English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 24

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 Sat.u.r.day_. 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 superst.i.tious 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 gla.s.s.

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 coa.r.s.eness, 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 c.o.c.kles off your heart': 'Here drink this [gla.s.s of punch, wine, &c.] and 'twill take the c.o.c.kles off your heart.' 'It raises the very c.o.c.kles o' my heart to see you.'

('Collegians.') ''Twould rise the c.o.c.kles av your heart to hear her singing the Coolin.' ('Knocknagow.') Probably the origin is this:--Cares and troubles clog the heart as c.o.c.kles 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, G.o.d bless the hearers,' or 'G.o.d bless the mark.'

This last is however generally used in derision. John c.o.x, a notorious schemer and miser, 'has put down his name for 20 for a charity--G.o.d bless the mark!' an intimation that the 20 will never be heard of again.

When a person goes away for ever or dies, the friends and people say 'G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances, the expressions 'G.o.d help me' and 'G.o.d 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, G.o.d help her,' are translations. {196}

In Dublin, Roman Catholics when pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d.' 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 G.o.d_': as much as to say, 'yes if G.o.d pleases, but not otherwise.'

'This sickness kept me from Ma.s.s for a long time; but _with the help of G.o.d_, I'll venture next Sunday.' 'Yes, poor Kitty is in great danger, but _with the help of G.o.d_ she will pull through.'

'I am afraid that poor Nellie will die after that accident.' 'Oh, G.o.d 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.)