Antrim.) Irish _gann_, small, + with diminutive _og_. + + Garden, in the South, is always applied to a field of growing potatoes. + 'In the land courts we never asked "How many acres of potatoes?"; but + "How many acres of garden?"' (Healy.) A usual inquiry is 'How are your + gardens going on?' meaning 'How are your potato crops doing?' + + Garlacom; a lingering disease in cows believed to be caused by eating a + sort of herb. (P. Moran: Meath.) + + Garland Sunday; the first Sunday in August (sometimes called Garlick + Sunday.) + + Garron, garraun; an old worn-out horse. (Irish _gearran_.) + + Gash; a flourish of the pen in writing so as to form an ornamental + curve, usually at the end. (Limerick.) + + Gatha; an effeminate fellow who concerns himself in women's business: a + _Sheela_. (Joyce: Limerick.) + + Gatherie; a splinter of bog-deal used as a torch. (Moran: Carlow.) Also + a small cake (commonly smeared with treacle) sold in the street on + market days. Irish _geataire_ [gatthera], same meanings. + + Gaug; a sore crack in the heel of a person who goes barefooted. (Moran: + Carlow.) Irish _gag_ [gaug], a cleft, a crack. + + Gaulsh; to loll. (MacCall: Wexford.) + + Gaunt or gant; to yawn. (Ulster.) + + Gaurlagh; a little child, a baby: an unfledged bird. Irish _garlach_, + same sound and meanings. + + Gawk; a tall awkward fellow. (South.) {261} + + Gawm, gawmoge; a soft foolish fellow. (South.) Irish _gam_, same + meaning. See Gommul. + + Gazebo; a tall building; any tall object; a tall awkward person. + + Gazen, gazened; applied to a wooden vessel of any kind when the joints + open by heat or drought so that it leaks. (Ulster.) + + Gallagh-gunley; the harvest moon. (Ulster.) _Gallagh_ gives the sound + of Irish _gealach_, the moon, meaning whitish, from _geal_, white. + + Geck; to mock, to jeer, to laugh at. (Derry.) + + Geenagh, geenthagh; hungry, greedy, covetous. (Derry.) Irish _gionach_ + or _giontach_, gluttonous. + + Geens; wild cherries. (Derry.) + + Gentle; applied to a place or thing having some connexion with the + fairies--haunted by fairies. A thornbush where fairies meet is a + 'gentle bush': the hazel and the foxglove (fairy-thimble) are gentle + plants. + + Geocagh; a big strolling idle fellow. (Munster.) Irish _geocach_, same + sound and meaning. + + Geosadaun or Yosedaun [_d_ in both sounded like _th_ in _they_]; the + yellow rag-weed: called also boliaun [2-syll.] and booghalaun. + + Get; a bastard child. (North and South.) + + Gibbadaun; a frivolous person. (Roscommon.) From the Irish _giob_, a + scrap, with the diminutive ending _dan_: a _scrappy_ trifling-minded + person. + + Gibbol [_g_ hard as in _get_]; a rag: your jacket is all hanging down + in gibbols.' (Limerick.) Irish _giobal_, same sound and meaning. + + Giddhom; restlessness. In Limerick it is applied to cows when they + gallop through the fields with {262} tails cocked out, driven half mad + by heat and flies: 'The cows are galloping with giddhom.' Irish + _giodam_, same sound and meaning. + + Gill-gowan, a corn-daisy. (Tyrone.) From Irish _geal_, white, and + _gowan_, the Scotch name for a daisy. + + Girroge [two _g_'s sounded as in _get_, _got_]. Girroges are the short + little drills where the plough runs into a corner. (Kildare and + Limerick.) Irish _gearr_, short, with the diminutive _og_: _girroge_, + any short little thing. + + Girsha; a little girl. (North and South.) Irish _geirrseach_ [girsagh], + from _gearr_, short or small, with the feminine termination _seach_. + + Gistra [_g_ sounded as in _get_], a sturdy, active old man. (Ulster.) + Irish _giostaire_, same sound and meaning. + + Gladiaathor [_aa_ long as in _car_]; a gladiator, a fighting + quarrelsome fellow: used as a verb also:--'he went about the fair + _gladiaatherin_,' i.e. shouting and challenging people to fight him. + + Glaum, glam; to grab or grasp with the whole hand; to maul or pull + about with the hands. Irish _glam_ [glaum], same meaning. + + Glebe; in Ireland this word is almost confined to the land or farm + attached to a Protestant rector's residence: hence called _glebe-land_. + See p. 143. + + Gleeag; a small handful of straw used in plaiting straw mats: a sheaf + of straw threshed. (Kildare and Monaghan.) + + Gleeks: to give a fellow the gleeks is to press the forefingers into + the butt of the ears so as to cause pain: a rough sort of play. + (Limerick.) + + Glenroe, Co. Limerick, 68, 146. {263} + + Gliggeen; a voluble silly talker. (Munster.) Irish _gluigin_ + [gliggeen], a little bell, a little tinkler: from _glog_, same as + _clog_, a bell. + + Gliggerum; applied to a very bad old worn-out watch or clock. + (Limerick.) + + Glit; slimy mud; the green vegetable (_ducksmeat_) that grows on the + surface of stagnant water. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Gloit; a blockhead of a young fellow. (Knowles.) + + Glory be to God! Generally a pious exclamation of thankfulness, fear, + &c.: but sometimes an ejaculation of astonishment, wonder, admiration, + &c. Heard everywhere in Ireland. + + Glower; to stare or glare at: 'what are you glowerin' at!' (Ulster.) + + Glugger [_u_ sounded as in _full_]; empty noise; the noise made by + shaking an addled egg. Also an addled egg. Applied very often in a + secondary sense to a vain empty foolish boaster. (Munster.) + + Glunter: a stupid person. (Knowles: Ulster.) + + Goaling: same as Hurling, which see. + + Gob; the mouth including lips: 'Shut your gob.' Irish _gob_, same + meaning. Scotch, 'greedy _gab_.' (Burns.) + + Gobshell; a big spittle direct from the mouth. (Limerick.) From Irish + _gob_, the mouth, and _seile_ [shella], a spittle. + + Gobs or jackstones; five small round stones with which little girls + play against each other, by throwing them up and catching them as they + fall; 'there are Nelly and Sally playing gobs.' + + Gods and goddesses of Pagan Ireland, 177. + + Godspeed: see Back of God-speed. {264} + + God's pocket. Mr. Kinahan writes to me:--'The first time I went to the + Mullingar hotel I had a delicate child, and spoke to the landlady as to + how he was to be put up [during the father's absence by day on outdoor + duty]. "Oh never fear sir," replied the good old lady, "the poor child + will be _in God's pocket_ here."' Mr. K. goes on to say:--I afterwards + found that in all that part of Leinster they never said 'we will make + you comfortable,' but always 'you will be in God's pocket,' or 'as snug + as in God's pocket.' I heard it said of a widow and orphans whose + people were kind to them, that they were in 'God's pocket.' Whether + Seumas MacManus ever came across this term I do not know, but he has + something very like it in 'A Lad of the O'Friels,' viz., 'I'll make the + little girl as happy as if she was _in Saint Peter's pocket_.' + + Goggalagh, a dotard. (Munster.) Irish _gogail_, the cackling of a hen + or goose; also doting; with the usual termination _ach_. + + Going on; making fun, joking, teasing, chaffing, bantering:--'Ah, now I + see you are only _going on_ with me.' 'Stop your _goings on_.' + (General.) + + Golder [_d_ sounded like _th_ in further]; a loud sudden or angry + shout. (Patterson: Ulster.) + + Goleen; an armful. See Gwaul. + + Gombeen man; a usurer who lends money to small farmers and others of + like means, at ruinous interest. The word is now used all over Ireland. + Irish _goimbin_ [gombeen], usury. + + Gommul, gommeril, gommula, all sometimes shortened to _gom_; a + simple-minded fellow, a half {265} fool. Irish _gamal_, _gamaille_, + _gamairle_, _gamarail_, all same meaning. (_Gamal_ is also Irish for a + camel.) Used all over Ireland. + + Good deed; said of some transaction that is a well-deserved punishment + for some wrong or unjust or very foolish course of action. Bill lends + some money to Joe, who never returns it, and a friend says:--''Tis a + good deed Bill, why did you trust such a schemer?' Barney is bringing + home a heavy load, and is lamenting that he did not bring his + ass:--''Tis a good deed: where was I coming without Bobby?' (the ass). + ('Knocknagow') 'I'm wet to the skin': reply:--''Tis a good deed: why + did you go out without your overcoat?' + + Good boy: in Limerick and other parts of Munster, a young fellow who is + good--strong and active--at all athletic exercises, but most especially + if he is brave and tough in fighting, is 'a good boy.' The people are + looking anxiously at a sailing boat labouring dangerously in a storm on + the Shannon, and one of them remarks:--''Tis a good boy that has the + rudder in his hand.' (Gerald Griffin.) + + Good people; The fairies. The word is used merely as _soft sawder_, to + _butter them up_, to curry favour with them--to show them great respect + at least from the teeth out--lest they might do some injury to the + speaker. + + Googeen [two _g_'s as in _good_ and _get_]; a simple soft-minded + person. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish _guag_, same meaning, with the + diminutive: _guaigin_. + + Gopen, gowpen; the full of the two hands used together. (Ulster.) + Exactly the same meaning as _Lyre_ in Munster, which see. {266} + + Gor; the coarse turf or peat which forms the surface of the bog. + (Healy: for Ulster.) + + Gorb; a ravenous eater, a glutton. (Ulster.) + + Gorsoon: a young boy. It is hard to avoid deriving this from French + _garcon_, all the more as it has no root in Irish. Another form often + used is _gossoon_, which is derived from Irish:--_gas_, a stem or + stalk, a young boy. But the termination _oon_ or _un_ is suspicious in + both cases, for it is not a genuine Irish suffix at all. + + Gossip; a sponsor in baptism. + + Goster; gossipy talk. Irish _gastair[)e]_, a prater, a chatterer. + 'Dermot go 'long with your goster.' (Moore--in his youth.) + + Gouloge; a stick with a little fork of two prongs at the end, for + turning up hay, or holding down furze while cutting. (South.) Used in + the North often in the form of _gollog_. Irish _gabhal_ [gowl], a fork, + with the dim. _og_. + + Gounau; housewife [huzzif] thread, strong thread for sewing, pack + thread. Irish _gabhshnath_ (Fr. Dinneen), same sound and meaning: from + _snath_, a thread: but how comes in _gabh_? In one of the Munster towns + I knew a man who kept a draper's shop, and who was always called + _Gounau_, in accordance with the very reprehensible habit of our people + to give nicknames. + + Goureen-roe: a snipe, a jacksnipe. (Munster.) Irish _gabhairin-reo_, + the 'little goat of the frost' (reo, frost): because on calm frosty + evenings you hear its quivering sound as it flies in the twilight, very + like the sound emitted by a goat. + + Gra, grah; love, fondness, liking. Irish _gradh_ {267} [graw]. 'I have + great gra for poor Tom.' I asked an Irishman who had returned from + America and settled down again here and did well:--'Why did you come + back from America?' 'Ah,' he replied, 'I have great _gra_ for the old + country.' + + Graanbroo; wheat boiled in new milk and sweetened: a great treat to + children, and generally made from their own gleanings or _liscauns_, + gathered in the fields. Sometimes called _brootheen_. (Munster.) The + first from Irish _gran_, grain, and _brugh_, to break or bruise, to + reduce to pulp, or cook, by boiling. _Brootheen_ (also applied to + mashed potatoes) is from _brugh_, with the diminutive. + + Graanoge, graan-yoge [_aa_ in both long like _a_ in _car_], a hedgehog. + Irish _graineog_, same sound. + + Graanshaghaun [_aa_ long as in _car_]; wheat (in grain) boiled. (Joyce: + Limerick.) In my early days what we called _graanshaghaun_ was wheat in + grains, not boiled, but roasted in an iron pot held over the fire, the + wheat being kept stirred till done. + + Graffaun; a small axe with edge across like an adze for grubbing or + _graffing_ land, i.e. rooting out furze and heath in preparation for + tillage. Used all through the South. 'This was the word used in Co. + Cork law courts.' (Healy.) Irish _grafan_, same sound and meaning. + + Graip or grape; a dung-fork with three or four prongs. Irish _grapa_. + + Grammar and Pronunciation, 74. + + Grammel; to grope or fumble or gather with both hands. (Derry.) + + Graves, Mr. A. P., 58, &c. + + Grawls; children. Paddy Corbett, thinking he is {268} ruined, says of + his wife:--'God comfort poor Jillian and the grawls I left her.' + (Edward Walsh.) 'There's Judy and myself and the poor little grawls.' + (Crofton Croker: p. 155.) + + Grawvar; loving, affectionate:--'That's a grawver poor boy.' (Munster.) + Irish _gradhmhar_, same sound and meaning: from _gradh_, love. + + Grazier; a young rabbit. (South and West.) + + Great; intimate, closely acquainted:--'Tom Long and Jack Fogarty are + very great.' (All over Ireland.) 'Come gie's your hand and sae we're + _greet_.' (Burns.) + + Greedy-gut; a glutton; a person who is selfish about stuffing himself, + wishing to give nothing to anyone else. Gorrane Mac Sweeny, when his + mistress is in want of provisions, lamenting that the eagles (over + Glengarriff) were devouring the game that the lady wanted so badly, + says:--'Is it not the greatest pity in life ... that these greedy-guts + should be after swallowing the game, and my sweet mistress and her + little ones all the time starving.' (Caesar Otway in 'Pen. Journ.') + + Greenagh; a person that hangs round hoping to get food (Donegal and + North-West): a 'Watch-pot.' + + Greesagh; red hot embers and ashes. 'We roasted our potatoes and eggs + in the greesagh.' (All over Ireland.) Irish _griosach_, same sound. + + Greet; to cry. 'Tommy was greetin' after his mother.' (Ulster.) + + Greth; harness of a horse: a general name for all the articles required + when yoking a horse to the cart. (Knowles: Ulster.) + + Griffin, Gerald, author of 'The Collegians,' 5, &c. {269} + + Grig (greg in Sligo): a boy with sugarstick holds it out to another and + says, 'grig, grig,' to triumph over him. Irish _griog_, same sound and + meaning. + + Grinder; a bright-coloured silk kerchief worn round the neck. (Edward + Walsh: all over Munster.) + + Gripe; a trench, generally beside a high ditch or fence. 'I got down + into the gripe, thinking to [hide myself].' (Crofton Croker.) + + Griskin or greeskeen; a small bit of meat cut off to be + roasted--usually on the coals. Irish _griscin_. + + Grisset; a shallow iron vessel for melting things in, such as grease + for dipping rushes, resin for dipping torches (_sluts_ or _paudioges_, + which see), melting lead for various purposes, white metals for + coining, &c. If a man is growing rapidly rich:--'You'd think he had the + grisset down.' + + Groak or groke; to look on silently--like a dog--at people while they + are eating, hoping to be asked to eat a bit. (Derry.) + + Grogue; three or four sods of turf standing on end, supporting each + other like a little pyramid on the bog to dry. (Limerick.) Irish + _gruag_, same meaning. + + Groodles; the broken bits mixed with liquid left at the bottom of a + bowl of soup, bread and milk, &c. + + Group or grup; a little drain or channel in a cow-house to lead off the + liquid manure. (Ulster.) + + Grue or grew; to turn from with disgust:--'He grued at the physic.' + (Ulster). + + Grug; sitting on one's grug means sitting on the heels without touching + the ground. (Munster.) Same as Scotch _hunkers_. 'Sit down on your grug + and thank God for a seat.' + + Grumagh or groomagh; gloomy, {270} ill-humoured:--'I met Bill this + morning looking very _grumagh_.' (General.) From Irish _gruaim_ + [_grooim_], gloom, ill-humour, with the usual suffix _-ach_, equivalent + to English _-y_ as in _gloomy_. + + Grumpy; surly, cross, disagreeable. (General.) + + Gubbadhaun; a bird that follows the cuckoo. (Joyce.) + + Gubbaun; a strap tied round the mouth of a calf or foal, with a row of + projecting nail points, to prevent it sucking the mother. From Irish + _gob_, the mouth, with the diminutive. (South.) + + Gubbalagh; a mouthful. (Munster.) Irish _goblach_, same sound and + meaning. From _gob_, the mouth, with the termination _lach_. + + Gullion; a sink-pool. (Ulster.) + + Gulpin; a clownish uncouth fellow. (Ulster.) + + Gulravage, gulravish; noisy boisterous play. (North-east Ulster.) + + Gunk; a 'take in,' a 'sell'; as a verb, to 'take in,' to cheat. + (Ulster.) + + Gushers; stockings with the soles cut off. (Morris: Monaghan.) From the + Irish. Same as triheens. + + Gurry; a _bonnive_, a young pig. (Morris: Mon.) + + Gutter; wet mud on a road (_gutters_ in Ulster). + + Gwaul [_l_ sounded as in _William_]; the full of the two arms of + anything: 'a gwaul of straw.' (Munster.) In Carlow and Wexford, they + add the diminutive, and make it _goleen_. Irish _gabhail_. + + + + Hain; to hain a field is to let it go to meadow, keeping the cows out + of it so as to let the grass grow: possibly from _hayin'_. (Waterford: + Healy.) In Ulster _hain_ means to save, to economise. {271} + + Half a one; half a glass of whiskey. One day a poor blind man walked + into one of the Dublin branch banks, which happened to be next door to + a public-house, and while the clerks were looking on, rather puzzled as + to what he wanted, he slapped two pennies down on the counter; and in + no very gentle voice:--'Half a one!' + + Half joke and whole earnest; an expression often heard in Ireland which + explains itself. 'Tim told me--half joke and whole earnest--that he + didn't much like to lend me his horse.' + + Hand; to make a hand of a person is to make fun of him; to humbug him: + Lowry Looby, thinking that Mr. Daly is making game of him, says:--''Tis + making a hand of me your honour is.' (Gerald Griffin.) Other + applications of _hand_ are 'You made a bad hand of that job,' i.e. you + did it badly. If a man makes a foolish marriage: 'He made a bad hand of + himself, poor fellow.' + + Hand-and-foot; the meaning of this very general expression is seen in + the sentence 'He gave him a hand-and-foot and tumbled him down.' + + Hand's turn; a very trifling bit of work, an occasion:--'He won't do a + hand's turn about the house': 'he scolds me at every hand's turn,' i.e. + on every possible occasion. + + Handy; near, convenient:--'The shop lies handy to me'; an adaptation of + the Irish _laimh le_ (meaning _near_). _Laimh le Corcaig_, lit. _at + hand with Cork_--near Cork. This again is often expressed _convenient + to Cork_, where _convenient_ is intended to mean simply _near_. So it + comes that we in Ireland regard _convenient_ and _near_ as exactly + synonymous, {272} which they are not. In fact on almost every possible + occasion, we--educated and uneducated--use _convenient_ when _near_ + would be the proper word. An odd example occurs in the words of the old + Irish folk-song:-- + + 'A sailor courted a farmer's daughter, + Who lived _convaynient_ to the Isle of Man.' + + Hannel; a blow with the spear or spike of a pegging-top (or + 'castle-top') down on the wood of another top. Boys often played a game + of tops for a certain number of hannels. At the end of the game the + victor took his defeated opponent's top, sunk it firmly down into the + grassy sod, and then with his own top in his hand struck the other top + a number of hannels with the spear of his own to injure it as much as + possible. 'Your castle-tops came in for the most hannels.' + ('Knocknagow.') + + Hap; to wrap a person round with any covering, to tuck in the + bedclothes round a person. (Ulster.) + + Hard word (used always with _the_); a hint, an inkling, a tip, a bit of + secret information:--'They were planning to betray and cheat me, but + Ned gave me the hard word, and I was prepared for them, so that I + defeated their schemes.' + + Hare; to make a hare of a person is to put him down in argument or + discussion, or in a contest of wit or cunning; to put him in utter + confusion. 'While you were speaking to the little boy that made a hare + of you.' (Carleton in Ir. Pen. Journ.) + + 'Don't talk of your Provost and Fellows of Trinity, + Famous for ever at Greek and Latinity, + Faix and the divels and all at Divinity-- + Father O'Flynn 'd make hares of them all!' + + (A. P. GRAVES.) + + {273} + + Harvest; always used in Ireland for autumn:--'One fine day in harvest.' + (Crofton Croker.) + + Hauling home; bringing home the bride, soon after the wedding, to her + husband's house. Called also a 'dragging-home.' It is always made the + occasion of festivity only next in importance to the wedding. For a + further account, and for a march played at the Hauling home, see my + 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 130. + + Hausel; the opening in the iron head of an axe, adze, or hammer, for + the handle. (Ulster.) + + Haverel: a rude coarse boor, a rough ignorant fellow. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Havverick; a rudely built house, or an old ruined house hastily and + roughly restored:--'How can people live in that old havverick?' + (Limerick.) + + Hayden, Miss Mary, M.A., 5, &c. + + Healy, Mr. Maurice, 178, &c. + + Head or harp; a memorial of the old Irish coinage, corresponding with + English _head or tail_. The old Irish penny and halfpenny had the + king's head on one side and the Irish harp on the other. 'Come now, + head or harp,' says the person about to throw up a halfpenny of any + kind. + + Heard tell; an expression used all throughout Ireland:--'I heard tell + of a man who walked to Glendalough in a day.' It is old English. + + Heart-scald; a great vexation or mortification. (General.) Merely the + translation of _scallach-croidhe_ [scollagh-cree], _scalding_ of the + heart. + + Hearty; tipsy, exhilarated after a little 'drop.' + + Hedge schools, 149. {274} + + Higgins, The Rev. Father, p. 244, and elsewhere. + + Hinch; the haunch, the thigh. To hinch a stone is to _jerk_ (or _jurk_ + as they say in Munster), to hurl it from under instead of over the + shoulder. (Ulster.) + + Hinten; the last sod of the ridge ploughed. (Ulster.) + + Ho; equal. Always used with a negative, and also in a bad sense, either + seriously or in play. A child spills a jug of milk, and the mother + says:--'Oh Jacky, there's no _ho_ to you for mischief' (no equal to + you). The old woman says to the mischievous gander:--'There's no ho + with you for one gander.' (Gerald Griffin: 'The Coiner.') This _ho_ is + an Irish word: it represents the sound of the Irish prefix _cho_ or + _chomh_, equal, as much as, &c. 'There's no ho to Jack Lynch' means + there's no one for whom you can use _cho_ (equal) in comparing him with + Jack Lynch. + + Hobbler; a small cock of fresh hay about 4 feet high. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Hobby; a kind of Irish horse, which, three or four centuries ago, was + known all over Europe 'and held in great esteem for their easy amble: + and from this kind of horse the Irish light-armed bodies of horse were + called hobellers.' (Ware. See my 'Smaller Social History of Ancient + Ireland,' p. 487.) Hence a child's toy, a hobby-horse. Hence a + favourite pursuit is called a 'hobby.' + + Hoil; a mean wretched dwelling: an uncomfortable situation. (Morris: + South Monaghan.) + + Hollow; used as an adverb as follows:--'Jack Cantlon's horse beat the + others hollow in the race': i.e. beat them utterly. {275} + + Holy show: 'You're a holy show in that coat,' i.e. it makes quite a + show of you; makes you look ridiculous. (General.) + + Holy well; a well venerated on account of its association with an Irish + saint: in most cases retaining the name of the saint:--'Tober-Bride,' + St. Bride's or Brigit's well. In these wells the early saints baptised + their converts. They are found all through Ireland, and people often + pray beside them and make their _rounds_. (See 'Smaller Social History + of Ancient Ireland.') + + Hool or hooley; the same as a Black swop. + + Hot-foot; at once, immediately:--'Off I went hot-foot.' 'As soon as + James heard the news, he wrote a letter hot-foot to his father.' + + Houghle; to wobble in walking. (Armagh.) + + Hugger-mugger: see Cugger-mugger. + + Huggers or hogars, stockings without feet. (Ulster.) + + Hulk; a rough surly fellow. (Munster.) A bad person. (Simmons: Armagh.) + Irish _olc_, bad. + + Hungry-grass: see Fair-gurtha. + + Hunker-slide; to slide on ice sitting on the hunkers (or as they would + say in Munster, sitting on one's _grug_) instead of standing up + straight: hence to act with duplicity: to shirk work:--'None of your + hunker-sliding for me.' (Ulster.) + + Hurling; the common game of ball and hurley or _commaun_. The chief + terms (besides those mentioned elsewhere) are:--_Puck_, the blow of the + hurley on the ball: The _goals_ are the two gaps at opposite sides of + the field through which the players try to drive the ball. When the + ball is thrown high up between two players with their {276} commauns + ready drawn to try which will strike it on its way down: that is + _high-rothery_. When two adjacent parishes or districts contended + (instead of two small parties at an ordinary match), that was + _scoobeen_ or 'conquering goal' (Irish _scuab_, a broom: _scoobeen_, + _sweeping_ the ball away). I have seen at least 500 on each side + engaged in one of these _scoobeens_; but that was in the time of the + eight millions--before 1847. Sometimes there were bad blood and + dangerous quarrels at scoobeens. See Borick, Sippy, Commaun, and Cool. + (For the ancient terms see my 'Smaller Social History of Ancient + Ireland,' p. 513.) For examples of these great contests, see Very Rev. + Dr. Sheehan's 'Glenanaar,' pp. 4, 231. + + Hurt: a whortleberry: hurts are _fraughans_, which see. From _whort_. + (Munster.) + + Husho or rather huzho; a lullaby, a nurse-song, a cradle-song; + especially the chorus, consisting of a sleepy _cronaun_ or croon--like + 'shoheen-sho Loo-lo-lo,' &c. Irish _suantraighe_ [soontree]. 'The + moaning of a distant stream that kept up a continual _cronane_ like a + nurse _hushoing_.' 'My mother was hushoing my little sister, striving + to quieten her.' (Both from Crofton Croker.) 'The murmur of the ocean + _huzhoed_ me to sleep.' (Irish Folk Song:--'McKenna's Dream.') + + + + Idioms; influence of the Irish language on, 4:--derived from Irish, 23. + + If; often used in the sense of _although_, _while_, or some such + signification, which will be best understood from the following + examples:--A Dublin {277} jarvey who got sixpence for a long drive, + said in a rage:--'I'm in luck to-day; but _if I am_, 'tis blazing _bad_ + luck.' 'Bill ran into the house, and if he did, the other man seized + him round the waist and threw him on his back.' + + If that. This is old English, but has quite disappeared from the + standard language of the present day, though still not unfrequently + heard in Ireland:--'If that you go I'll go with you.' + + '_If_ from Sally _that_ I get free, + My dear I love you most tenderlie.' + + (Irish Folk Song--'Handsome Sally.') + + 'And _if that_ you wish to go further + Sure God He made Peter His own, + The keys of His treasures He gave him, + To govern the old Church of Rome.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + + Inagh' or in-yah' [both strongly accented on second syll.]; a satirical + expression of dissent or disbelief, like the English _forsooth_, but + much stronger. A fellow boasting says:--'I could run ten miles in an + hour': and another replies, 'You could _inah_': meaning 'Of course I + don't believe a word of it.' A man coming back from the other world + says to a woman:--'I seen your [dead] husband there too, ma'am;' to + which she replies:--'My husband _inah_.' (Gerald Griffin: + 'Collegians.') Irish _an eadh_, same sound and meaning. + + Inch; a long strip of level grassy land along a river. Very general. + Irish _inis_ [innish], of the same family as Lat. _insula_: but _inis_ + is older than _insula_ which is a diminutive and consequently a derived + form. 'James, go out and drive the cows down to the inch.' + + Insense'; to make a person understand;--'I can't {278} insense him into + his letters.' 'I insensed him into the way the job was to be done.' + [Accent on -sense'.] + + In tow with; in close acquaintance with, courting. John is in tow with + Jane Sullivan. + + Ire, sometimes _ira_; children who go barefoot sometimes get _ire_ in + the feet; i.e. the skin chapped and very sore. Also an inflamed spot on + the skin rendered sore by being rubbed with some coarse seam, &c. + + Irish language; influence of, on our dialect, 1, 23. + + + + Jackeen; a nickname for a conceited Dublin citizen of the lower class. + + Jack Lattin, 172. + + Jap or jop; to splash with mud. (Ulster.) + + Jaw; impudent talk: _jawing_; scolding, abusing:-- + + 'He looked in my face and he gave me some jaw, + Saying "what brought you over from Erin-go-braw?"' + + (Irish Folk Song.) + + Jingle; one of Bianconi's long cars. + + Johnny Magorey; a hip or dog-haw; the fruit of the dog-rose. (Central + and Eastern counties.) + + Join; to begin at anything; 'the child joined to cry'; 'my leg joined + to pain me'; 'the man joined to plough.' (North.) + + Jokawn; an oaten stem cut off above the joint, with a tongue cut in it, + which sounds a rude kind of music when blown by the mouth. (Limerick.) + Irish _geocan_, same sound and meaning. + + Jowlter, fish-jowlter; a person who hawks about fish through the + country, to sell. (South.) + + Just: often used as a final expletive--more in {279} Ulster than + elsewhere:--'Will you send anyone?' 'Yes, Tommy just.' 'Where are you + going now?' 'To the fair just.' + + + + Keenagh or keenagh-lee: mildew often seen on cheese, jam, &c. In a damp + house everything gets covered with _keenagh-lee_. Irish _caonach_, + moss; _caonach-lee_, mildew: _lee_ is Irish _liagh_ [lee], grey. (North + and North-West of Ireland.) + + Keeping: a man is _on his keeping_ when he is hiding away from the + police, who are on his track for some offence. This is from the Irish + _coimead_, keeping; _air mo choimead_, 'on my keeping.' + + Keeroge; a beetle or clock. Irish _ciar_ [keer], dark, black, with the + diminutive _og_: _keeroge_, 'black little fellow.' + + Kelters, money, coins: 'He has the kelthers,' said of a rich man. + _Yellow kelters_, gold money: 'She has the kelthers': means she has a + large fortune. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Kemp or camp; to compete: two or more persons kemp against each other + in any work to determine which will finish first. (Ulster.) See + Carleton's story, 'The Rival Kempers.' + + Keolaun; a contemptible little creature, boy or man. (South and West.) + + Keowt; a low contemptible fellow. + + Kepper; a slice of bread with butter, as distinguished from a _dundon_, + which see. + + Kesh; a rough bridge over a river or morass, made with poles, + wickerwork, &c.--overlaid with bushes and _scraws_ (green sods). + Understood all through Ireland. A small one over a drain in a bog is + {280} often called in Tipperary and Waterford a _kishoge_, which is + merely the diminutive. + + Kib; to put down or plant potatoes, each seed in a separate hole made + with a spade. Irish _ciob_, same sound and meaning. + + Kickham, Charles, author of 'Knocknagow,' 5, &c. + + Kiddhoge, a wrap of any kind that a woman throws hastily over her + shoulders. (Ulster.) Irish _cuideog_, same sound and sense here. + + Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, 147. + + Killeen; a quantity:--'That girl has a good killeen of money. (Ulster.) + Irish _cillin_ [killeen]. + + Killeen; an old churchyard disused except for the occasional burial of + unbaptised infants. Irish _cill_, a church, with the diminutive _in_. + + Kimmeen; a sly deceitful trick; kimmeens or kymeens, small crooked + ways:--'Sure you're not equal to the _kimmeens_ of such complete + deceivers at all at all.' (Sam Lover in Ir. Pen. Mag.) Irish _com_, + crooked; diminutive _cuimin_ [kimmeen]. + + Kimmel-a-vauleen; uproarious fun. Irish _cimel-a'-mhailin_, literally + 'rub-the-bag.' There is a fine Irish jig with this name. (South.) + + Kink; a knot or short twist in a cord. + + Kink; a fit of coughing or laughing: 'they were in kinks of laughing.' + Hence _chincough_, for whooping-cough, i.e. _kink_-cough. I know a holy + well that has the reputation of curing whooping-cough, and hence called + the 'Kink-well.' + + Kinleen or keenleen, or kine-leen; a single straw or corn stem. + (South.) Irish _caoinlin_, same sound. + + Kinleen-roe; an icicle: the same word as last with the addition of + _reo_ [roe], frost: 'frost-stem.' {281} + + Kinnatt', [1st syll. very short; accent on 2nd syll.: to rhyme with + _cat_]; an impertinent conceited impudent little puppy. + + Kippen or kippeen; any little bit of stick: often used as a sort of pet + name for a formidable cudgel or shillelah for fighting. Irish _cip_ + [kip], a stake or stock, with the diminutive. + + Kish; a large square basket made of wattles and wickerwork used for + measuring turf or for holding turf on a cart. Sometimes (South) called + a _kishaun_. Irish _cis_ or _cisean_, same sounds and meanings: also + called _kishagh_. + + Kishtha; a treasure: very common in Connaught, where it is often + understood to be hidden treasure in a fort under the care of a + leprachaun. Irish _ciste_, same sound and meaning. + + Kitchen; any condiment or relish eaten with the plain food of a meal, + such as butter, dripping, &c. A very common saying in Tyrone against + any tiresome repetition is:--'Butter to butter is no kitchen.' As a + verb; to use sparingly, to economise:--'Now kitchen that bit of bacon + for you have no more.' + + Kitthoge or kitthagh; a left-handed person. Understood through all + Ireland. Irish _ciotog_, _ciotach_, same sounds and meaning. + + Kitterdy; a simpleton, a fool. (Ulster.) + + Knauvshauling [the _k_ sounded distinctly]; grumbling, scolding, + muttering complaints. (Limerick.) From Irish _cnamh_ [knauv: _k_ + sounded], a bone, the jawbone. The underlying idea is the same as when + we speak of a person giving _jaw_. See Jaw. + + 'Knocknagow ': see Kickham. + + Kybosh; some sort of difficulty or 'fix':--'He put the kybosh on him: + he defeated him.' (Moran: Carlow.) {282} + + Kyraun, keeraun; a small bit broken off from a sod of turf. Irish + _caor_, or with the diminutive, _caoran_, same sound and meaning. + + + + Laaban; a rotten sterile egg (Morris: for South Monaghan): same as + _Glugger_, which see. Irish _lab_ or _laib_, mire, dirt, with + diminutive. + + Lad; a mischievous tricky fellow:--'There's no standing them lads.' + (Gerald Griffin.) + + Lagheryman or Logheryman. (Ulster.) Same as Leprachaun, which see. + + Lambaisting; a sound beating. Quite common in Munster. + + Langel; to tie the fore and the hind leg of a cow or goat with a + spancel or fetter to prevent it going over fences. (Ulster.) Irish + _langal_, same sound and meaning. + + Lapcock; an armful or roll of grass laid down on the sward to dry for + hay. (Ulster.) + + Lark-heeled; applied to a person having long sharp heels. See + Saulavotcheer. + + Larrup; to wallop, to beat soundly. (Donegal and South.) + + Lashings, plenty: lashings and leavings, plenty and to spare: specially + applied to food at meals. (General.) + + Lassog, a blaze of light. (Morris: South Monaghan.) From Irish _las_, + light, with the diminutive. + + Lauchy; applied to a person in the sense of pleasant, good-natured, + lovable. Irish _lachaiidhe_, same sound and sense. (Banim: general in + the South.) 'He's a _lauchy_ boy.' + + Laudy-daw; a pretentious fellow that sets up to be a great swell. + (Moran: Carlow; and South.) {283} + + Launa-vaula; full and plenty:--There was launa-vaula at the dinner. + Irish _lan-a-mhala_ (same sound), 'full bags.' + + Lazy man's load. A lazy man takes too many things in one load to save + the trouble of going twice, and thereby often lets them fall and breaks + them. + + Learn is used for _teach_ all over Ireland, but more in Ulster than + elsewhere. Don't forget to 'larn the little girl her catechiz.' (Seumas + Mac Manus.) An old English usage: but dead and gone in England now. + + Leather; to beat:--'I gave him a good leathering,' i.e., a beating, a + thrashing. This is not derived, as might be supposed, from the English + word _leather_ (tanned skin), but from Irish, in which it is of very + old standing:--_Letrad_ (modern _leadradh_), cutting, hacking, + lacerating: also a champion fighter, a warrior, a _leatherer_. (Corm. + Gloss.--9th cent.) Used all through Ireland. + + Leather-wing; a bat. (South.) + + Lee, the Very Rev. Patrick, V. F., of Kilfinane, 148. + + Lebbidha; an awkward, blundering, half-fool of a fellow. (South.) Irish + _leibide_, same sound and meaning. + + Leg bail; a person gives (or takes) _leg bail_ when he runs away, + absconds. (General.) + + Lend; loan. Ned came 'for the _lend_ of the ould mare.' ('Knocknagow.') + Often used in the following way:--'Come and lend a hand,' i.e., give + some help. 'Our shooting party comes off to-morrow: will you _lend_ + your gun': an invitation to join the party. (Kinahan.) {284} + + Leprachaun; a sort of fairy, called by several names in different parts + of Ireland:--luricaun, cluricaun, lurragadaun, loghryman, luprachaun. + This last is the nearest to the Gaelic original, all the preceding + anglicised forms being derived from it. Luprachaun itself is derived by + a metathesis from Irish _luchorpan_, from _lu_, little, and _corpan_, + the dim. of _corp_, a body:--'weeny little body.' The reader will + understand all about this merry little chap from the following short + note and song written by me and extracted from my 'Ancient Irish Music' + (in which the air also will be found). The leprachaun is a very tricky + little fellow, usually dressed in a green coat, red cap, and + knee-breeches, and silver shoe-buckles, whom you may sometimes see in + the shades of evening, or by moonlight, under a bush; and he is + generally making or mending a shoe: moreover, like almost all fairies, + he would give the world for _pottheen_. If you catch him and hold him, + he will, after a little threatening, show you where treasure is hid, or + give you a purse in which you will always find money. But if you once + take your eyes off him, he is gone in an instant; and he is very + ingenious in devising tricks to induce you to look round. It is very + hard to catch a leprachaun, and still harder to hold him. I never heard + of any man who succeeded in getting treasure from him, except one, a + lucky young fellow named MacCarthy, who, according to the peasantry, + built the castle of Carrigadrohid near Macroom in Cork with the money. + Every Irishman understands well the terms _cruiskeen_ and _mountain + dew_, some indeed a little too well; but {285} for the benefit of the + rest of the world, I think it better to state that a _cruiskeen_ is a + small jar, and that _mountain dew_ is _pottheen_ or illicit whiskey. + + In a shady nook one moonlight night, + A leprachaun I spied; + With scarlet cap and coat of green; + A cruiskeen by his side. + 'Twas tick tack tick, his hammer went, + Upon a weeny shoe; + And I laughed to think of a purse of gold; + But the fairy was laughing too. + + With tip-toe step and beating heart, + Quite softly I drew nigh: + There was mischief in his merry face;-- + A twinkle in his eye. + He hammered and sang with tiny voice, + And drank his mountain dew: + And I laughed to think he was caught at last:-- + But the fairy was laughing too. + + As quick as thought I seized the elf; + 'Your fairy purse!' I cried; + 'The purse!' he said--''tis in her hand-- + 'That lady at your side!' + I turned to look: the elf was off! + Then what was I to do? + O, I laughed to think what a fool I'd been; + And the fairy was laughing too. + + Let out; a spree, an entertainment. (General.) 'Mrs. Williams gave a + great let out.' + + Libber; this has much the same meaning as _flipper_, which see: an + untidy person careless about his dress and appearance--an easy-going + _ould sthreel_ of a man. I have heard an old fellow say, regarding + those that went before him--father, {286} grandfather, &c.--that they + were 'ould _aancient_ libbers,' which is the Irish peasant's way of + expressing Gray's 'rude forefathers of the hamlet.' + + Lief; willing: 'I had as lief be working as not.' 'I had liefer': I had + rather. (General.) This is an old English word, now fallen out of use + in England, but common here. + + Lifter; a beast that is so weak from starvation (chiefly in March when + grass is withered up) that it can hardly stand and has to be lifted + home from the hill-pasture to the stable. (Kinahan: Connemara.) + + Light; a little touched in the head, a little crazed:--'Begor sir if + you say I know nothing about sticks your head must be getting light in + earnest.' (Robert Dwyer Joyce.) + + Likely; well-looking: 'a likely girl'; 'a _clane_ likely boy.' + + Likes; 'the likes of you': persons or _a person_ like you or in your + condition. Very common in Ireland. 'I'll not have any dealings with the + likes of him.' Colonel Lake, Inspector General of Constabulary in last + century, one afternoon met one of his recruits on the North Circular + Road, Dublin, showing signs of liquor, and stopped him. 'Well, my good + fellow, what is your name please?' The recruit replied:--'Who are you, + and what right have you to ask my name?' 'I am Colonel Lake, your + inspector general.' The recruit eyed him closely:--'Oh begor your + honour, if that's the case it's not right for the likes of me to be + talking to the likes of you': on which he turned round and took leg + bail on the spot like a deer, leaving {287} the inspector general + standing on the pathway. The Colonel often afterwards told that story + with great relish. + + Linnaun-shee or more correct _Lannaun-shee_; a familiar spirit or fairy + that attaches itself to a mortal and follows him. From Irish _leannan_, + a lover, and _sidh_ [shee], a fairy: _lannaun-shee_, 'fairy-lover.' + + Linnie; a long shed--a sort of barn--attached to a a farm house for + holding farm-yard goods and articles of various kinds--carts, spades, + turnips, corn, &c. (Munster.) Irish _lann-iotha_, lit. 'corn-house.' + + Lint; in Ulster, a name for flax. + + Linthern or lenthern; a small drain or sewer covered with flags for the + passage of water, often under a road from side to side. (Munster.) + Irish _lintrean_, _linntreach_ [lintran, lintragh]. + + Liscauns; gleanings of corn from the field after reaping: 'There's Mary + gathering _liscauns_.' (South.) Irish. + + Loanen; a lane, a _bohereen_. (Ulster.) + + Lob; a quantity, especially of money or of any valuable + commodity:--''Tis reported that Jack got a great lob of money with his + wife.' A person is trying to make himself out very useful or of much + consequence, and another says satirically--generally in play:--'Oh what + a _lob_ you are!' + + Lock; a quantity or batch of anything--generally small:--a lock of + straw; a lock of sheep. (General.) + + Logey; heavy or fat as applied to a person. (Moran: Carlow.) Also the + fireplace in a flax-kiln. + + Lone; unmarried:--'A lone man'; 'a lone woman.' {288} + + Long family; a common expression for a large family. + + Lood, loodh, lude; ashamed: 'he was lude of himself when he was found + out.' (South.) + + Loody; a loose heavy frieze coat. (Munster.) + + Loof; the open hand, the palm of the hand. (Ulster.) Irish _lamh_ + [lauv], the hand. + + Loo-oge or lu-oge; the eel-fry a couple of inches long that come up the + southern Blackwater periodically in myriads, and are caught and sold as + food. (Waterford: Healy.) Irish _luadhog_, same sound and meaning. + + Loose leg; when a person is free from any engagement or impediment that + bound him down--'he has a loose leg'--free to act as he likes. 'I have + retired from the service with a pension, so that now I have a loose + leg.' The same is often said of a prisoner discharged from jail. + + Lord; applied as a nickname to a hunchback. The hunchback Danny Mann in + 'The Collegians' is often called 'Danny the lord.' + + Losset; a kneading tray for making cakes. + + Lossagh; a sudden blaze from a turf fire. Irish _las_ [loss], a blaze, + with the usual termination _ach_. + + Lossoge; a handful or little bundle of sticks for firing. (Mayo.) Irish + _las_ [loss], fire, a blaze, with the diminutive termination. + + Low-backed car; a sort of car common in the southern half of Ireland + down to the middle of the last century, used to bring the country + people and their farm produce to markets. Resting on the shafts was a + long flat platform placed lengthwise {289} and sloping slightly + downwards towards the back, on which were passengers and goods. Called + trottle-car in Derry. + + Loy; a spade. Used in the middle of Ireland all across from shore to + shore. Irish _laighe_, same sound and meaning. + + Luck-penny; a coin given by the seller to the buyer after a bargain has + been concluded: given to make sure that the buyer will have luck with + the animal or article he buys. + + Ludeen or loodeen [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _then_]; the little finger. + Irish _luidin_, same sound and meaning. From _lu_, little, with the + diminutive termination. + + Lu-oge: see Loo-oge. + + Luscan; a spot on the hillside from which the furze and heath have been + burned off. (Wicklow and round about.) From Irish _losc_ to burn: + _luscan_, 'burned little spot.' + + Lusmore; fairy-thimble, fairy-finger, foxglove, _Digitalis purpurea_; + an herb of mighty power in fairy lore. Irish _lus_, herb; _mor_, great; + 'mighty herb.' + + Lybe; a lazy fellow. (MacCall: Wex.) See Libber. + + Lyre; the full of the two hands used together: a beggar usually got a + _lyre_ of potatoes. (Munster: same as _gopen_ in Ulster.) Irish + _ladhar_, same sound and meaning. + + + + MacManus, Seumas, 5, &c. + + Mad; angry. There are certain Irish words, such as _buileamhail_, which + might denote either _mad_ or very _angry_: hence in English you very + often hear:--'Oh the master is very mad with you,' {290} i.e. angry. + 'Excessively angry' is often expressed this way in dialect + language:--'The master is blazing mad about that accident to the mare.' + But even this expression is classical Irish; for we read in the Irish + Bible that Moses went away from Pharaoh, _air lasadh le feirg_, + 'blazing with anger.' 'Like mad' is often used to denote very quickly + or energetically: Crofton Croker speaks of people who were 'dancing + like mad.' This expression is constantly heard in Munster. + + Maddha-brishtha; an improvised tongs, such as would be used with a fire + in the fields, made from a strong twig bent sharp. (Derry.) Irish + _maide_ [maddha], a stick; _briste_, broken:--'broken stick.' + + Maddhiaghs or muddiaghs; same as last, meaning simply 'sticks': the two + ends giving the idea of plurality. (Armagh.) + + Maddhoge or middhoge; a dagger. (North and South.) Irish _meadog_ or + _miodog_. + + Made; fortunate:--'I'm a made man' (or 'a _med_ man'), meaning 'my + fortune is made.' (Crofton Croker--but used very generally.) + + Mag; a swoon:--'Light of grace,' she exclaimed, dropping in a _mag_ on + the floor. (Edward Walsh: used all over Munster.) + + Maisled; speckled; a lazy young fellow's shins get maisled from sitting + before the fire. (Knowles: Ulster.) + + Make; used in the South in the following way:--'This will make a fine + day': 'That cloth will make a fine coat': 'If that fellow was shaved + he'd make a handsome young man' (Irish folk-song): 'That Joe of yours + is a clever fellow: no doubt he'll {291} make a splendid doctor.' The + noun _makings_ is applied similarly:--'That young fellow is the makings + of a great scholar.' + + Man above. In Irish God is often designated _an Fear suas_ or _an t-E + suas_ ('the Man above,' 'the Person above'): thus in Hardiman's 'Irish + Minstrelsy' (I. 228):--_Comarc an t-E ta shuas ort_: 'the protection of + the Person who is above be on thee': _an Fear suas_ occurs in the + Ossianic Poems. Hence they use this term all through the South:--'As + cunning as he is he can't hide his knavery from _the Man above_.' + + Man in the gap, 182. + + Mankeeper; used North and South as the English name of the little + lizard called in Irish 'Art-loochra,' which see. + + Mannam; my soul: Irish _m'anam_, same sound and meaning:--'Mannam on + ye,' used as an affectionate exclamation to a child. (Scott: Derry.) + + Many; 'too many' is often used in the following way, when two persons + were in rivalry of any kind, whether of wit, of learning, or of + strength:--'James was too many for Dick,' meaning he was an overmatch + for him. + + Maol, Mail, Maileen, Moileen, Moilie (these two last forms common in + Ulster; the others elsewhere); a hornless cow. Irish _Maol_ [mwail], + same meaning. Quite a familiar word all through Ireland. + + One night Jacky was sent out, much against his will, for an armful + of turf, as the fire was getting low; and in a moment afterwards, + the startled family heard frantic yells. Just as they jumped up + Jacky rushed in still yelling with his whole throat. {292} + + 'What's the matter--what's wrong!' + + 'Oh I saw the divel!' + + 'No you didn't, you fool, 'twas something else you saw.' + + 'No it wasn't, 'twas the divel I saw--didn't I know him well!' + + 'How did you know him--did you see his horns?' + + 'I didn't: he had no horns--he was a _mwail_ divel--sure that's how + I knew him!' + + They ran out of course; but the _mwail_ divel was gone, leaving + behind him, standing up against the turf-rick, the black little + _Maol_ Kerry cow. + + Margamore; the 'Great Market' held in Derry immediately before + Christmas or Easter. (Derry.) Irish _margadh_ [marga], a market, _mor_ + [more], great. + + Martheen; a stocking with the foot cut off. (Derry.) Irish _mairtin_, + same sound and meaning. _Martheens_ are what they call in Munster + _triheens_, which see. + + Mass, celebration of, 144. + + Mau-galore; nearly drunk: Irish _maith_ [mau], good: _go leor_, plenty: + 'purty well I thank you,' as the people often say: meaning almost the + same as Burns's 'I was na fou but just had plenty.' (Common in + Munster.) + + Mauleen; a little bag: usually applied in the South to the little sack + slung over the shoulder of a potato-planter, filled with the + _potato-sets_ (or _skillauns_), from which the setter takes them one by + one to plant them. In Ulster and Scotland, the word is _mailin_, which + is sometimes applied to a purse:--'A _mailin_ plenished (filled) + fairly.' (Burns.) + + Maum; the full of the two hands used together {293} (Kerry); the same + as _Lyre_ and _Gopan_, which see. Irish _Mam_, same sound and meaning. + + Mavourneen; my love. (Used all through Ireland.) Irish _Mo-mhuirnin_, + same sound and meaning. See Avourneen. + + May-day customs, 170. + + Mearacaun [mairacaun]; a thimble. Merely the Irish _mearacan_, same + sound and meaning: from _mear_, a finger, with the diminutive + termination _can_. Applied in the South to the fairy-thimble or + foxglove, with usually a qualifying word:--Mearacaun-shee (_shee_, a + fairy--fairy thimble) or Mearacaun-na-man-shee (where na-man-shee is + the Irish _na-mban-sidhe_, of the _banshees_ or fairy-women). + 'Lusmore,' another name, which see. + + Mearing; a well-marked boundary--but not necessarily a raised + _ditch_--a fence between two farms, or two fields, or two bogs. Old + English. + + Mease: a measure for small fish, especially herrings:--'The fisherman + brought in ten mease of herrings.' Used all round the Irish coast. It + is the Irish word _mias_ [meece], a dish. + + Mee-aw; a general name for the potato blight. Irish _mi-adh_ [mee-aw], + ill luck: from Irish _mi_, bad, and _adh_, luck. But _mee-aw_ is also + used to designate 'misfortune' in general. + + Meela-murder; 'a thousand murders': a general exclamation of surprise, + alarm, or regret. The first part is Irish--_mile_ [meela], a thousand; + the second is of course English. + + Meelcar' [_car_ long like the English word _car_]; also called + _meelcartan_; a red itchy sore on the sole of the foot just at the + edge. It is believed by the {294} people to be caused by a red little + flesh-worm, and hence the name _miol_ [meel], a worm, and _cearr_ + [car], an old Irish word for red:--Meel-car, 'red-worm.' (North and + South.) + + Meeraw; ill luck. (Munster.) From Irish _mi_, ill, and rath [raw], + luck:--'There was some _meeraw_ on the family. + + Melder of corn; the quantity sent to the mill and ground at one time. + (Ulster.) + + Memory of History and of Old Customs, 143. + + Merrow; a mermaid. Irish _murrughagh_ [murrooa], from _muir_, the sea. + She dives and travels under sea by means of a hood and cape called + _cohuleen-dru_: _cochall_, a hood and cape (with diminutive + termination); _druadh_, druidical: 'magical cape.' + + Midjilinn or middhilin; the thong of a flail. (Morris: South Monaghan.) + + Mihul or mehul [_i_ and _e_ short]; a number of men engaged in any + farm-work, especially corn-reaping, still used in the South and West. + It is the very old Irish word _meithel_, same sound and meaning. + + Mills. The old English game of 'nine men's morris' or 'nine men's + merrils' or _mills_ was practised in my native place when I was a boy. + We played it on a diagram of three squares one within another, + connected by certain straight lines, each player having nine counters. + It is mentioned by Shakespeare ('Midsummer-Night's Dream'). I learned + to be a good player, and could play it still if I could meet an + antagonist. How it reached Limerick I do not know. A few years ago I + saw two persons playing mills in a hotel in Llandudno; and my heart + went out to them. {295} + + Mind; often used in this way:--'Will you write that letter to-day?' + 'No: I won't mind it to-day: I'll write it to-morrow.' + + Minnikin; a very small pin. + + Minister; always applied in Ireland to a Protestant clergyman. + + Miscaun, mescaun, mescan, miscan; a roll or lump of butter. Irish + _mioscan_ [miscaun]. Used all over Ireland. + + Mitch; to play truant from school. + + Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, 155. + + Moanthaun; boggy land. Moantheen; a little bog. (Munster.) Both dims. + of Irish _moin_, a bog. + + Molly; a man who busies himself about women's affairs or does work that + properly belongs to women. (Leinster.) Same as _sheela_ in the South. + + Moneen; a little _moan_ or bog; a green spot in a bog where games are + played. Also a sort of jig dance-tune: so called because often danced + on a green _moneen_. (Munster.) + + Month's Mind; Mass and a general memorial service for the repose of the + soul of a person, celebrated a month after death. The term was in + common use in England until the change of religion at the Reformation; + and now it is not known even to English Roman Catholics. (Woollett.) It + is in constant use in Ireland, and I think among Irish Catholics + everywhere. But the practice is kept up by Catholics all over the + world. Mind, 'Memory.' + + Mootch: to move about slowly and meaninglessly: without intelligence. A + mootch is a slow stupid person. (South.) {296} + + Moretimes; often used as corresponding to _sometimes_: 'Sometimes she + employs herself at sewing, and moretimes at knitting.' + + Mor-yah; a derisive expression of dissent to drive home the + untruthfulness of some assertion or supposition or pretence, something + like the English 'forsooth,' but infinitely stronger:--A notorious + schemer and cheat puts on airs of piety in the chapel and thumps his + breast in great style; and a spectator says:--Oh how pious and holy Joe + is growing--_mar-yah_! 'Mick is a great patriot, mor-yah!--he'd sell + his country for half a crown.' Irish _mar-sheadh_ [same sound], 'as it + were.' + + Mossa; a sort of assertive particle used at the opening of a sentence, + like the English _well_, _indeed_: carrying little or no meaning. 'Do + you like your new house?'--'Mossa I don't like it much.' Another form + of _wisha_, and both anglicised from the Irish _ma'seadh_, used in + Irish in much the same sense. + + Mountain dew; a fanciful and sort of pet name for pottheen whiskey: + usually made in the _mountains_. + + Mounthagh, mounthaun; a toothless person. (Munster.) From the Irish + _mant_ [mounth], the gum, with the terminations. Both words are + equivalent to _gummy_, a person whose mouth is _all gums_. + + Moutre. In very old times a mill-owner commonly received as payment for + grinding corn one-tenth of the corn ground--in accordance with the + Brehon Law. This custom continued to recent times--and probably + continues still--in Ulster, {297} where the quantity given to the + miller is called _moutre_, or _muter_, or _mooter_. + + Mulharten; a flesh-worm: a form of meelcartan. See Meelcar. + + Mullaberta; arbitration. (Munster.) Merely the Irish _moladh-beirte_, + same sound and meaning: in which _moladh_ [mulla] is 'appraisement'; + and _beirt[)e]_, gen. of _beart_, 'two persons':--lit. 'appraisement of + two.' The word mullaberta has however in recent times drifted to mean a + loose unbusinesslike settlement. (Healy.) + + Mummers, 171. + + Murray, Mr. Patrick, schoolmaster of Kilfinane, 153, 154, and under + 'Roasters,' below. + + Murrogh O'Brien, Earl of Inchiquin, 165. + + Musicianer for musician is much in use all over Ireland. Of English + origin, and used by several old English writers, among others by + Collier. + + + + Nab; a knowing old-fashioned little fellow. (Derry.) + + Naboc'lesh; never mind. (North and South.) Irish _na-bac-leis_ (same + sound), 'do not stop to mind it,' or 'pass it over.' + + Nail, paying on the nail, 183. + + Naygur; a form of _niggard_: a wretched miser:-- + + 'I certainly thought my poor heart it would bleed + To be trudging behind that old naygur.' + + (Old Munster song; 'The Spalpeen's Complaint': + from 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.') + + 'In all my ranging and serenading, + I met no naygur but humpy Hyde.' + + (See 'Castlehyde' in my 'Old Irish Music and Songs.') + + {298} + + Nicely: often used in Ireland as shown here:-- 'Well, how is your + [sick] mother to-day?' 'Oh she's nicely,' or 'doing nicely, thank you'; + i.e. getting on very well--satisfactorily. A still stronger word is + _bravely_. 'She's doing bravely this morning'; i.e. extremely + well--better than was expected. + + Nim or nym; a small bit of anything. (Ulster.) + + Noggin; a small vessel, now understood to hold two glasses; also called + naggin. Irish _noigin_. + + Nose; to pay through the nose; to pay and be made to pay, against your + grain, the full sum without delay or mitigation. + + + + Oanshagh; a female fool, corresponding with omadaun, a male fool. Irish + _oinseach_, same sound and meaning: from _on_, a fool, and _seach_, the + feminine termination. + + Offer; an attempt:--'I made an offer to leap the fence but failed.' + + Old English, influence of, on our dialect, 6. + + Oliver's summons, 184. + + On or upon; in addition to its functions as explained at pp. 27, 28, it + is used to express obligation:-- 'Now I put it _upon_ you to give Bill + that message for me': one person meeting another on Christmas Day + says:--'My Christmas box _on_ you,' i.e. 'I put it as an obligation on + you to give me a Christmas box.' + + Once; often used in this manner:--'Once he promises he'll do it' + (Hayden and Hartog): 'Once you pay the money you are free,' i.e. _if_ + or _when_ you pay. + + O'Neills and their war-cry, 179. {299} + + Oshin [sounded nearly the same as the English word ocean]; a weakly + creature who cannot do his fair share of work. (Innishowen, Donegal.) + + Out; used, in speaking of time, in the sense of _down_ or + _subsequently_:--'His wife led him a mighty uneasy life from the day + they married _out_.' (Gerald Griffin: Munster.) 'You'll pay rent for + your house for the first seven years, and you will have it free from + that _out_.' + + Out; to call a person _out of his name_ is to call him by a wrong name. + + Out; 'be off out of that' means simply _go away_. + + Out; 'I am out with him' means I am not on terms with him--I have + fallen out with him. + + Overright; opposite, in front of: the same meaning as _forenenst_; but + _forenenst_ is English, while overright is a wrong translation from an + Irish word--_os-comhair_. _Os_ means over, and _comhair_ opposite: but + this last word was taken by speakers to be _coir_ (for both are sounded + alike), and as _coir_ means _right_ or just, so they translated + _os-comhair_ as if it were _os-coir_, 'over-right.' (Russell: Munster.) + + + + Paddhereen; a prayer: dim. of Latin _Pater_ (_Pater Noster_). + _Paddereen Paurtagh_, the Rosary: from Irish _pairteach_, sharing or + partaking: because usually several join in it. + + Paideoge [paudh-yoge]; a torch made of a wick dipped in melted rosin + (Munster): what they call a _slut_ in Ulster. + + Paghil or pahil; a lump or bundle, 108. (Ulster.) + + Palatines, 65. + + Palleen; a rag: a torn coat is 'all in _paleens_.' (Derry.) {300} + + Palm; the yew-tree, 184. + + Pampooty; a shoe made of untanned hide. (West.) + + Pandy; potatoes mashed up with milk and butter. (Munster.) + + Pannikin; now applied to a small tin drinking-vessel: an old English + word that has fallen out of use in England, but is still current in + Ireland: applied down to last century to a small earthenware pot used + for boiling food. These little vessels were made at Youghal and Ardmore + (Co. Waterford). The earthenware pannikins have disappeared, their + place being supplied by tinware. (Kinahan.) + + Parisheen; a foundling; one brought up in childhood by the _parish_. + (Kildare.) + + Parson; was formerly applied to a Catholic parish priest: but in + Ireland it now always means a Protestant minister. + + Parthan; a crab-fish. (Donegal.) Merely the Irish _partan_, same sound + and meaning. + + Parts; districts, territories:--'Prince and plinnypinnytinshary of + these parts' (King O'Toole and St. Kevin): 'Welcome to these parts.' + (Crofton Croker.) + + Past; 'I wouldn't put it _past_ him,' i.e. I think him bad or foolish + enough (to do it). + + Past; more than: 'Our landlord's face we rarely see past once in seven + years'--Irish Folk Song. + + Pattern (i.e. _patron_); a gathering at a holy well or other relic of a + saint on his or her festival day, to pray and perform _rounds_ and + other devotional acts in honour of the patron saint. (General.) + + Pattha; a pet, applied to a young person who is brought up over + tenderly and indulged too {301} much:--'What a _pattha_ you are!' This + is an extension of meaning; for the Irish _peata_ [pattha] means merely + a _pet_, nothing more. + + Pelt; the skin:--'He is in his pelt,' i.e. naked. + + Penal Laws, 144, and elsewhere through the book. + + Personable; comely, well-looking, handsome:--'Diarmid Bawn the piper, + as personable a looking man as any in the five parishes.' (Crofton + Croker: Munster.) + + Pickey; a round flat little stone used by children in playing _transe_ + or Scotch-hop. (Limerick.) + + Piggin; a wooden drinking-vessel. It is now called _pigin_ in Irish; + but it is of English origin. + + Pike; a pitchfork; commonly applied to one with two prongs. (Munster.) + + Pike or croppy-pike; the favourite weapon of the rebels of 1798: it was + fixed on a very long handle, and had combined in one head a long sharp + spear, a small axe, and a hook for catching the enemy's horse-reins. + + Pillibeen or pillibeen-meeg; a plover. (Munster.) 'I'm king of Munster + when I'm in the bog, and the _pillibeens_ whistling about me.' + ('Knocknagow.') Irish _pilibin-miog_, same sound and meaning. + + Pindy flour; flour that has begun to ferment slightly on account of + being kept in a warm moist place. Cakes made from it were uneatable as + they were soft and clammy and slightly sour. (Limerick.) + + Pinkeen; a little fish, a stickleback: plentiful in small streams. + Irish _pincin_, same sound and meaning. See Scaghler. + + Piper's invitation; 'He came on the piper's invitation,' i.e. + uninvited. (Cork.) A translation of {302} Irish _cuireadh-piobaire_ + [curra-peebara]. Pipers sometimes visited the houses of well-to-do + people and played--to the great delight of the boys and girls--and they + were sure to be well treated. But that custom is long since dead and + gone. + + Pishminnaan' [the _aa_ long as _a_ in _car_]; common wild peas. + (Munster.) They are much smaller--both plant and peas--than the + cultivated pea, whence the above anglicised name, which has the same + sound as the Irish _pise-mionnain_, 'kid's peas.' + + Pishmool; a pismire, an ant. (Ulster.) + + Pishoge, pisheroge, pishthroge; a charm, a spell, witchcraft:--'It is + reported that someone took Mrs. O'Brien's butter from her by + _pishoges_.' + + Place; very generally used for house, home, homestead:--'If ever you + come to Tipperary I shall be very glad to see you at _my place_.' This + is a usage of the Irish language; for the word _baile_ [bally], which + is now used for _home_, means also, and in an old sense, a place, a + spot, without any reference to home. + + Plaikeen; an old shawl, an old cloak, any old covering or wrap worn + round the shoulders. (South.) + + Plantation; a colony from England or Scotland settled down or _planted_ + in former times in a district in Ireland from which the rightful old + Irish owners were expelled, 7, 169, 170. + + Plaumause [to rhyme with _sauce_]; soft talk, plausible speech, + flattery--conveying the idea of insincerity. (South.) Irish _plamas_, + same sound and meaning. + + Plauzy; full of soft, flattering, _plausible_ talk. Hence {303} the + noun _plausoge_ [plauss-oge], a person who is plauzy. (South.) + + Plerauca; great fun and noisy revelry. Irish _plearaca_, same sound and + meaning. + + Pluddogh; dirty water. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irish _plod_ [pludh], a + pool of dirty water, with the termination _ach_. + + Pluvaun; a kind of soft weed that grows excessively on tilled moory + lands and chokes the crop. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Poll-talk; backbiting: from the _poll_ of the head: the idea being the + same as in _back_biting. + + Polthogue; a blow; a blow with the fist. Irish _palltog_, same sound + and meaning. + + Pooka; a sort of fairy: a mischievous and often malignant goblin that + generally appears in the form of a horse, but sometimes as a bull, a + buck-goat, &c. The great ambition of the pooka horse is to get some + unfortunate wight on his back; and then he gallops furiously through + bogs, marshes, and woods, over rocks, glens, and precipices; till at + last when the poor wretch on his back is nearly dead with terror and + fatigue, the pooka pitches him into some quagmire or pool or + briar-brake, leaving him to extricate himself as best he can. But the + goblin does not do worse: he does not kill people. Irish _puca_. + Shakespeare has immortalised him as Puck, the goblin of 'A + Midsummer-Night's Dream.' + + Pookapyle, also called Pookaun; a sort of large fungus, the toadstool. + Called also _causha pooka_. All these names imply that the Pooka has + something to do with this poisonous fungus. See Causha-pooka (pooka's + cheese). {304} + + Pookeen; a play--blindman's buff: from Irish _puic_, a veil or + covering, from the covering put over the eyes. Pookeen is also applied + in Cork to a cloth muzzle tied on calves or lambs to prevent sucking + the mother. The face-covering for blindman's buff is called _pookoge_, + in which the dim. _og_ is used instead of _in_ or _een_. The + old-fashioned _coal-scuttle_ bonnets of long ago that nearly covered + the face were often called _pookeen_ bonnets. It was of a bonnet of + this kind that the young man in Lover's song of 'Molly Carew' speaks:-- + + Oh, _lave_ off that bonnet or else I'll _lave_ on it + The loss of my wandering sowl:-- + + because it hid Molly's face from him. + + Poor mouth; making the poor mouth is trying to persuade people you are + very poor--making out or pretending that you are poor. + + Poor scholars, 151, 157. + + Poreens; very small potatoes--mere _crachauns_ (which see)--any small + things, such as marbles, &c. (South: _porrans_ in Ulster.) + + Porter-meal: oatmeal mixed with porter. Seventy or eighty years ago, + the carters who carried bags of oatmeal from Limerick to Cork (a + two-day journey) usually rested for the night at Mick Lynch's + public-house in Glenosheen. They often took lunch or dinner of + porter-meal in this way:--Opening the end of one of the bags, the man + made a hollow in the oatmeal into which he poured a quart of porter, + stirring it up with a spoon: then he ate an immense bellyful of the + mixture. But those fellows could digest like an ostrich. {305} + + In Ulster, oatmeal mixed in this manner with buttermilk, hot broth, + &c., and eaten with a spoon, is called _croudy_. + + Potthalowng; an awkward unfortunate mishap, not very serious, but + coming just at the wrong time. When I was a boy 'Jack Mullowney's + _potthalowng_' had passed into a proverb. Jack one time went + _courting_, that is, to spend a pleasant evening with the young lady at + the house of his prospective father-in-law, and to make up the match + with the old couple. He wore his best of course, body-coat, white + waistcoat, caroline hat (tall silk), and _ducks_ (ducks, snow-white + canvas trousers.) All sat down to a grand dinner given in his honour, + the young couple side by side. Jack's plate was heaped up with + beautiful bacon and turkey, and white cabbage swimming in fat, that + would make you lick your lips to look at it. Poor Jack was a bit + sheepish; for there was a good deal of banter, as there always is on + such occasions. He drew over his plate to the very edge of the table; + and in trying to manage a turkey bone with knife and fork, he turned + the plate right over into his lap, down on the ducks. + + The marriage came off all the same; but the story went round the + country like wildfire; and for many a long day Jack had to stand the + jokes of his friends on the _potthalowng_. Used in Munster. The Irish + is _patalong_, same sound and meaning; but I do not find it in the + dictionaries. + + Pottheen; illicit whiskey: always distilled in some remote lonely + place, as far away as possible from the nose of a gauger. It is the + Irish word _poitin_ {306} [pottheen], little pot. We have partly the + same term still; for everyone knows the celebrity of _pot_-still + whiskey: but this is _Parliament_ whiskey, not _pottheen_, see p. 174. + + Power; a large quantity, a great deal: Jack Hickey has a power of + money: there was a _power of cattle in the fair yesterday_: there's a + power of ivy on that old castle. Miss Grey, a small huckster who kept a + little vegetable shop, was one day showing off her rings and bracelets + to our servant. 'Oh Miss Grey,' says the girl, 'haven't you a terrible + lot of them.' 'Well Ellen, you see I want them all, for I go into _a + power of society_.' This is an old English usage as is shown by this + extract from Spenser's 'View':--'Hee also [Robert Bruce] sent over his + said brother Edward, with a power of Scottes and Red-Shankes into + Ireland.' There is a corresponding Irish expression (_neart airgid_, a + power of money), but I think this is translated from English rather + than the reverse. The same idiom exists in Latin with the word _vis_ + (power): but examples will not be quoted, as they would take up a power + of space. + + Powter [_t_ sounded like _th_ in _pith_]; to root the ground like a + pig; to root up potatoes from the ground with the hands. (Derry.) + + Prashagh, more commonly called prashagh-wee; wild cabbage with yellow + blossoms, the rape plant. Irish _praiseach-bhuidhe_ [prashagh-wee], + yellow cabbage. _Praiseach_ is borrowed from Latin _brassica_. + + Prashameen; a little group all clustered together:--'The children sat + in a prashameen on the floor.' I have heard this word a hundred times + in Limerick {307} among English speakers: its Irish form should be + _praisimin_, but I do not find it in the dictionaries. + + Prashkeen; an apron. Common all over Ireland. Irish _praiscin_, same + sound and meaning. + + Prawkeen; raw oatmeal and milk (MacCall: South Leinster.) See + Porter-meal. + + Prepositions, incorrect use of, 26, 32, 44. + + Presently; at present, now:--'I'm living in the country presently.' A + Shakespearian survival:--Prospero:--'Go bring the rabble.' + Ariel:--'Presently?' [i.e. shall I do so now?] Prospero:--'Ay, with a + wink.' Extinct in England, but preserved and quite common in Ireland. + + Priested; ordained: 'He was priested last year.' + + Priest's share; the soul. A mother will say to a refractory + child:--'I'll knock the priest's share out of you.' (Moran: Carlow.) + + Professions hereditary, 172. + + Pronunciation, 2, 91 to 104. + + Protestant herring: Originally applied to a bad or a stale herring: but + in my boyhood days it was applied, in our neighbourhood, to almost + anything of an inferior quality:--'Oh that butter is a Protestant + herring.' Here is how it originated:--Mary Hewer of our village had + been for time out of mind the only huckster who sold salt herrings, + sending to Cork for a barrel from time to time, and making good profit. + At last Poll Alltimes sent for a barrel and set up an opposition shop, + taking away a large part of Mary's custom. Mary was a Catholic and Poll + a Protestant: and then our herrings became sharply distinguished as + Catholic herrings and Protestant herrings: each party eating herrings + {308} of their own creed. But after some time a horrible story began to + go round--whispered at first under people's breath--that Poll found + _the head of a black_ with long hair packed among the herrings half way + down in her barrel. Whether the people believed it or not, the bare + idea was enough; and Protestant herrings suddenly lost character, so + that poor Poll's sale fell off at once, while Mary soon regained all + her old customers. She well deserved it, if anyone ever deserved a + reward for a master-stroke of genius. But I think this is all + 'forgotten lore' in the neighbourhood now. + + Proverbs, 105. + + Puck; to play the puck with anything: a softened equivalent of _playing + the devil_. _Puck_ here means the Pooka, which see. + + Puck; a blow:--'He gave him a puck of a stick on the head.' More + commonly applied to a punch or blow of the horns of a cow or goat. 'The + cow gave him a puck (or pucked him) with her horns and knocked him + down.' The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his _caman_ or + hurley is always called a _puck_. Irish _poc_, same sound and meaning. + + Puckaun; a he-goat. (South.) Irish _poc_, a he-goat, with the + diminutive. + + Puke; a poor puny unhealthy-looking person. + + Pulling a cord (or _the cord_); said of a young man and a young woman + who are courting:--'Miss Anne and himself that's pulling the cord.' + ('Knocknagow.') + + Pulloge; a quantity of hidden apples: usually hidden by a boy who + steals them. (Limerick.) Diminutive of the Irish _poll_, a hole. {309} + + Pusheen; the universal word for a kitten in Munster: a diminutive of + the English word _puss_; exactly equivalent to _pussy_. + + Puss [_u_ sounded as in _full_]; the mouth and lips, always used _in + dialect_ in an offensive or contemptuous sense:--'What an ugly _puss_ + that fellow has.' 'He had a puss on him,' i.e. he looked sour or + displeased--with lips contracted. I heard one boy say to + another:--'I'll give you a _skelp_ (blow) on the puss.' (General.) + Irish _pus_, the mouth, same sound. + + Pusthaghaun; a puffed up conceited fellow. The corresponding word + applied to a girl is _pusthoge_ (MacCall: Wexford): the diminutive + termination _aun_ or _chaun_ being masculine and _og_ feminine. Both + are from _pus_ the mouth, on account of the consequential way a + conceited person squares up the lips. + + + + Quaw or quagh; a _quag_ or quagmire:--'I was unwilling to attempt the + _quagh_.' (Maxwell: 'Wild Sports': Mayo, but used all over Ireland.) + Irish _caedh_ [quay], for which and for the names derived from it, see + 'Irish Names of Places': II. 396. + + Quality; gentlemen and gentlewomen as distinguished from the common + people. Out of use in England, but general in Ireland:--'Make room for + the quality.' + + Queer, generally pronounced _quare_; used as an intensive in + Ulster:--This day is quare and hot (very hot); he is quare and sick + (very sick): like _fine and fat_ elsewhere (see p. 89). + + Quin or quing; the swing-tree, a piece of wood used {310} to keep the + chains apart in ploughing to prevent them rubbing the horses. (Cork and + Kerry.) Irish _cuing_ [quing], a yoke. + + Quit: in Ulster 'quit that' means _cease from that_:--'quit your + crying.' In Queen's County they say _rise out of that_. + + + + Rabble; used in Ulster to denote a fair where workmen congregate on the + hiring day to be hired by the surrounding farmers. See Spalpeen. + + Rack. In Munster an ordinary comb is called a _rack_: the word _comb_ + being always applied and confined to a small close fine-toothed one. + + Rackrent; an excessive rent of a farm, so high as to allow to the + occupier a bare and poor subsistence. Not used outside Ireland except + so far as it has been recently brought into prominence by the Irish + land question. + + Rag on every bush; a young man who is caught by and courts many girls + but never proposes. + + Raghery; a kind of small-sized horse; a name given to it from its + original home, the island of Rathlin or Raghery off Antrim. + + Rake; to cover up with ashes the live coals of a turf fire, which will + keep them alive till morning:--'Don't forget to rake the fire.' + + Randy; a scold. (Kinahan: general.) + + Rap; a bad halfpenny: a bad coin:--'He hasn't a rap in his pocket.' + + Raumaush or raumaish; _romance_ or fiction, but now commonly applied to + foolish senseless brainless talk. Irish _ramas_ or _ramais_, which is + merely adapted from the word _romance_. {311} + + Raven's bit; a beast that is going to die. (Kinahan.) + + Rawney; a delicate person looking in poor health; a poor sickly-looking + animal. (Connaught.) Irish _ranaidhe_, same sound and meaning. + + Reansha; brown bread: sometimes corrupted to _range_-bread. (MacCall: + Wexford.) + + Red or redd; clear, clear out, clear away:--Redd the road, the same as + the Irish _Fag-a-ballagh_, 'clear the way.' If a girl's hair is in bad + tangles, she uses a _redding-comb_ first to open it, and then a finer + comb. + + Redden; to light: 'Take the bellows and redden the fire.' An Irishman + hardly ever _lights_ his pipe: he _reddens_ it. + + Redundancy, 52, 130. + + Ree; as applied to a horse means restive, wild, almost unmanageable. + + Reek; a rick:--A reek of turf: so the Kerry mountains, 'MacGillicuddy's + Reeks.' + + Reel-foot; a club-foot, a deformed foot. (Ulster.) 'Reel-footed and + hunch-backed forbye, sir.' (Old Ulster song.) + + Reenaw'lee; a slow-going fellow who dawdles and delays and hesitates + about things. (Munster.) Irish _rianalaidhe_, same sound and meaning: + from _rian_, a way, track, or road: _rianalaidhe_ , a person who + wanders listlessly along the _way_. + + Reign. This word is often used in Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, in + the sense of to occupy, to be master of: 'Who is in the Knockea farm?' + 'Mr. Keating reigns there now.' 'Who is your landlord?' 'The old master + is dead and his son Mr. William reigns over us now.' 'Long may {312} + your honour [the master] reign over us.' (Crofton Croker.) In answer to + an examination question, a young fellow from Cork once answered me, + 'Shakespeare reigned in the sixteenth century.' This usage is borrowed + from Irish, in which the verb _riaghail_ [ree-al] means both to rule + (as a master), and to reign (as a king), and as in many other similar + cases the two meanings were confounded in English. (Kinahan and + myself.) + + Relics of old decency. When a man goes down in the world he often + preserves some memorials of his former rank--a ring, silver buckles in + his shoes, &c.--'the relics of old decency.' + + Revelagh; a long lazy gadding fellow. (Morris: Monaghan.) + + Rib; a single hair from the head. A poet, praising a young lady, says + that 'every golden _rib_ of her hair is worth five guineas.' Irish + _ruibe_ [ribbe], same meaning. + + Rickle; a little heap of turf peats standing on ends against each + other. (Derry.) Irish _ricil_, same sound and meaning. + + Riddles, 185. + + Ride and tie. Two persons set out on a journey having one horse. One + rides on while the other sets out on foot after him. The first man, at + the end of a mile or two, ties up the horse at the roadside and + proceeds on foot. When the second comes to the horse he mounts and + rides till he is one or two miles ahead of his comrade and then ties. + And so to the end of the journey. A common practice in old times for + courier purposes; but not in use now, I think. {313} + + Rife, a scythe-sharpener, a narrow piece of board punctured all over + and covered with grease on which fine sand is sprinkled. Used before + the present emery sharpener was known. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish _riabh_ + [reev], a long narrow stripe. + + Right or wrong: often heard for _earnestly_: 'he pressed me right or + wrong to go home with him.' + + Ringle-eyed; when the iris is light-coloured, and the circle bounding + it is very marked, the person is _ringle-eyed_. (Derry.) + + Rings; often used as follows:--'Did I sleep at all?' 'Oh indeed you + did--you _slept rings round you_.' + + Rip; a coarse ill-conditioned woman with a bad tongue. (General.) + + Roach lime; lime just taken from the kiln, burnt, _before_ being slaked + and while still in the form of stones. This is old English from French + _roche_, a rock, a stone. + + Roasters; potatoes kept crisping on the coals to be brought up to table + hot at the end of the dinner--usually the largest ones picked out. But + the word _roaster_ was used only among the lower class of people: the + higher classes considered it vulgar. Here is how Mr. Patrick Murray + (see p. 154) describes them about 1840 in a parody on Moore's 'One + bumper at parting' (a _lumper_, in Mr. Murray's version, means a big + potato):-- + + 'One _lumper_ at parting, though many + Have rolled on the board since we met, + The biggest the hottest of any + Remains in the round for us yet.' + + In the higher class of houses they were peeled and brought up at the + end nice and brown in {314} a dish. About eighty years ago a well-known + military gentleman of Baltinglass in the County Wicklow--whose daughter + told me the story--had on one occasion a large party of friends to + dinner. On the very day of the dinner the waiter took ill, and the + stable boy--a big coarse fellow--had to be called in, after elaborate + instructions. All went well till near the end of the dinner, when the + fellow thought things were going on rather slowly. Opening the + diningroom door he thrust in his head and called out in the hearing of + all:--'Masther, are ye ready for the _roasthers_?' A short time ago I + was looking at the house and diningroom where that occurred. + + Rocket; a little girl's frock. (Very common in Limerick.) It is of + course an old application of the English-French _rochet_. + + Rodden; a _bohereen_ or narrow road. (Ulster.) It is the Irish + _roidin_, little road. + + Roman; used by the people in many parts of Ireland for _Roman + Catholic_. I have already quoted what the Catholic girl said to her + Protestant lover:--'Unless that you turn a _Roman_ you ne'er shall get + me for your bride.' Sixty or seventy years ago controversial + discussions--between a Catholic on the one hand and a Protestant on the + other--were very common. I witnessed many when I was a boy--to my great + delight. Garrett Barry, a Roman Catholic, locally noted as a + controversialist, was arguing with Mick Cantlon, surrounded by a group + of delighted listeners. At last Garrett, as a final clincher, took up + the Bible, opened it at a certain place, and handed it to his opponent, + {315} with:--'Read that heading out for us now if you please.' Mick + took it up and read 'St. Paul's Epistle to the _Romans_.' 'Very well,' + says Garrett: 'now can you show me in any part of that Bible, 'St. + Paul's Epistle to the _Protestants_'? This of course was a down blow; + and Garrett was greeted with a great hurrah by the Catholic part of his + audience. This story is in 'Knocknagow,' but the thing occurred in my + neighbourhood, and I heard about it long before 'Knocknagow' was + written. + + Rookaun; great noisy merriment. Also a drinking-bout. (Limerick.) + + Room. In a peasant's house the _room_ is a special apartment distinct + from the kitchen or living-room, which is not a 'room' in this sense at + all. I slept in the kitchen and John slept in the 'room.' (Healy and + myself: Munster.) + + Round coal; coal in lumps as distinguished from slack or coal broken up + small and fine. + + Ruction, ructions; fighting, squabbling, a fight, a row. It is a memory + of the _Insurrection_ of 1798, which was commonly called the 'Ruction.' + + Rue-rub; when a person incautiously scratches an itchy spot so as to + break the skin: that is _rue-rub_. (Derry.) From _rue_, regret or + sorrow. + + Rury; a rough hastily-made cake or bannock. (Morris: Monaghan.) + + Rut; the smallest bonnive in a litter. (Kildare and Carlow.) + + + + Saluting, salutations, 14. + + Sapples; soap suds: _sapple_, to wash in suds. (Derry.) {316} + + Saulavotcheer; a person having _lark-heels_. (Limerick.) The first + syll. is Irish; _sal_ [saul], heel. + + Sauvaun; a rest, a light doze or nap. (Munster.) Irish _samhan_, same + sound and meaning, from _samh_ [sauv], pleasant and tranquil. + + Scagh; a whitethorn bush. (General.) Irish _sceach_, same sound and + meaning. + + Scaghler: a little fish--the pinkeen or thornback: Irish _sceach_ + [scagh], a thorn or thornbush, and the English termination _ler_. + + Scald: to be _scalded_ is to be annoyed, mortified, sorely troubled, + vexed. (Very general.) Translated from one or the other of two Irish + words, _loisc_ [lusk], to burn; and _scall_, to _scald_. Finn Bane + says:--'Guary being angry with me he scorched me (_romloisc_), burned + me, _scalded_ me, with abuse.' ('Colloquy.') 'I earned that money hard + and 'tis a great _heart-scald_ (_scollach-croidhe_) to me to lose it.' + There is an Irish air called 'The _Scalded_ poor man.' ('Old Irish + Music and Songs.') + + Scalder, an unfledged bird (South): _scaldie_ and _scaulthoge_ in the + North. From the Irish _scal_ (bald), from which comes the Irish + _scalachan_, an unfledged bird. + + Scallan; a wooden shed to shelter the priest during Mass, 143, 145. + + Scalp, scolp, scalpeen; a rude cabin, usually roofed with _scalps_ or + grassy sods (whence the name). In the famine times--1847 and after--a + scalp was often erected for any poor wanderer who got stricken down + with typhus fever: and in that the people tended him cautiously till he + recovered or died. (Munster.) Irish _scailp_ [scolp]. {317} + + Scalteen: see Scolsheen. + + Scollagh-cree; ill-treatment of any kind. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish + _scallach-croidhe_, same sound and meaning: a 'heart scald'; from + _scalladh_, scalding, and _croidhe_, heart. + + Scollop; the bended rod pointed at both ends that a thatcher uses to + fasten down the several straw-wisps. (General.) Irish _scolb_ + [scollub]. + + Scolsheen or scalteen; made by boiling a mixture of whiskey, water, + sugar, butter and pepper (or caraway seeds) in a pot: a sovereign cure + for a cold. In the old mail-car days there was an inn on the road from + Killarney to Mallow, famous for scolsheen, where a big pot of it was + always kept ready for travellers. (Kinahan and Kane.) Sometimes the + word _scalteen_ was applied to unmixed whiskey burned, and used for the + same purpose. From the Irish _scall_, burn, singe, _scald_. + + Sconce; to chaff, banter, make game of:--'None of your sconcing.' + (Ulster.) + + Sconce; to shirk work or duty. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Scotch Dialect: influence of, on our Dialect, 6, 7. + + Scotch lick; when a person goes to clean up anything--a saucepan, a + floor, his face, a pair of shoes, &c.--and only half does it, he (or + she) has given it a _Scotch lick_. General in South. In Dublin it would + be called a 'cat's lick': for a cat has only a small tongue and doesn't + do much in the way of licking. + + Scout; a reproachful name for a bold forward girl. + + Scouther; to burn a cake on the outside before it is fully cooked, by + over haste in baking:--burned outside, half raw inside. Hence 'to + scouther' {318} means to do anything hastily and incompletely. + (Ulster.) + + Scrab; to scratch:--'The cat near scrabbed his eyes out.' (Patterson: + Ulster.) In the South it is _scraub_:--'He scraubed my face.' + + Scrab; to gather the stray potatoes left after the regular crop, when + they are afterwards turned out by plough or spade. + + Scraddhin; a scrap; anything small--smaller than usual, as a small + potato: applied contemptuously to a very small man, exactly the same as + the Southern _sprissaun_. Irish _scraidin_, same sound and meaning. + (East Ulster.) + + Scran; 'bad scran to you,' an evil wish like 'bad luck to you,' but + much milder: English, in which _scran_ means broken victuals, + food-refuse, fare--very common. (North and South.) + + Scraw; a grassy sod cut from a grassy or boggy surface and often dried + for firing; also called _scrahoge_ (with diminutive _og_). Irish + _scrath_, _scrathog_, same sounds and meaning. + + Screenge; to search for. (Donegal and Derry.) + + Scunder or Scunner; a dislike; to take a dislike or disgust against + anything. (Armagh.) + + Scut; the tail of a hare or rabbit: often applied in scorn to a + contemptible fellow:--'He's just a scut and nothing better.' The word + is Irish, as is shown by the following quotation:--'The billows [were] + conversing with the _scuds_ (sterns) and the beautiful prows [of the + ships].' (Battle of Moylena: and note by Kuno Meyer in 'Rev. Celt.') + (General.) + + Seeshtheen; a low round seat made of twisted straw. {319} (Munster.) + Irish _suidhistin_, same sound and meaning: from _suidhe_ [see], to + sit, with diminutive. + + Set: all over Ireland they use _set_ instead of _let_ [a house or + lodging]. A struggling housekeeper failed to let her lodging, which a + neighbour explained by:--'Ah she's no good at _setting_.' + + Set; used in a bad sense, like _gang_ and _crew_:--'They're a dirty + set.' + + Settle bed; a folding-up bed kept in the kitchen: when folded up it is + like a sofa and used as a seat. (All over Ireland.) + + Seven'dable [accent on _ven_], very great, _mighty great_ as they would + say:--'Jack gave him a _sevendable_ thrashing.' (North.) + + Shaap [the _aa_ long as in _car_]; a husk of corn, a pod. (Derry.) + + Shamrock or Shamroge; the white trefoil (_Trifolium repens_). The Irish + name is _seamar_ [shammer], which with the diminutive makes _seamar-og_ + [shammer-oge], shortened to _shamrock_. + + Shanachus, shortened to _shanagh_ in Ulster, a friendly conversation. + 'Grandfather would like to have a shanahus with you.' ('Knocknagow.') + Irish _seanchus_, antiquity, history, an old story. + + Shandradan' [accented strongly on _-dan_]; an old rickety rattle-trap + of a car. The first syllable is Irish _sean_ [shan], old. + + Shanty: a mean hastily put up little house. (General.) Probably from + Irish _sean_, old, and _tigh_ [tee], a house. + + Shaugh; a turn or smoke of a pipe. (General.) Irish _seach_, same sound + and meaning. {320} + + Shaughraun; wandering about: to be _on the shaughraun_ is to be out of + employment and wandering idly about looking for work. Irish _seachran_, + same sound and meaning. + + Shebeen or sheebeen; an unlicensed public-house or alehouse where + spirits are sold on the sly. (Used all over Ireland.) Irish _sibin_, + same sound and meaning. + + Shee; a fairy, fairies; also meaning the place where fairies live, + usually a round green little hill or elf-mound having a glorious palace + underneath: Irish _sidhe_, same sound and meanings. _Shee_ often takes + the diminutive form--_sheeoge_. + + Shee-geeha; the little whirl of dust you often see moving along the + road on a calm dusty day: this is a band of fairies travelling from one + _lis_ or elf-mound to another, and you had better turn aside and avoid + it. Irish _sidhe-gaoithe_, same sound and meaning, where _gaoithe_ is + wind: 'wind-fairies': called 'fairy-blast' in Kildare. + + Sheehy, Rev. Father, of Kilfinane, 147. + + Sheela; a female Christian name (as in 'Sheela Ni Gyra'). Used in the + South as a reproachful name for a boy or a man inclined to do work or + interest himself in affairs properly belonging to women. See 'Molly.' + + Sheep's eyes: when a young man looks fondly and coaxingly on his + sweetheart he is 'throwing sheep's eyes' at her. + + Sherral; an offensive term for a mean unprincipled fellow. (Moran: + South Mon.) + + Sheugh or Shough; a deep cutting, elsewhere called a ditch, often + filled with water. (Seumas MacManus: N.W. Ulster.) {321} + + Shillelah; a handstick of oak, an oaken cudgel for fighting. (Common + all over Ireland.) From a district in Wicklow called Shillelah, + formerly noted for its oak woods, in which grand shillelahs were + plentiful. + + Shingerleens [shing-erleens]; small bits of finery; ornamental tags and + ends--of ribbons, bow-knots, tassels, &c.--hanging on dress, curtains, + furniture, &c. (Munster.) + + Shire; to pour or drain off water or any liquid, quietly and without + disturbing the solid parts remaining behind, such as draining off the + whey-like liquid from buttermilk. + + Shlamaan' [_aa_ like _a_ in _car_]; a handful of straw, leeks, &c. + (Morris: South Monaghan.) + + Shoggle; to shake or jolt. (Derry.) + + Shoneen; a _gentleman_ in a small way: a would-be gentleman who puts on + superior airs. Always used contemptuously. + + Shook; in a bad way, done up, undone:--'I'm shook by the loss of that + money': 'he was shook for a pair of shoes.' + + Shooler; a wanderer, a stroller, a vagrant, a tramp, a rover: often + means a mendicant. (Middle and South of Ireland.) From the Irish + _siubhal_ [shool], to walk, with the English termination _er_: lit. + 'walker.' + + Shoonaun; a deep circular basket, made of twisted rushes or straw, and + lined with calico; it had a cover and was used for holding linen, + clothes, &c. (Limerick and Cork.) From Irish _sibhinn_ [shiven], a + rush, a bulrush: of which the diminutive _siubhnan_ [shoonaun] is our + word: signifying {322} 'made of rushes.' Many a shoonaun I saw in my + day; and I remember meeting a man who was a shoonaun maker by trade. + + Short castle or short castles; a game played by two persons on a square + usually drawn on a slate with the two diagonals: each player having + three counters. See Mills. + + Shore; the brittle woody part separated in bits and dust from the fibre + of flax by scutching or _cloving_. Called _shores_ in Monaghan. + + Shraff, shraft; Shrovetide: on and about Shrove Tuesday:--'I bought + that cow last shraff.' + + Shraums, singular shraum; the matter that collects about the eyes of + people who have tender eyes: matter running from sore eyes. (Moran: + Carlow.) Irish _sream_ [sraum]. Same meaning. + + Shrule; to rinse an article of clothing by pulling it backwards and + forwards in a stream. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish _sruil_, a stream. + + Shrough; a rough wet place; an incorrect anglicised form of Irish + _srath_, a wet place, a marsh. + + Shuggy-shoo; the play of see-saw. (Ulster.) + + Shurauns; any plants with large leaves, such as hemlock, wild parsnip, + &c. (Kinahan: Wicklow.) + + Sighth (for sight); a great number, a large quantity. (General.) 'Oh + Mrs. Morony haven't you a _sighth_ of turkeys': 'Tom Cassidy has a + sighth of money.' This is old English. Thus in a Quaker's diary of + 1752:--'There was a great sight of people passed through the streets of + Limerick.' This expression is I think still heard in England, and is + very much in use in America. Very general in Ireland. {323} + + Sign; a very small quantity--a trace. Used all over Ireland in this + way:--'My gardens are _every sign_ as good as yours': 'he had no sign + of drink on him': 'there's no sign of sugar in my tea' (Hayden and + Hartog): 'look out to see if Bill is coming': 'no--there's no sign of + him.' This is a translation from the Irish _rian_, for which see next + entry. + + Sign's on, sign is on, sign's on it; used to express the result or + effect or proof of any proceeding:--'Tom Kelly never sends his children + to school, and sign's on (or sign's on it) they are growing up like + savages': 'Dick understands the management of fruit trees well, and + sign's on, he is making lots of money by them.' This is a translation + from Irish, in which _rian_ means _track_, _trace_, _sign_: and 'sign's + on it' is _ta a rian air_ ('its sign is on it'). + + Silenced; a priest is silenced when he is suspended from his priestly + functions by his ecclesiastical superiors: 'unfrocked.' + + Singlings; the weak pottheen whiskey that comes off at the first + distillation: agreeable to drink but terribly sickening. Also called + 'First shot.' + + Sippy; a ball of rolled _sugans_ (i.e. hay or straw ropes), used + instead of a real ball in hurling or football. (Limerick.) Irish + _suipigh_, same sound and meaning. A diminutive of _sop_, a wisp. + + Skeeagh [2-syll.]; a shallow osier basket, usually for potatoes. + (South.) + + Skeedeen; a trifle, anything small of its kind; a small potato. (Derry + and Donegal.) Irish _scidin_, same sound and meaning. {324} + + Skellig, Skellig List--On the Great Skellig rock in the Atlantic, off + the coast of Kerry, are the ruins of a monastery, to which people at + one time went on pilgrimage--and a difficult pilgrimage it was. The + tradition is still kept up in some places, though in an odd form; in + connection with the custom that marriages are not solemnised in Lent, + i.e. after Shrove Tuesday. It is well within my memory that--in the + south of Ireland--young persons who should have been married before + Ash-Wednesday, but were not, were supposed to set out on pilgrimage to + Skellig on Shrove Tuesday night: but it was all a make-believe. Yet I + remember witnessing occasionally some play in mock imitation of the + pilgrimage. It was usual for a local bard to compose what was called a + 'Skellig List'--a jocose rhyming catalogue of the unmarried men and + women of the neighbourhood who went on the sorrowful journey--which was + circulated on Shrove Tuesday and for some time after. Some of these + were witty and amusing: but occasionally they were scurrilous and + offensive doggerel. They were generally too long for singing; but I + remember one--a good one too--which--when I was very young--I heard + sung to a spirited air. It is represented here by a single verse, the + only one I remember. (See also 'Chalk Sunday,' p. 234, above.) + + As young Rory and Moreen were talking, + How Shrove Tuesday was just drawing near; + For the tenth time he asked her to marry; + But says she:--'Time enough till next year. + {325} + Then ochone I'm going to Skellig: + O Moreen, what will I do? + 'Tis the woeful road to travel; + And how lonesome I'll be without you!'[8] + + Here is a verse from another:-- + + Poor Andy Callaghan with doleful nose + Came up and told his tale of many woes:-- + Some lucky thief from him his sweetheart stole, + Which left a weight of grief upon his soul: + With flowing tears he sat upon the grass, + And roared sonorous like a braying ass. + + Skelly; to aim askew and miss the mark; to squint. (Patterson: all over + Ulster.) + + Skelp; a blow, to give a blow or blows; a piece cut off:--'Tom gave Pat + a skelp': 'I cut off a skelp of the board with a hatchet.' To run + fast:--'There's Joe skelping off to school.' + + Skib; a flat basket:--'We found the people collected round a skibb of + potatoes.' ('Wild Sports of the West.') + + Skidder, skiddher; broken thick milk, stale and sour. (Munster.) + + Skillaun. The piece cut out of a potato to be used as seed, containing + one germinating _eye_, from which the young stalk grows. Several + skillauns will be cut from one potato; and the irregular part left is a + _skilloge_ (Cork and Kerry), or a _creelacaun_ (Limerick). Irish + _sciollan_, same sound and meaning. + + Skit; to laugh and giggle in a silly way:--'I'll be {326} bail they + didn't skit and laugh.' (Crofton Croker.) 'Skit and laugh,' very common + in South. + + Skite; a silly frivolous light-headed person. Hence Blatherumskite + (South), or (in Ulster), bletherumskite. + + Skree; a large number of small things, as a skree of potatoes, a skree + of chickens, &c. (Morris: South Monaghan.) + + Skull-cure for a bad toothache. Go to the nearest churchyard alone by + night, to the corner where human bones are usually heaped up, from + which take and bring away a skull. Fill the skull with water, and take + a drink from it: that will cure your toothache. + + Sky farmer; a term much used in the South with several shades of + meaning: but the idea underlying all is a farmer without land, or with + only very little--having broken down since the time when he had a big + farm--who often keeps a cow or two grazing along the roadsides. Many of + these struggling men acted as intermediaries between the big corn + merchants and the large farmers in the sale of corn, and got thereby a + percentage from the buyers. A 'sky farmer' has his farm _in the sky_. + + Slaan [_aa_ long as the _a_ in _car_]; a sort of very sharp spade, used + in cutting turf or peat. Universal in the South. + + Slack-jaw; impudent talk, continuous impertinences:--'I'll have none of + your slack-jaw.' + + Slang; a narrow strip of land along a stream, not suited to + cultivation, but grazed. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Sleeveen; a smooth-tongued, sweet-mannered, sly, {327} guileful fellow. + Universal all over the South and Middle. Irish _slighbhin_, same sound + and meaning; from _sligh_, a way: _binn_, sweet, melodious: 'a + _sweet-mannered_ fellow.' + + Slewder, sluder [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _smooth_]; a wheedling + coaxing fellow: as a verb, to wheedle. Irish _sligheadoir_ [sleedore], + same meaning. + + Sliggin; a thin flat little stone. (Limerick.) Irish. Primary meaning + _a shell_. + + Sling-trot; when a person or an animal is going along [not walking but] + trotting or running along at a leisurely pace. (South.) + + Slinge [slinj]; to walk along slowly and lazily. In some places, + playing truant from school. (South.) + + Slip; a young girl. A young pig, older than a _bonnive_, running about + almost independent of its mother. (General.) + + Slipe; a rude sort of cart or sledge without wheels used for dragging + stones from a field. (Ulster.) + + Slitther; a kind of thick soft leather: also a ball covered with that + leather, for hurling. (Limerick.) + + Sliver; a piece of anything broken or cut off, especially cut off + longitudinally. An old English word, obsolete in England, but still + quite common in Munster. + + Slob; a soft fat quiet simple-minded girl or boy:--'Your little Nellie + is a quiet poor slob': used as a term of endearment. + + Sloke, sloak, sluke, sloukaun; a sea plant of the family of _laver_ + found growing on rocks round the coast, which is esteemed a table + delicacy--dark-coloured, almost black; often pickled and eaten with + pepper, vinegar, &c. Seen in all the Dublin {328} fish shops. The name, + which is now known all over the Three Kingdoms, is anglicised from + Irish _sleabhac_, _sleabhacan_ [slouk, sloukaun]. + + Slug; a drink: as a verb, to drink:--'Here take a little slug from this + and 'twill do you good.' Irish _slog_ to swallow by drinking. + (General.) Whence _slugga_ and _sluggera_, a cavity in a river-bed into + which the water is _slugged_ or swallowed. + + Slugabed; a sluggard. (General in Limerick.) Old English, obsolete in + England:--'Fie, you slug-a-bed.' ('Romeo and Juliet.') + + Slush; to work and toil like a slave: a woman who toils hard. + (General.) + + Slut; a torch made by dipping a long wick in resin. (Armagh.) Called a + _paudheoge_ in Munster. + + Smaadher [_aa_ like _a_ in _car_]; to break in pieces. Jim Foley was on + a _pooka's_ back on the top of an old castle, and he was afraid he'd + 'tumble down and be _smathered_ to a thousand pieces.' (Ir. Mag.) + + Smalkera; a rude home-made wooden spoon. + + Small-clothes; kneebreeches. (Limerick.) So called to avoid the plain + term _breeches_, as we now often say _inexpressibles_. + + Small farmer; has a small farm with small stock of cattle: a struggling + man as distinguished from a 'strong' farmer. + + Smeg, smeggeen, smiggin; a tuft of hair on the chin. (General.) Merely + the Irish _smeig_, _smeigin_; same sounds and meaning. + + Smithereens; broken fragments after a smash, 4. + + Smullock [to rhyme with _bullock_]; a fillip of the finger. (Limerick.) + Irish _smallog_, same meaning. {329} + + Smur, smoor, fine thick mist. (North.) Irish _smur_, mist. + + Smush [to rhyme with _bush_]: anything reduced to fine small fragments, + like straw or hay, dry peat-mould in dust, &c. + + Smush, used contemptuously for the mouth, a hairy mouth:--'I don't like + your ugly _smush_.' + + Snachta-shaidhaun: dry powdery snow blown about by the wind. Irish + _sneachta_, snow, and _seidean_, a breeze. (South.) + + Snaggle-tooth; a person with some teeth gone so as to leave gaps. + + Snap-apple; a play with apples on Hallow-eve, where big apples are + placed in difficult positions and are to be caught by the teeth of the + persons playing. Hence Hallow-Eve is often called 'Snap-apple night.' + + Snauvaun; to move about slowly and lazily. From Irish _snamh_ [snauv], + to swim, with the diminutive:--Moving slowly like a person swimming. + + Sned; to clip off, to cut away, like the leaves and roots of a turnip. + Sned also means the handle of a scythe. + + Snig; to cut or clip with a knife:--'The shoots of that apple-tree are + growing out too long: I must snig off the tops of them.' + + Snish; neatness in clothes. (Morris: Carlow.) + + Snoboge; a rosin torch. (Moran: Carlow.) Same as _slut_ and + _paudheoge_. + + Snoke; to scent or snuff about like a dog. (Derry.) + + So. This has some special dialectical senses among us. It is used for + _if_:--'I will pay you well _so_ you do the work to my liking.' This is + old English:--'I am content _so_ thou wilt have it so.' {330} ('Rom. + and Jul.') It is used as a sort of emphatic expletive carrying accent + or emphasis:--'Will you keep that farm?' 'I will _so_,' i.e. 'I will + for certain.' 'Take care and don't break them' (the dishes): 'I won't + _so_.' ('Collegians.') It is used in the sense of 'in that case':--'I + am not going to town to-day'; 'Oh well I will not go, _so_'--i.e. 'as + you are not going.' + + Sock; the tubular or half-tubular part of a spade or shovel that holds + the handle. Irish _soc_. + + Soft day; a wet day. (A usual salute.) + + Soil; fresh-cut grass for cattle. + + Sold; betrayed, outwitted:--'If that doesn't frighten him off you're + sold' (caught in the trap, betrayed, ruined. Edw. Walsh in Ir. Pen. + Journal). + + Something like; excellent:--'That's something like a horse,' i.e. a + fine horse and no mistake. + + Sonaghan; a kind of trout that appears in certain lakes in November, + coming from the rivers. (Prof. J. Cooke, M.A., of Dublin: for + Ulster):--Irish _samhain_ [sowan], November: _samhnachan_ with the + diminutive _an_ or _chan_, 'November-fellow.' + + Sonoohar; a good wife, a good partner in marriage; a good marriage: + generally used in the form of a wish:--'Thankee sir and sonoohar to + you.' Irish _sonuachar_, same sound and meaning. + + Sonsy; fortunate, prosperous. Also well-looking and healthy:--'A fine + _sonsy_ girl.' Irish _sonas_, luck; _sonasach_, _sonasaigh_, same sound + and meaning. + + Soogan, sugan, sugaun; a straw or hay rope twisted by the hand. + + Soss; a short trifling fall with no harm beyond a smart shock. (Moran: + Carlow.) {331} + + Sough; a whistling or sighing noise like that of the wind through + trees. 'Keep a calm sough' means keep quiet, keep silence. (Ulster.) + + Soulth; 'a formless luminous apparition.' (W. B. Yeats.) Irish + _samhailt_ [soulth], a ghost, an apparition; _lit._ a 'likeness,' from + _samhai_ [sowel], like. + + Sources of Anglo-Irish Dialect, 1. + + Sowans, sowens; a sort of flummery or gruel usually made and eaten on + Hallow Eve. Very general in Ulster and Scotland; merely the Irish word + _samhain_, the first of November; for Hallow Eve is really a November + feast, as being the eve of the first of that month. In old times in + Ireland, the evening went with the coming night. + + Spalpeen. Spalpeens were labouring men--reapers, mowers, + potato-diggers, &c.--who travelled about in the autumn seeking + employment from the farmers, each with his spade, or his scythe, or his + reaping-hook. They congregated in the towns on market and fair days, + where the farmers of the surrounding districts came to hire them. Each + farmer brought home his own men, fed them on good potatoes and milk, + and sent them to sleep in the barn on dry straw--a bed--as one of them + said to me--'a bed fit for a lord, let alone a spalpeen.' The word + _spalpeen_ is now used in the sense of a low rascal. Irish _spailpin_, + same sound and meaning. (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. + 216; and for the Ulster term see Rabble above.) + + Spaug; a big clumsy foot:--'You put your ugly spaug down on my + handkerchief.' Irish _spag_, same sound and sense. {332} + + Speel; to climb. (Patterson: Ulster.) + + Spink; a sharp rock, a precipice. (Tyrone.) _Splink_ in Donegal. Irish + _spinnc_ and _splinnc_, same sounds and meaning. + + Spit; the soil dug up and turned over, forming a long trench as deep as + the spade will go. 'He dug down three spits before he came to the + gravel.' + + Spoileen; a coarse kind of soap made out of scraps of inferior grease + and meat: often sold cheap at fairs and markets. (Derry and Tyrone.) + Irish _spoilin_, a small bit of meat. + + Spoocher; a sort of large wooden shovel chiefly used for lifting small + fish out of a boat. (Ulster.) + + Spreece; red-hot embers, chiefly ashes. (South.) Irish _spris_, same + sound and meaning. Same as _greesagh_. + + Sprissaun; an insignificant contemptible little chap. Irish _spriosan_ + [same sound], the original meaning of which is a twig or spray from a + bush. (South.) + + 'To the devil I pitch ye ye set of sprissauns.' + + (Old Folk Song, for which see my 'Ancient Irish + Music,' p. 85.) + + Sprong: a four-pronged manure fork. (MacCall: South-east counties.) + + Spruggil, spruggilla; the craw of a fowl. (Morris: South Monaghan.) + Irish _sprogal_ [spruggal], with that meaning and several others. + + Sprunge [sprunj], any animal miserable and small for its age. (Ulster.) + + Spuds; potatoes. + + Spunk; tinder, now usually made by steeping {333} brown paper in a + solution of nitre; lately gone out of use from the prevalence of + matches. Often applied in Ulster and Scotland to a spark of fire: 'See + is there a spunk of fire in the hearth.' Spunk also denotes spirit, + courage, and dash. 'Hasn't Dick great spunk to face that big fellow, + twice his size?' + + 'I'm sure if you had not been drunk + With whiskey, rum, or brandy--O, + You would not have the gallant spunk + To be half so bold or manly--O.' + + (Old Irish Folk Song.) + + Irish _sponnc_. + + Spy farleys; to pry into secrets: to visit a house, in order to spy + about what's going on. (Ulster.) + + Spy-Wednesday; the Wednesday before Easter. According to the religious + legend it got the name because on the Wednesday before the Crucifixion + Judas was spying about how best he could deliver up our Lord. + (General.) + + Squireen; an Irish gentleman in a small way who apes the manners, the + authoritative tone, and the aristocratic bearing of the large landed + proprietors. Sometimes you can hardly distinguish a squireen from a + _half-sir_ or from a _shoneen_. Sometimes the squireen was the son of + the old squire: a worthless young fellow, who loafed about doing + nothing, instead of earning an honest livelihood: but he was too grand + for that. The word is a diminutive of _squire_, applied here in + contempt, like many other diminutives. The class of squireen is nearly + extinct: 'Joy be with them.' + + Stackan; the stump of a tree remaining after the {334} tree itself has + been cut or blown down. (Simmons: Armagh.) Irish _staic_, a stake, with + the diminutive. + + Stad; the same as _sthallk_, which see. + + Stag; a potato rendered worthless or bad by frost or decay. + + Stag; a cold-hearted unfeeling selfish woman. + + Stag; an informer, who turns round and betrays his comrades:--'The two + worst informers against a private [pottheen] distiller, barring a + _stag_, are a smoke by day and a fire by night.' (Carleton in 'Ir. Pen. + Journ.') 'Do you think me a _stag_, that I'd inform on you.' (Ibid.) + + Staggeen [the _t_ sounded like _th_ in _thank_], a worn-out worthless + old horse. + + Stand to or by a person, to act as his friend; to stand _for_ an + infant, to be his sponsor in baptism. The people hardly ever say, 'I'm + his godfather,' but 'I stood for him.' + + Stare; the usual name for a starling (bird) in Ireland. + + Station. The celebration of Mass with confessions and Holy Communion in + a private house by the parish priest or one of his curates, for the + convenience of the family and their neighbours, to enable them the more + easily to receive the sacraments. Latterly the custom has been falling + into disuse. + + Staukan-vorraga [_t_ sounded like _th_ in _thorn_], a small high rick + of turf in a market from which portions were continually sold away and + as continually replaced: so that the _sthauca_ stood always in the + people's way. Applied also to a big awkward fellow always visiting when + he's not wanted, and {335} always in the way. (John Davis White, of + Clonmel.) Irish _staca 'n mharga_ [sthaucan-vorraga], the 'market stake + or stack.' + + Stelk or stallk; mashed potatoes mixed with beans or chopped + vegetables. (North.) + + Sthallk; a fit of sulk in a horse--or in a child. (Munster.) Irish + _stailc_, same sound and meaning. + + Sthoakagh; a big idle wandering vagabond fellow. (South.) Irish + _stocach_, same sound and meaning. + + Sthowl; a jet or splash of water or of any liquid. (South.) Irish + _steall_, same sound and meaning. + + Stim or stime; a very small quantity, an _iota_, an atom, a + particle:--'You'll never have a stim of sense' ('Knocknagow'): 'I + couldn't see a stim in the darkness.' + + Stook; a shock of corn, generally containing twelve sheaves. (General.) + Irish _stuaic_, same sound and meaning, with several other meanings. + + Stoon; a fit, the worst of a fit: same as English _stound_: a sting of + pain:--'Well Bridget how is the toothache?' 'Ah well sir the stoon is + off.' (De Vismes Kane: Ulster.) + + Store pig; a pig nearly full grown, almost ready to be fattened. + (Munster.) + + Str. Most of the following words beginning with _str_ are derived from + Irish words beginning with _sr_. For as this combination _sr_ does not + exist in English, when an Irish word with this beginning is borrowed + into English, a _t_ is always inserted between the _s_ and _r_ to bring + it into conformity with English usage and to render it more easily + pronounced by English-speaking tongues. See this subject discussed in + 'Irish Names of Places,' {336} vol. I., p. 60. Moreover the _t_ in + _str_ is almost always sounded the same as _th_ in _think_, _thank_. + + Straar or sthraar [to rhyme with _star_]; the rough straddle which + supports the back band of a horse's harness--coming between the horse's + back and the band. (Derry.) The old Irish word _srathar_ [same sound], + a straddle, a pack-saddle. + + Straddy; a street-walker, an idle person always sauntering along the + streets. There is a fine Irish air named 'The Straddy' in my 'Old Irish + Music and Songs,' p. 310. From Irish _sraid_, a street. + + Strahane, strahaun, _struhane_; a very small stream like a mill stream + or an artificial stream to a pottheen still. Irish _sruth_ [sruh] + stream, with dim. + + Strammel; a big tall bony fellow. (Limerick.) + + Strap; a bold forward girl or woman; the word often conveys a sense + slightly leaning towards lightness of character. + + Strath; a term used in many parts of Ireland to denote the level watery + meadow-land along a river. Irish _srath_. + + Stravage [to rhyme with _plague_]; to roam about idly:--'He is always + _stravaging_ the streets.' In Ulster it is made _stavage_. + + Streel; a very common word all through Ireland to denote a lazy untidy + woman--a slattern: often made _streeloge_ in Connaught, the same word + with the diminutive. As a verb, _streel_ is used in the sense of to + drag along in an untidy way:--'Her dress was streeling in the mud.' + Irish _sril_ [sreel], same meanings. + + Streel is sometimes applied to an untidy slovenly-looking man too, as I + once heard it {337} applied under odd circumstances when I was very + young. Bartholomew Power was long and lanky, with his clothes hanging + loose on him. On the morning when he and his newly-married wife--whom I + knew well, and who was then no chicken--were setting out for his home, + I walked a bit of the way with the happy bride to take leave of her. + Just when we were about to part, she turned and said to me--these were + her very words--'Well Mr. Joyce, you know the number of nice young men + I came across in my day (naming half a dozen of them), and,' said + she--nodding towards the bride-groom, who was walking by the car a few + perches in front--'isn't it a heart-scald that at the end of all I have + now to walk off with that streel of a devil.' + + Strickle; a scythe-sharpener covered with emery, (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Strig; the _strippings_ or milk that comes last from a cow. (Morris: + South Monaghan.) + + Striffin; the thin pellicle or skin on the inside of an egg-shell. + (Ulster.) + + Strippings; the same as strig, the last of the milk that comes from the + cow at milking--always the richest. Often called in Munster _sniug_. + + Stroansha; a big idle lazy lump of a girl, always gadding about. Irish + _stroinse_, same sound and meaning. + + Strock'ara [accent on _strock-_]; a very hard-working man. (Munster.) + Irish _stracaire_, same sound and meaning, with several other meanings. + + Strong; well in health, without any reference to muscular strength. + 'How is your mother these times?' 'She's very strong now thank God.' + {338} + + Strong farmer; a very well-to-do prosperous farmer, with a large farm + and much cattle. In contradistinction to a 'small farmer.' + + Stroup or stroop; the spout of a kettle or teapot or the lip of a jug. + (Ulster.) + + Strunt; to sulk. (Simmons: Armagh.) Same as _sthallk_ for the South. + + Stum; a sulky silent person. (Antrim and Down.) + + Stumpy; a kind of coarse heavy cake made from grated potatoes from + which the starch has been squeezed out: also called muddly. (Munster.) + + Sturk, stirk, sterk; a heifer or bullock about two years old: a pig + three or four months old. Often applied to a stout low-sized boy or + girl. Irish _storc_. + + Sugan; a straw or hay rope: same as soogan. + + Sugeen; water in which oatmeal has been steeped: often drunk by workmen + on a hot day in place of plain water. (Roscommon.) From Ir. _sugh_, + juice. + + Sulter; great heat [of a day]: a word formed from _sultry_:--'There's + great _sulther_ to-day.' + + Summachaun; a soft innocent child. (Munster.) Irish _somachan_, same + sound and meaning. In Connaught it means a big ignorant puffed up booby + of a fellow. + + Sup; one mouthful of liquid: a small quantity drunk at one time. This + is English:--'I took a small sup of rum.' ('Robinson Crusoe.') 'We all + take a sup in our turn.' (Irish Folk Song.) + + Sure; one of our commonest opening words for a sentence: you will hear + it perpetually among gentle and simple: 'Don't forget to lock up the + fowls.' 'Sure I did that an hour ago.' 'Sure {339} you won't forget to + call here on your way back?' 'James, sure I sold my cows.' + + Swan-skin; the thin finely-woven flannel bought in shops; so called to + distinguish it from the coarse heavy home-made flannel. (Limerick.) + + Swearing, 66. + + + + Tally-iron or tallin-iron; the iron for _crimping_ or curling up the + borders of women's caps. A corruption of _Italian-iron_. + + Targe; a scolding woman, a _barge_. (Ulster.) + + Tartles: ragged clothes; torn pieces of dress. (Ulster.) + + Taste; a small bit or amount of anything:--'He has no taste of pride': + 'Aren't you ashamed of yourself?' 'Not a taste': 'Could you give me the + least taste in life of a bit of soap?' + + Tat, tait; a tangled or matted wad or mass of hair on a girl or on an + animal. 'Come here till I comb the _tats_ out of your hair. (Ulster.) + Irish _tath_ [tah]. In the anglicised word the aspirated _t_ (th), + which sounds like _h_ in Irish, is restored to its full sound in the + process of anglicisation in accordance with a law which will be found + explained in 'Irish Names of Places,' vol. i., pp. 42-48. + + Teem; to strain off or pour off water or any liquid. To _teem_ potatoes + is to pour the water off them when they are boiled. In a like sense we + say it is _teeming_ rain. Irish _taom_, same sound and sense. + + Ten commandments. 'She put her ten commandments on his face,' i.e. she + scratched his face with her ten finger-nails. (MacCall: Wexford.) {340} + + Tent; the quantity of ink taken up at one time by a pen. + + Terr; a provoking ignorant presumptuous fellow. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Thacka, thuck-ya, thackeen, thuckeen; a little girl. (South.) Irish + _toice_, _toicin_ [thucka, thuckeen]. + + Thaheen; a handful of flax or hay. Irish _tath_, _taithin_ [thah, + thaheen], same meaning. (Same Irish word as Tat above: but in _thaheen_ + the final _t_ is aspirated to _h_, following the Irish word.) + + Thauloge: a boarded-off square enclosure at one side of the kitchen + fire-place of a farmhouse, where candlesticks, brushes, wet boots, &c., + are put. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Thayvaun or theevaun; the short beam of the roof crossing from one + rafter to the opposite one. (South.) Irish _taobh_ [thaiv], a 'side,' + with the diminutive. + + Theeveen; a patch on the side of a shoe. (General.) Irish _taobh_ + [thaiv], a side with the dim. _een_; taoibhin [theeveen], 'little + side.' + + Thick; closely acquainted: same meaning as 'Great,' which see. 'Dick is + very thick with Joe now.' + + Thiescaun thyscaun, [thice-caun], or thayscaun: a quantity of anything, + as a small load of hay drawn by a horse: 'When you're coming home with + the cart from the bog, you may as well bring a little _thyscaun_ of + turf. (South.) Irish _taoscan_ [thayscaun], same meaning. + + Think long: to be longing for anything--home, friends, an event, &c. + (North.) 'I am thinking long till I see my mother.' {341} + + Thirteen. When the English and Irish currencies were different, the + English shilling was worth thirteen pence in Ireland: hence a shilling + was called a _thirteen_ in Ireland:--'I gave the captain six thirteens + to ferry me over to Park-gate.' (Irish Folk Song.) + + Thivish; a spectre, a ghost. (General.) Irish _taidhbhse_ [thivshe], + same meaning. + + Thole; to endure, to bear:--'I had to thole hardship and want while you + were away.' (All over Ulster.) + + Thon, thonder; yon, yonder:--'Not a tree or a thing only thon wee + couple of poor whins that's blowing up thonder on the rise.' (Seumas + MacManus, for North-West Ulster.) + + Thoun'thabock: a good beating. Literally 'strong tobacco: Ir. + _teann-tabac_ [same sound]. 'If you don't mind your business, I'll give + you thounthabock.' + + Thrape or threep; to assert vehemently, boldly, and in a manner not to + brook contradiction. Common in Meath and from that northward. + + Thrashbag; several pockets sewed one above another along a strip of + strong cloth for holding thread, needles, buttons, &c., and rolled up + when not in use. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Thraulagh, or thaulagh; a soreness or pain in the wrist of a reaper, + caused by work. (Connaught.) Irish--two forms--_tralach_ and _tadhlach_ + [thraulagh, thaulagh.] + + Three-na-haila; mixed up all in confusion:--'I must arrange my books + and papers: they are all _three-na-haila_.' (South.) Irish _tri n-a + cheile_, 'through each other.' The translation 'through-other' is + universal in Ulster. {342} + + Three-years-old and Four-years-old; the names of two hostile factions + in the counties of Limerick, Tipperary, and Cork, of the early part of + last century, who fought whenever they met, either individually or in + numbers, each faction led by its redoubtable chief. The weapons were + sticks, but sometimes stones were used. We boys took immense delight in + witnessing those fights, keeping at a safe distance however for fear of + a stray stone. Three-years and Four-years battles were fought in New + Pallas in Tipperary down to a few years ago. + + Thrisloge; a long step in walking, a long jump. (Munster.) Irish + _trioslog_, same sound. + + Throllop; an untidy woman, a slattern, a _streel_. (Banim: very general + in the South.) + + Thurmus, thurrumus; to sulk from food. (Munster.) Irish _toirmesc_ + [thurrumask], same meaning:--'Billy won't eat his supper: he is + _thurrumusing_.' + + Tibb's-Eve; 'neither before nor after Christmas,' i.e., never: 'Oh + you'll get your money by Tibb's-Eve.' + + Till; used in many parts of Ireland in the sense of 'in order + that':--'Come here Micky _till_ I comb your hair.' + + Tilly; a small quantity of anything given over and above the quantity + purchased. Milkmen usually give a tilly with the pint or quart. Irish + _tuilledh_, same sound and meaning. Very general. + + Tinges; goods that remain long in a draper's hands. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Togher [toher]; a road constructed through a bog or swamp; often of + brambles or wickerwork covered over with gravel and stones. {343} + + Tootn-egg [3-syll.], a peculiar-shaped brass or white-metal button, + having the stem fastened by a conical-shaped bit of metal. I have seen + it explained as _tooth-and-egg_; but I believe this to be a guess. + (Limerick.) + + Tory-top; the seed cone of a fir-tree. (South.) + + Towards; in comparison with:--'That's a fine horse towards the one you + had before.' + + Tradesman; an artisan, a working mechanic. In Ireland the word is + hardly ever applied to a shopkeeper. + + Trake; a long tiresome walk: 'you gave me a great trake for nothing,' + (Ulster.) + + Tram or tram-cock; a hay-cock--rather a small one. (Moran: Carlow.) + + Trams; the ends of the cart shafts that project behind. (North.) Called + _heels_ in the South. + + Trance; the name given in Munster to the children's game of Scotch hop + or pickey. + + Traneen or trawneen; a long slender grass-stalk, like a + knitting-needle. Used all over Ireland. In some places _cushoge_. + + Travel; used in Ulster for walking as distinguished from driving or + riding:--'Did you drive to Derry?' 'Oh no, I travelled.' + + Trice; to make an agreement or bargain. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Triheens; a pair of stockings with only the legs: the two feet cut off. + It is the Irish _troigh_ [thro], a foot, with the + diminutive--_troighthin_ [triheen]. In Roscommon this word is applied + to the handle of a loy or spade which has been broken and patched + together again. (Connaught and Munster.) {344} + + Trindle; the wheel of a wheelbarrow. (Morris for South Monaghan.) + + Trinket; a small artificial channel for water: often across and under a + road. (Simmons and Patterson: East Ulster.) See Linthern. + + Turf; peat for fuel: used in this sense all over Ireland. We hardly + ever use the word in the sense of 'Where heaves the _turf_ in many a + mouldering heap.' + + Turk; an ill-natured surly boorish fellow. + + Twig; to understand, to discern, to catch the point:--'When I hinted at + what I wanted, he twigged me at once.' Irish _tuig_ [twig], to + understand. + + + + Ubbabo; an exclamation of wonder or surprise;--'Ubbabo,' said the old + woman, 'we'll soon see to that.' (Crofton Croker.) + + Ullagone; an exclamation of sorrow; a name applied to any + lamentation:--'So I sat down ... and began to sing the Ullagone.' + (Crofton Croker.) 'Mike was ullagoning all day after you left.' + (Irish.) + + Ullilu; an interjection of sorrow equivalent to the English _alas_ or + _alack and well-a-day_. (Irish.) + + Unbe-knownst; unknown, secret. (De Vismes Kane for Monaghan: but used + very generally.) + + Under has its peculiar uses:--'She left the fish out under the cats, + and the jam out under the children.' (Hayden and Hartog: for Dublin and + its neighbourhood: but used also in the South.) + + Under-board; 'the state of a corpse between death and interment.' + (Simmons: Armagh.) 'From the board laid on the breast of the corpse, + with a plate of snuff and a Bible or Prayerbook laid on it.' (S. Scott, + Derry.) {345} + + + + Variety of Phrases, A, 185. + + Venom, generally pronounced _vinnom_; energy:--'He does his work with + great venom.' An attempted translation from an Irish word that bears + more than one meaning, and the wrong meaning is brought into + English:--viz. _neim_ or _neimh_, literally _poison_, _venom_, but + figuratively _fierceness_, _energy_. John O'Dugan writes in Irish (500 + years ago):--_Ris gach ndruing do niad a neim_: 'against every tribe + they [the Clann Ferrall] exert their _neim_' (literally their _poison_, + but meaning their energy or bravery). So also the three sons of Fiacha + are endowed _coisin neim_ 'with fierceness,' lit. with _poison_ or + _venom_. (Silva Gadelica.) In an old Irish tale a lady looks with + intense earnestness on a man she admires: in the Irish it is said 'She + put _nimh a sul_ on him, literally the '_venom_ of her eyes,' meaning + the keenest glance of her eyes. + + Hence over a large part of Ireland, especially the South, you will + hear: 'Ah, Dick is a splendid man to hire: he works with such _venom_.' + A countryman (Co. Wicklow), speaking of the new National + Teacher:--'Indeed sir he's well enough, but for all that he hasn't the + _vinnom_ of poor Mr. O'Brien:' i.e. he does not teach with such energy. + + Very fond; when there is a long spell of rain, frost, &c., people + say:--'It is very fond of the rain,' &c. + + Voteen; a person who is a _devotee_ in religion: nearly always applied + in derision to one who is excessively and ostentatiously devotional. + (General.) + + {346} + + Wad; a wisp of straw or hay pressed tightly together. A broken pane in + a window is often stuffed with a wad of straw. 'Careless and gay, like + a wad in a window': old saying. (General.) + + Walsh, Edward, 5, &c. + + Wangle; the handful of straw a thatcher grasps in his left hand from + time to time while thatching, twisted up tight at one end. By extension + of meaning applied to a tall lanky weak young fellow. (Moran: middle + eastern counties.) + + Wangrace; oatmeal gruel for sick persons. (Simmons: Armagh.) + + Want; often used in Ulster in the following way:--'I asked Dick to come + back to us, for we couldn't want him,' i.e. couldn't do without him. + + Wap; a bundle of straw; as a verb, to make up straw into a bundle. + (Derry and Monaghan.) + + Warrant; used all over Ireland in the following way--nearly always with + _good_, _better_, or _best_, but sometimes with _bad_:--'You're a good + warrant (a good hand) to play for us [at hurling] whenever we ax you.' + ('Knocknagow.') 'She was a good warrant to give a poor fellow a meal + when he wanted it': 'Father Patt gave me a tumbler of _rale_ stiff + punch, and the divel a better warrant to make the same was within the + province of Connaught.' ('Wild Sports of the West.') + + Watch-pot; a person who sneaks into houses about meal times hoping to + get a bit or to be asked to join. + + Way. 'A dairyman's _way_, a labourer's _way_, means the privileges or + perquisites which the dairyman or labourer gets, in addition to the + main contract. A {347} _way_ might be grazing for a sheep, a patch of + land for potatoes, &c.' (Healy: for Waterford.) + + Wearables; articles of clothing. In Tipperary they call the + old-fashioned wig 'Dwyer's wearable.' + + Weather-blade, in Armagh, the same as 'Goureen-roe' in the South, which + see. + + Wee (North), weeny (South); little. + + Well became. 'When Tom Cullen heard himself insulted by the master, + well became him he up and defied him and told him he'd stay no longer + in his house.' 'Well became' here expresses approval of Tom's action as + being the correct and becoming thing to do. I said to little Patrick 'I + don't like to give you any more sweets you're so near your dinner'; and + well became him he up and said:--'Oh I get plenty of sweets at home + before my dinner.' 'Well became Tom he paid the whole bill.' + + Wersh, warsh, worsh; insipid, tasteless, needing salt or sugar. + (Simmons and Patterson: Ulster.) + + Wet and dry; 'Tom gets a shilling a day, wet and dry'; i.e. constant + work and constant pay in all weathers. (General.) + + Whack: food, sustenance:--'He gets 2s. 6d. a day and his _whack_.' + + Whassah or fassah; to feed cows in some unusual place, such as along a + lane or road: to herd them in unfenced ground. The food so given is + also called _whassah_. (Moran: for South Mon.) Irish _fasach_, a + wilderness, any wild place. + + Whatever; at any rate, anyway, anyhow: usually put in this sense at the + end of a sentence:--'Although she can't speak on other days of {348} + the week, she can speak on Friday, whatever.' ('Collegians.') 'Although + you wouldn't take anything else, you'll drink this glass of milk, + whatever.' (Munster.) + + Curious, I find this very idiom in an English book recently published: + 'Lord Tweedmouth. Notes and Recollections,' viz.:--'We could not cross + the river [in Scotland], but he would go [across] _whatever_.' The + writer evidently borrowed this from the English dialect of the + Highlands, where they use _whatever_ exactly as we do. (William Black: + 'A Princess of Thule.') In all these cases, whether Irish or Scotch, + _whatever_ is a translation from the Gaelic _ar mhodh ar bith_ or some + such phrase. + + Wheeling. When a fellow went about flourishing a cudgel and shouting + out defiance to people to fight him--shouting for his faction, side, or + district, he was said to be 'wheeling':--'Here's for Oola!' 'here's + _three years_!' 'here's Lillis!' (Munster.) Sometimes called + _hurrooing_. See 'Three-years-old.' + + Wheen; a small number, a small quantity:--'I was working for a wheen o' + days': 'I'll eat a wheen of these gooseberries.' (Ulster.) + + Whenever is generally used in Ulster for _when_:--'I was in town this + morning and whenever I came home I found the calf dead in the stable.' + + Which. When a person does not quite catch what another says, there is + generally a query:--'eh?' 'what?' or 'what's that you say?' Our people + often express this query by the single word 'which?' I knew a highly + educated and highly {349} placed Dublin official who always so used the + word. (General.) + + Whipster; a bold forward romping impudent girl. (Ulster.) In Limerick + it also conveys the idea of a girl inclined to _whip_ or steal things. + + Whisht, silence: used all over Ireland in such phrases as 'hold your + whisht' (or the single word 'whisht'), i.e., be silent. It is the + Gaelic word _tost_, silence, with the first _t_ aspirated as it ought + to be, which gives it the sound of _h_. They pronounce it as if it were + written _thuist_, which is exactly sounded _whisht_. The same + word--taken from the Gaelic of course--is used everywhere in + Scotland:--When the Scottish Genius of Poetry appeared suddenly to + Burns (in 'The Vision'):--'Ye needna doubt, I held my whisht!' + + Whisper, whisper here; both used in the sense of 'listen,' 'listen to + me':--'Whisper, I want to say something to you,' and then he proceeds + to say it, not in a whisper, but in the usual low conversational tone. + Very general all over Ireland. 'Whisper' in this usage is simply a + translation of _cogar_ [cogger], and 'whisper here' of _cogar annso_; + these Irish words being used by Irish speakers exactly as their + dialectical English equivalents are used in English: the English usage + being taken from the Irish. + + White-headed boy or white-haired boy; a favourite, a person in favour, + whether man or boy:--'Oh you're the white-headed boy now.' + + Whitterit or whitrit; a weasel. (Ulster.) + + Whose owe? the same as 'who owns?':--'Whose owe is this book?' Old + English. My correspondent {350} states that this was a common + construction in Anglo-Saxon. (Ulster.) + + Why; a sort of terminal expletive used in some of the Munster + counties:--'Tom is a strong boy why': 'Are you going to Ennis why?' 'I + am going to Cork why.' + + Why for? used in Ulster as an equivalent to 'for what?' + + Why but? 'Why not?' (Ulster.) 'Why but you speak your mind out?' i.e. + 'Why should you not?' (Kane: Armagh.) + + Why then; used very much in the South to begin a sentence, especially a + reply, much as _indeed_ is used in English:--'When did you see John + Dunn?' 'Why then I met him yesterday at the fair': 'Which do you like + best, tea or coffee?' 'Why then I much prefer tea.' 'Why then Pat is + that you; and how is _every rope's length_ of you?' + + Wicked; used in the South in the sense of severe or cross. 'Mr. Manning + our schoolmaster is very wicked.' + + Widow-woman and widow-man; are used for _widow_ and _widower_, + especially in Ulster: but _widow-woman_ is heard everywhere. + + Wigs on the green; a fight: so called for an obvious reason:--'There + will be wigs on the green in the fair to-day.' + + _Will you_ was never a good fellow, 18, 114. + + Wine or wynd of hay; a small temporary stack of hay, made up on the + meadow. All the small wynds are ultimately made up into one large rick + or stack in the farmyard. {351} + + Wipe, a blow: all over Ireland: he gave him a wipe on the face. In + Ulster, a goaly-wipe is a great blow on the ball with the _camaun_ or + hurley: such as will send it to the goal. + + Wire. To _wire in_ is to begin work vigorously: to join in a fight. + + Wirra; an exclamation generally indicating surprise, sorrow, or + vexation: it is the vocative of 'Muire' (_A Mhuire_), Mary, that is, + the Blessed Virgin. + + Wirrasthru, a term of pity; alas. It is the phonetic form of _A Mhuire + is truaigh_, 'O Mary it is a pity (or a sorrow),' implying the + connexion of the Blessed Virgin with sorrow. + + Wit; sense, which is the original meaning. But this meaning is nearly + lost in England while it is extant everywhere in Ireland:--A sharp + Ulster woman, entering her little boy in a Dublin Infant School, begged + of the mistress to teach him a little _wut_. + + Witch: black witches are bad; white witches good. (West Donegal.) + + Wish; esteem, friendship:--'Your father had a great wish for me,' i.e. + held me in particular esteem, had a strong friendship. (General.) In + this application it is merely the translation of the Irish _meas_, + respect:--_Ta meas mor agum ort_; I have great esteem for you, I have a + great _wish_ for you, I hold you in great respect. + + Wisha; a softening down of _mossa_, which see. + + With that; thereupon: used all over Ireland. Irish _leis sin_, which is + often used, has the same exact meaning; but still I think _with that_ + is of old {352} English origin, though the Irish equivalent may have + contributed to its popularity. + + 'With that her couverchef from her head she braid + And over his litel eyen she it laid.' + + (CHAUCER.) + + Word; trace, sign. (Ulster.) 'Did you see e'er a word of a black-avised + (black-visaged) man travelling the road you came?' + + Wrap and run: 'I gathered up every penny I could wrap and run,' is + generally used: the idea being to wrap up hastily and run for it. + + + + Yoke; any article, contrivance, or apparatus for use in some work. + 'That's a _quare_ yoke Bill,' says a countryman when he first saw a + motor car. + + * * * * * + + +{353} + +ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONS + + Who sent me Collections of Dialectical Words and Phrases in response to + my letter of February, 1892, published in the newspapers. + + The names and addresses are given exactly as I received them. The + collections of those marked with an asterisk (*) were very important. + + Allen, Mary; Armagh. + + Atkinson, M.; The Pavilion, Weedon. + + Bardan, Patrick; Coralstown, Killucan, Westmeath. + + Bentley, William; Hurdlestown, Broadford, Co. Clare. + + Bermingham, T. C.; Whitechurch Nat. School, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. + + Boyd, John; Union Place, Dungannon. + + Boyd, John; Dean's Bridge, Armagh. + + Brady, P.; Brackney Nat. School, Kilkeel, Down. + + Brady, P.; Anne Street, Dundalk. + + Breen, E.; Killarney. + + Brenan, Rev. Samuel Arthur, Rector; Cushendun, Antrim. + + Brett, Miss Elizabeth C.; Crescent, Holywood, Co. Down. + + Brophy, Michael; Tullow Street, Carlow. + + Brown, Edith; Donaghmore, Tyrone. + + Brown, Mrs. John; Seaforde, Clough, Co. Down. + + Brownlee, J. A.; Armagh. + + Buchanan, Colonel; Edenfel, Omagh. + + Burke, W. S.; 187 Clonliffe Road, Dublin. + + Bushe, Charles P.; 2 St. Joseph's Terrace, Sandford Road, Dublin. + + Burrows, A.; Grass Valley, Nevada Co., California. + + Byers, J. W.; Lower Crescent, Belfast. + + Byrne, James, J.P.; Wallstown Castle, Castletownroche, Co. Cork. + + Caldwell, Mrs.; Dundrum, Dublin. + + *Campbell, Albert; Ballynagarde House, Derry. + + Campbell, John; Blackwatertown, Armagh. + + Cangley, Patrick; Co. Meath. (North.) + + Carroll, John; Pallasgrean, Co. Limerick. + + Chute, Jeanie L. B.; Castlecoote, Roscommon. + + Clements, M. E.; 61 Marlborough Road, Dublin. + + Close, Mary A.; Limerick. + + *Close, Rev. Maxwell; Dublin. + + Coakley, James; Currabaha Nat. School, Kilmacthomas, Waterford. + + Coleman, James; Southampton. (Now of Queenstown.) + + {354} + Colhoun, James; Donegal. + + Connolly, Mrs. Susan; The Glebe, Foynes. + + Corrie, Sarah; Monaghan. + + Counihan, Jeremiah; Killarney. + + Cox, M.; Co. Roscommon. + + Crowe, A.; Limerick. + + Cullen, William; 131 North King Street, Dublin. + + Curry, S.; General Post Office, Dublin. + + Daunt, W. J. O'N.; Kilcascan, Ballyneen, Co. Cork. + + Davies, W. W.; Glenmore Cottage, Lisburn. + + Delmege, Miss F.; N. Teacher, Central Model School, Dublin. + + Dennehy, Patrick; Curren's Nat. School, Farranfore, Co. Cork. + + Devine, The Rev. Father Pius; Mount Argus, Dublin. + + Dobbyn, Leonard; Hollymount, Lee Road, Cork. + + Dod, R.; Royal Academical Institution, Belfast; The Lodge, Castlewellan. + + Doherty, Denis; Co. Cork. + + *Drew, Sir Thomas; Dublin. + + Dunne, Miss; Aghavoe House, Ballacolla, Queen's Co. + + Egan, F. W.; Albion House, Dundrum, Dublin. + + Egan, J.; 34 William Street, Limerick. + + Fetherstonhaugh, R. S.; Rock View, Killucan, Westmeath. + + FitzGerald, Lord Walter; Kilkea Castle, Co. Kildare. + + Fleming, Mrs. Elizabeth; Ventry Parsonage, Dingle, Kerry. + + Fleming, John; Rathgormuck Nat. School, Waterford. + + Flynn, John; Co. Clare. + + Foley, M.; Killorglin, Kerry. + + Foster, Elizabeth J.; 7 Percy Place, Dublin. + + G. K. O'L. (a lady from Kilkenny, I think). + + Garvey, John; Ballina, Co. Mayo. + + Gilmour, Thomas; Antrim. + + Glasgow, H. L.; 'Midland Ulster Mail,' Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. + + Glover, W. W.; Ballinlough Nat. School, Co. Roscommon. + + Graham, Lizzie F.; Portadown. + + Greene, Dr. G. E. J.; The Well, Ballycarney, Ferns, Co. Wexford. + + Hamilton, A.; Desertmartin, Belfast. + + Hannon, John; Crossmaglen Nat. School, Armagh. + + Harkin, Daniel; Ramelton, Donegal. + + *Harrington, Private Thomas; 211 Strand, London, W.C. (For Munster.) + + Haugh, John; Co. Clare. + + Haughton, Kate M.; Lady's Island Nat. School, Wexford. + + *Healy, Maurice, M.P., 37 South Mall, Cork. + + Henry, Robert; Coleraine. + + *Higgins, The Rev. Michael, C.C.; Queenstown, Cork. + + {355} + Hunt, M.; Ballyfarnan, Roscommon. + + *Hunter, Robert; 39 Gladstone Street, Clonmel. + + Irwin, A. J., B.A.; Glenfern, Ballyarton, Derry. + + *Jones, Miss; Knocknamohill, Ovoca, Co. Wicklow. + + *Joyce, W. B., B.A.; Limerick. + + *Kane, W. Francis de Vismes; Sloperton Lodge, Kingstown, Dublin. (For + Ulster.) + + Keegan, T.; Rosegreen Nat. School, Clonmel. + + Kelly, Eliza, Co. Mayo. + + Kelly, George A. P., M.A.; 6 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin. (For + Roscommon.) + + Kennedy, J. J.; Faha Nat. School, Beaufort, Killarney. + + Kenny, The Rev. M. J., P.P.; Scarriff, Co. Clare. + + Kenny, Charles W.; Caledon, Co. Tyrone. + + Kilmartin, Mary; Tipperary. + + Kilpatrick, George; Kilrea, Derry. + + *Kinahan, G. H.; Dublin. (Collection gathered from all Ireland.) + + Kingham, S. H.; Co. Down. + + *Knowles, W. J.; Flixton Place, Ballymena. + + Knox, W.; Tedd, Irvinestown. + + Lawlor, Patrick; Ballinclogher Nat. School, Lixnaw, Kerry. + + Linn, Richard; 259 Hereford St., Christchurch, New Zealand. (For Antrim.) + + Lynch, M. J.; Kerry. + + *MacCall, Patrick J.; 25 Patrick St., Dublin. + + McCandless, T.; Ballinrees Nat. School, Coleraine. + + McClelland, F. J.; Armagh. + + McCormac, Emily; Cnoc Aluin, Dalkey, Dublin. + + MacDonagh, Mr.; Ward Schls., Bangor, Co. Down. + + McGloin, Louisa; Foxford, Mayo. + + MacSheehy, Brian, LL.D., Head Inspector of Nat. Schools, Dublin. + + McKenna, A.; Clones, Co. Monaghan. + + McKeown, R.; Co. Tyrone. + + McNulty, Robert; Raphoe. + + Maguire, John; Co. Cavan. + + Maguire, M.; Mullinscross, Louth. + + Mason, Thos. A. H.; 29 Marlborough Road, Dublin. + + Mason, Thos.; Hollymount, Buxton Hill, Cork. + + Montgomery, Maggie; Antrim. + + *Moran, Patrick; 14 Strand Road, Derry, Retired Head Constable R. I. + Constabulary, native of Carlow, to which his collection mainly + belongs. + + *Morris, Henry; Cashlan East, Carrickmacross, Monaghan. + + Murphy, Christopher O'B.; 48 Victoria St., Dublin. + + Murphy, Ellie; Co. Cork. + + Murphy, J.; Co. Cork. + + Murphy, T.; Co. Cork. + + Neville, Anne; 48 Greville Road, Bedminster. + + {356} + Niven, Richard; Lambeg, Lisburn. + + Norris, A.; Kerry. + + O'Brien, Michael; Munlough Nat. School, Cavan. + + O'Connor, James; Ballyglass House, Sligo. + + O'Donnell, Patrick; Mayo. + + *O'Donohoe, Timothy; Carrignavar, Cork. ('Tadg O'Donnchadha.') + + O'Farrell, Fergus; Redington, Queenstown. + + O'Farrell, W. (a lady). Same place. + + O'Flanagan, J. R.; Grange House, Fermoy, Cork. + + O'Hagan, Philip; Buncrana, Donegal. + + O'Hara, Isa; Tyrone. + + O'Leary, Nelius; Nat. School, Kilmallock, Limerick. + + O'Reilly, P.; Nat. School, Granard. + + O'Sullivan, D. J.; Shelburne Nat. School, Kenmare. + + O'Sullivan, Janie; Kerry. + + Reen, Denis T.; Kingwilliamstown, Cork. + + Reid, George R.; 23 Cromwell Road, Belfast. + + Reid, Samuel W.; Armagh. + + *Reilly, Patrick; Cemetery Lodge, Naas, Co. Kildare. + + Rice, Michael; Castlewellan, Co. Down. + + Riley, Lizzie; Derry. + + *Russell, T. O'Neill; Dublin. (For central counties.) + + Ryan, Ellie; Limerick. + + Scott, J.; Milford Nat. School, Donegal. + + *Scott, S.; Derry. + + *Simmons, D. A.; Nat. School, Armagh. + + Simpson, Thomas; Derry. + + Skirving, R. Scot; 29 Drummond Place, Edinburgh. + + Smith, Owen; Nobber, Co. Meath. + + *Stafford, Wm.; Baldwinstown, Bridgetown, Wexford. + + Stanhope, Mr.; Paris. + + Supple, D. J.; Royal Irish Constabulary, Robertstown, Kildare. (For + Kerry.) + + Thompson, L.; Ballyculter, Co. Down. + + Tighe, T. F.; Ulster Bank, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan. + + Tobin, J. E.; 8 Muckross Parade, N. C. Road, Dublin. + + Tuite, Rev. P., P.P.; Parochial House, Tullamore. + + Walshe, Charlotte; Waterford. + + Ward, Emily G.; Castleward, Downpatrick. + + White, Eva; Limerick. + + White, Rev. H. V.; All SS. Rectory, Waterford. + + White, John Davis; Cashel, Co. Tipperary. (Newspaper Editor.) + + Weir, Rev. George; Creeslough, Donegal. + + Weir, J.; Ballymena. + + Wood-Martin, Col., A.D.C.; Cleveragh, Sligo. + + *Woollett, Mr. Marlow; Dublin. + + * * * * * + + +WORKS + +BY + +P. W. JOYCE, M.A., LL.D., T.C.D.; M.R.I.A. + +ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE +ANCIENT LAWS OF IRELAND; +LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, IRELAND +LATE PRINCIPAL, MARLBOROUGH STREET (GOVERNMENT) +TRAINING COLLEGE, DUBLIN. + +_Two Splendid Volumes, richly gilt, both cover and top. +With 361 Illustrations. Price L1 1s. net._ + +A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND, + +_Treating of the Government, Military System, and Law; +Religion, Learning, and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; +Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life +of the Ancient Irish People._ + +A Complete Survey of the Social Life and Institutions of Ancient Ireland. +All the important Statements are proved home by references to authorities +and by quotations from ancient documents. + +PART I.--GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW.--Chapter I. Laying the +Foundation--II. A Preliminary Bird's-eye View--III. Monarchical +Government--IV. Warfare--V. Structure of Society--VI. The Brehon Laws--VII. +The Laws relating to Land--VIII. The Administration of Justice. + +PART II.--RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART.--Chapter IX. Paganism--X. +Christianity--XI. Learning and Education--XII. Irish Language and +Literature--XIII. Ecclesiastical and Religious Writings--XIV. Annals, +Histories, and Genealogies--XV. Historical and Romantic Tales--XVI. +Art--XVII. Music--XVIII. Medicine and Medical Doctors. + +PART III.--SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE.--Chapter XIX. The Family--XX. The +House--XXI. Food, Fuel, and Light--XXII. Dress and Personal +Adornment--XXIII. Agriculture and Pasturage--XXIV. Workers in Wood, Metal, +and Stone--XXV. Corn Mills--XXVI. Trades and Industries connected with +Clothing--XXVII. Measures, Weights, and Mediums of Exchange--XXVIII. +Locomotion and Commerce--XXIX. Public Assemblies, Sports, and +Pastimes--XXX. Various Social Customs and Observances--XXXI. Death and +Burial. List of Authorities consulted and quoted or referred to throughout +this Work. Index to the two volumes. + + * * * * * + + +_Second Edition. One Vol., Cloth gilt. 598 pages, 213 Illustrations. +Price 3s. 6d. net._ + +A SMALLER SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND. + +Traverses the same ground, Chapter by Chapter, as the larger work above; +but most of the quotations and nearly all the references to authorities are +omitted in this book. + + * * * * * + + +_Second Edition. Cloth gilt. 188 pages. Price 1s. 6d. net._ + +THE STORY OF ANCIENT IRISH CIVILISATION. + +_Third Edition. Thick Crown 8vo. 565 pages. Price 10s. 6d._ + +A SHORT HISTORY OF IRELAND + +FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 1608. + + * * * * * + + +_Cloth gilt. 528 pages. Price 3s. 6d._ + +_Published in December, 1897: now in its 80th Thousand._ + +A CHILD'S HISTORY OF IRELAND, + +WITH + +_Specially drawn Map and 160 Illustrations_, + +Including a Facsimile in full colours of a beautiful Illuminated Page of +the Book of Mac Durnan, A.D. 850. + +Besides having a very large circulation here at home, this book has been +adopted by the Australian Catholic Hierarchy for all their Schools in +Australia and New Zealand; and also by the Catholic School Board of New +York for their Schools. + + * * * * * + + +_Cloth. 160 pages. Price 9d._ + +OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF IRELAND + +FROM + +THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 1905. + +_50th Thousand._ + +"This little book is intended mainly for use in schools; and it is +accordingly written in very simple language. But I have some hope that +those of the general public who wish to know something of the subject, but +who are not prepared to go into details, may also find it useful.... 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The +pronunciation of all the principal Irish words is given as they occur. + + * * * * * + + +_Third Edition (with one additional Tale). Cloth. Price 3s. 6d._ + +OLD CELTIC ROMANCES. + +Thirteen of the most beautiful of the Ancient Irish Romantic Tales +translated from the Gaelic. + + * * * * * + + +_Fcap. 8vo. Cloth. Price 1s._ + +A GRAMMAR OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE. + + * * * * * + + +_Cloth. 220 pages. With many Illustrations. Price 1s. 6d._ + +A READING BOOK IN IRISH HISTORY. + +This book contains forty-nine Short Readings, including "Customs and Modes +of Life"; an Account of Religion and Learning; Sketches of the Lives of +Saints Brigit and Columkille; several of the Old Irish Romantic Tales, +including the "Sons of Usna," the "Children of Lir," and the "Voyage of +Maeldune"; the history of "Cahal-More of the Wine-red Hand," and of Sir +John de Courcy; an account of Ancient Irish Physicians, and of Irish Music, +&c., &c. + + * * * * * + + +_Re-issue. 4to. Price--Cloth, 3s.; Wrapper, 1s. 6d._ + +ANCIENT IRISH MUSIC, + +Containing One Hundred Airs never before published, and a number of Popular +Songs. + + * * * * * + + +_Paper cover. 4to. Price 1s._ + +IRISH MUSIC AND SONG. + +A Collection of Songs in the Irish language, set to the old Irish airs. + +(Edited by Dr. JOYCE for the "Society for the Preservation of the Irish +Language.") + + * * * * * + + +_Second Edition. Paper cover. Crown 8vo. Price 6d. net._ + +IRISH PEASANT SONGS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. + +With the old Irish airs: the words set to the Music. + + * * * * * + + +_Twentieth Edition. 86th Thousand. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth. Price 3s. 6d._ + +A HAND-BOOK OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF TEACHING. + + * * * * * + + +_Price--Cloth gilt, 2s. net; Paper, 1s. net._ + +BALLADS OF IRISH CHIVALRY + +By ROBERT DWYER JOYCE, M.D. + +Edited, with Annotations, by his brother, P. W. JOYCE, LL.D. + + * * * * * + + +_Now ready. Cloth, richly gilt. Price 10s. 6d. net._ + +OLD IRISH FOLK MUSIC AND SONGS. + +A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs never before published. With +Analytical Preface and a running Commentary all through. + + * * * * * + + +_Now ready (March, 1910); 350 pages: Cloth gilt, 2s. 6d. net._ + +ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. + +CONTENTS.--Chap. I. Sources of Anglo-Irish Dialect--II. Affirming, +Assenting, and Saluting--III. Asserting by Negative of Opposite, IV. Idioms +derived from the Irish Language--V. The Devil and his 'Territory'--VI. +Swearing--VII. Grammar and Pronunciation--VIII. Proverbs--IX. Exaggeration +and Redundancy--X. Comparisons--XI. The Memory of History and of Old +Customs--XII. A Variety of Phrases--XIII. Vocabulary and +Index.--Alphabetical List of Persons who sent Collections of Dialectical +Words and Phrases. + + * * * * * + + +Notes + +[1] For both of these songs see my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.' + +[2] See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 202. + +[3] See the interesting remarks of O'Donovan in Preface to 'Battle of Magh +Rath,' pp. ix-xv. Sir Samuel Ferguson also has some valuable observations +on the close packing of the very old Irish language, but I cannot lay my +hands on them. From him I quote (from memory) the remark about translating +old Irish into English or Latin. + +[4] For the Penal Laws, see my 'Child's Hist. of Ireland,' chaps. lv, lvi. + +[5] For 'Poor Scholars,' see O'Curry, 'Man. & Cust.,' i. 79, 80: Dr. Healy, +'Ireland's Anc. Sch.,' 475: and, for a modern instance, Carleton's story, +'The Poor Scholar.' The above passage is quoted from my 'Social Hist. of +Anc. Ireland.' + +[6] See my 'Smaller Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' chap, vii. + +[7] See for an example Dr. Hyde's 'Children of the King of Norway,' 153. +(Irish Texts Soc.) + +[8] From my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 56, in which also will be +found the beautiful air of this. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND*** + + +******* This file should be named 34251.txt or 34251.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/2/5/34251 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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