ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND.

ENGLISH AS WE SPEAI^ IT IN IRELAND

P. W. JOYCE, LLD., T.O.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,

Marlbcrough 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 . i\ b

PEEFACE.

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 PREFACE.

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 inten- tion 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.

PKEFACE. Vll

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 Surround- ing 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 anno- tated 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 Unf/lish 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.

Vlll PREFACE.

' The Irish Dialect of English ; its Origins and Vocabulary.' By Mary Hay den, M.A., and Prof. Marcus Hartog (jointly) : published in ' The Fortnightly Eeview ' (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 dia- lectical words and phrases derived from Old English forms, to which I am indebted for much information, and which will be found acknow- ledged 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

PKEFACE. JX

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 Dic- tionary 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 PREFACE.

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 treat- ment ; 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.

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 EEDUNDANCY, . .120 X. COMPARISONS, . . . . . .136

XI. THE MEMORY OF HISTORY AND OF OLD CUSTOMS, 143

XII. A VARIETY OF PHRASES, .... 185

XIII. VOCABULARY AND INDEX, .... 20J)

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONS WHO SENT COLLECTIONS OF DIALECTICAL WORDS AND

PHRASES, ...... 353

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, dia- lectical expressions have gradually grown up among our English-speaking people, as dialects arise every- where.

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 belong- ing 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. I.

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 mode- rately 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 ivhen they came before r. That is why we hear among the people in every part of Ireland such vulgarisms as (for t} bitther, butther, thrtte ; and (for d} laddher (ladder), cidher (cider), foddher, &c. Yet in other positions we sound these letters correctly, as in fat, football, u-hite; bad, hide, wild, &c. No one, however uneducated, will mispro- nounce 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 dit-e — 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 pro- portion 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

CH. I.] SOURCES OF ANGLO-IRISH DIALECT. 8

sound was then considered almost a national charac- teristic ; 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 com- binations, bring this sound into their English : — ' He gave me a blow of his JlsJit ' ; ' he was whishliny 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 dozlien eggs ' ; ' 'tis dnzzhlin;/ rain ' ; ' that is dizhmal news.'

The second way in which our English is influenced by Irish is in vocabulary. When our Irish fore- fathers began to adopt English, they brought with them from their native language many single Irish

B2

4 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. I.

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 perio- dicals 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 inter- esting and important feature. Its importance was pointed out by me in a paper printed twenty years

CH. I.] SOURCES OF ANGLO-IRISH DIALECT. 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 phra.ses are simply translations from Irish ; and when the translations are literal, Englishmen often find it hard or impossible to under- stand them. For a phrase may be correct in Irish, but incorrect, or even unintelligible, in English when translated word for word. Gerald Griffin has pre- served 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 voca- bulary 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 under- stand it.

6 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [cH. I.

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,

CH. I.] SOURCES OK ANGLO-HUSH DIALECT. 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, desaice for deceive ; and such words as sliver, lief, aj'eard, &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 Eliza- bethan 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. I.

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 corre- sponding 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 dis- cretion 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 for- bidding, 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 rne — 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

CH. II.] AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING. 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 riVl Id 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-laiv-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.'

1 I'll engage you visited Peggy when you were in town ' : i.e. I assert it without much fear of con- tradiction : I warrant. Much in the same sense we use I'll go bail : — ' I'll go bail you never got that

10 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. II.

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 oppo- sition. ' 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.1 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 asser-

CH. II.] AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING. 11

tions : — ' 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 fol- lowing 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 every- where 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IBELAND. [CH. II.

' Oli 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 £5.'

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.)

1 I've seen — and here 's ray hand to you I only say

what 's true—

A many a one with twice your stock not half so proud as you.' (CLARKNCE 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

CH. II.} AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING. 18

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 — 0 ' ; 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 : — ' Xon- do you know what I'm going to tell you — that ragged old chap has £200 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 North- west, servants and others have a way of replying to directions that at first sounds strange or even

14 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. II.

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 £5Q for my horse to-day at the fair.' Eeply, ' 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,' mean- ing ' making your mind easy on the point — it will be all right.' Never fear is merely a translation of the equally common Irish phrase; nd bi heagal art.

Most of our ordinary salutations are translations from Irish. Go m-beannuighe Dia dhuit is literally

CH. II.] AFFIRMING, ASSENTING, AND SALUTING. 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 enter- ing "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 saluta- tion is, 'And you too,' which is appropriate. ('Knock- nagow.') ' 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 Mdr 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAk IT IN IRELAND. [CH. III.

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-beannu if/he Dia air bhur n-obair. (See my < Social History of Ancient Ireland,' n., 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 occupy- ing 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 w ill do you no harm, Wheaten bread will sweeten your blood, Oaten bread will strengthen your arm.'

CH. III.] ASSERTION BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE. 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 ' : Eev. Celt.)

Another old Irish writer, telling us that a certain company of soldiers is well out of view, expresses it in this way : — Nifhuil in cuire yan chleith, literally, ' the company is not without concealment.'

How closely these and other old models are imi- tated 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 c

18 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. III.

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 £10 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 MOOKE 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.' (Kil- dare.)

' 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.

1 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 sa}ing it : — ' He's no great shakes.' ' How do you like your new horse ? ' « Oh then he's no great shakes ' — or ' he's

CH. III.] ASSERTION BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE. 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.' (' Knock- nagow.')

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 bond- maid,' by which is meant, it was his will not to sell her.

c2

20 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [cH. III.

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 Eory from absent friends, that they were true to Ireland : —

' " My sowl, I never doubted them " said Eory 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 1 have ' : merely translated from the Gaelic, Ni nwrdn aid 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' : — '1 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.'

CH. III.] ASSERTION BY NEGATIVE OF OPPOSITE. 21

Lowry Looby is telling how a lot of fellows attacked Hardress Cregan, wlio 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 rii 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 ap- plying the word — in the sense of duty — is seen in the following : — A member at an Urban Council

22 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. ['CH. III.

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 dehts.'

'Is your present farm as large as the one you left ? ' Eeply : — ' 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 beatjnach ('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 ex- pressing 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 r;ither how it clings to us — is seen in the folio wing 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.

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IBISH LANGUAGE. 23

CHAPTEE 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 authen- ticity 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 td or aid (English is), the Irish pre- position 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 td se Jn a shaor, which is literally he is in Ins mason : ' I am standing ' is td md 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 stand- ing 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEA IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 handker- chief is in ribbons ').

' Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap.'

(GKA\'S 'Elegy.')

' Hence bards, like Proteus, long in vain tied down, Escape in monsters and amaze the town.'

(Popn: ' Dnnciad.')

' The bars forming the front and rear edges of each plane [of the flying-machine] are always in one piece5 (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.1 (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 £10 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

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IBISH LANGUAGE. 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 : — Aid 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 aid 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 con- struction 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 aid 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 Td 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 pre- position by : — ' To come home by his lone ' (Seumas MaeManus). 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 id. 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.

CH. IV.] IDIOMS PROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 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.' (Bee 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 nd 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, td me yan pinyhin.

In an Irish love song the young man tells us that he had been vainly trying to win over the colleen le bliadhain ayus le Id, 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 ' ivith & year and mth a day,' which would be incorrect English. Yet the un- educated 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 yhadhar orm [where urtn is air me] , ' James struck my dog

28 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

on me,' where on me means to my detriment, in violation of my right, &c. Chaill se mo sglan 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 cen- tury, says, ' The mountain was filled with great sooty- black birds on him ' (to his torment or detriment). In ' The Battle of Eossnaree,' 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 Tarn'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 rt//— commonly translated 4 for ' in this connexion — is used in a sense much like air, viz. to carry an idea of some sort of injury

OH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 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 Kettle 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 M6r.') 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 bark- ing, 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 com- panions— the Fena — having left him, says, [were I in my former condition] Ni ghoirftnngo brdth 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

' 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.1 ' Of you ' is here simply a translation of the Irish diot, which is always used in this connexion in Irish : T)ainfaad (Hot 6, ' 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. (Eussell.)

1 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 M'Cue 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

OH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 81

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 ' : uni- versally 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 die 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 thdinic 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 Anglo-

32 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 td do churam go Uir ?

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 ill Irish, Nl'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 6. 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 ex- pression as seen in : — Budh mho an sy&ile Diarmaid

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IKISH LANGUAGE. 83

do bheith marbh : ' More's the pity Dermot to be dead.' (Story of 'Dermot and Grania.')

' Who should coine 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 Fdinne geal an lae : — Cia gheabhainn ie m'ais acht cuilfhionn deas : f 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, UomfUn). 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 m& Tomds agus & n'a shuidhe cois na teine : ' I saw Thomas and he sitting beside the fire.' ' How could you see

84 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 ay 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 objec- tive (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 Vaster' (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

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 85

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 s&, si (he, she), of which the accusatives & and i are in certain Irish constructions (correctly) used for the nominative forms, which accusative forms are (incorrectly) im- ported into English. Do chonnairc me Seadhdn agus e n'a shuidhe, ' I saw Shaun and 1dm 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] Laigln ocus Uldid man dabaig oca hdl : ' 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,' intro- duces 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 ivay they wouldn't keep the smell ' ; ' 1 brought an umbrella the way I wouldn't get wet ' ; ' you want not to let the poor boy do for himself [by marrying] the u-cnj 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 trans- lating 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 <?ren would be the correct word, and itself would be incorrect. Thus da mbeith an mend t>in fein agum is correctly rendered ' if I had

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 87

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 itair, 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 meddaighe 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 com- mon Go bh-fdireadh 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 in- stead of give or hand (verb), in such phrases as

88 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

' Show me that knife,' i.e. hand it to me. ' Show nie 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 ivay he was so poor.' In both, by the way means ' pretending.'

' My own own people ' means my immediate rela- tions. 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 trans- lation 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 Gilpiu) 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.1

When a person sees anything unusual or unex- pected, he says to his companion, ' Oh do you mind that!'

' You want rue to give you £10 for that cow : well, I'm not so soft all out.' 'He's not so bad as that all out.'

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 39

A common expression is ' I was talking to him to-day, and I drew doivn about the money,' i.e. I brought on or introduced the subject. This is a translation of the Irish form do tkarrainy ms anuas 1 1 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 t 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 lag 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 chitireas 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 bid 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

between what is ended and what is coming is Ni'l tracht air, ' there is no talking about it,' corre- sponding 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 tJwre'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 breaah an Id 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).

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 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 Idn do'n lionn, literally, ' the full of it of ale.' In Silva Gadelica we find Idn 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 slendering 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 ngdes timchioll Tuathi De Danand, l their cute- ness 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 fttberaid 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 transla- tion from bacach ar aonchois. (MacCurtin.) 'I'll seem to be lame, quite useless of one of my hands.' (Old Song.)

Such constructions as amaddn 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 Bights.) 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.)

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IKISH LANGUAGE. 48

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.' (' Prohibi- tions 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 Horn (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 eud/in.

' 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 td an Id

44 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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 Westrneath, 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. (Eussell.)

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 yon going up so high ? '

' To sweep the cobwebs off o1 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 o^o/Hull.'

Eva, the witch, says to the children of Lir, when she had turned them into swans : — Amacli daoibh a cJilann 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.'

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 45

The usual way in Irish of saying he died is fuair se bds, i.e. 'he found (or got) death,' and this is some- times 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?' Eeply : — ' 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IKELAND. [CH. IV.

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 lan- guage 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 tne ' : 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

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IEISH LANGUAGE. 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. 1 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

' on its foot,' modern form air a duns} 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. (SilvaGadelica.) 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 'nouyh, shortened from enough, is always used in English with the possessive pronouns, in accordance with the Gaelic construction in such phrases as as gur itlicadar a n-doit-hin diolh, ' So that

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 49

they ate their enough of them ' (' Diarmaid and Grainne ') : d'ith mo shaith ' I ate my enougk.' 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 f '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 im- ported 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 clmirlonn s6 tdbhacht a n-6inidh san domliuin : ' he minds nothing in the world.' (Mac Curtin.)

But 1 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) de- signates a certain Irish chief ' that most arrogant,

50 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

vile, traitor of the world Owney M'Rorye ' [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 l&icen 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 1 wouldn't let it go with any of them. (' Knock- nagow.')

' 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 [aw trim eile] do [an leomaiii] ' And the three others gave in to the [lion].'

This mode of expression is however found in English also : — [Beelzebub] ' proposes a third un- dertaking which the whole assembly gives in to.1 (Addison in ' Spectator.')

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 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.'1

(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 ? ' (' Knockna- gow ') : ' 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

£2

52 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

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)': 4 To make for Kosapenna (Donegal) we did:' i.e., ' We made for Eosapenna ' : ' 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 P*' res- sion ' 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 £ 20 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 icoidd 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-tr6igeann a bhean i (or a thr&igeas a bhean e). ' Poor brave honest Mat Donovan that everyone is proud of him and fond

CH. IV.] IDIOMS FBOM THE IKISH LANGUAGE. 58

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 ivlwse 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 ? ' (Eussell.) 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 **•*- \y are used to express the idea of kind in this sense : — '^JLO^' bit cheneulta do — bu dhnal do — bu dhuthcha do. "Vtf^"

Very anxious to do a thing : ' 'Twas all his trouble ^^ to do so and so' ('Collegians'): corresponding to the Irish : — ' Is e mo churam idle,' l 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 ivill 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 d&c : ' A large bronze caldron

54

ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. IV.

into which would go (teigtfs) 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 —

ivonderful the guidance. 1 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, l 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 — Ahout a lovely fair maid,

And her name is Polly Lee.'

OH. IV.] IDIOMS FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 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 cor- respondence 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 neighbour MacZ?»'«dy we buried last YEAR : His death it awwzed me and dazed me witb sorrow and GRIEF ; From cradle to grave his name was held in KSTEEM ; For at fairs and at wakes there was no one like him for a SPREE ; And 'tis he knew the ivay how to make a good cag of potTHEEN. He'd make verses in Gaelic, quite aisy most plazing to READ ; And he knew how to plaze the fair maids with his soothering

Sl'EECH.

He could clear out a, fair at his aise with his ash clehalrEEN ; But ochone he's now laid in his grave in the churchyard of KEEL,

56 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. V.

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 4 devil ' often call him ' the Old Boy,' or 1 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 mis- conduct 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

CH. V.] THE DEVIL AND HIS ' TEBKITORY.' 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 excel- lence 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. V.

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 cton'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 an1 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.

Darner 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

OH. V.] THE DEVIL AND HIS 'TERRITORY.' 59

Darner ' 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 Darner of Shronell had twenty times more — They are now on their hacks under nettles and stones.'

Darner'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 mean- time Darner had removed the heel and fixed the boot in the floor, with a hole in the boards under- neath, 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 Darner 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. V.

a wicked saying under a disguise : that's * blind- folding 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 gad-s as we call them in Ireland. When the job was finished he spread out the garment before him on his

CH. V.] THE DEVIL AND HIS ' TERRITORY.' 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 unre- pentant : —

' 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 aire, meaning take care, look out, look you : — ' Yerra

62 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IEELAND. [cH. V.

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 some- what 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 Kyan'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.

CH. V.] THE DEVIL AND HIS ' TERRITORY.' 68

' 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 direc- tion : 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 per- secute 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 kitclien. 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 idth 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IKELAND. [CH. V.

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 Pro- testants 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

CH. V.] THE DEVIL AND HIS ' TERRITORY.' 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 icorld 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 com- munity, 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 1 have very kindly memories of my old playfellows, Pala- tines 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 oid 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.

V

66 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. V.

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 conversa- tions : 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 Dublin

OH. VI.] SWEARING. 67

— 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 acquain- tance, the doctor. He was once directing the evolu- tions 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,

F2

68 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VI.

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 how- ever I am not able to verify personally, as the thing occurred a little before my time — that Father Bucldey, 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.

CH. VI.] SWEARING. 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 sowldns, 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 knoics (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 [feej, a deer.

Says Barney Broderick, who is going through his penance after confession at the station, and is in- terrupted 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IBELAND. [OH. VI.

' 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 Q-oivne, means ' swarming with goats.'

' Man,' says the pretty mermaid to Dick Fitz- gerald, 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, bedail, 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 ? '

CH. VI.] SWEARING-. 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 liaitk (or lieth 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 sou-l 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 doicn-tke-banks and no mistake. I was at that station, though I did not witness the horse scene.

72 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VI.

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

CH. VI.] SWEABING. 78

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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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.

and Will. It has been pretty clearly shown that the somewhat anomalous and complicated niceties in the English use of shall and mil have been developed within the last 300 years or so. It is of course well 'mown that our Irish popular manner of using these

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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 ( an ; 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 wiU 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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 Kea, 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 (t<> 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 in- differently : —

' Queen : — Say to the king, I would attend his leisure

For a few words.

' Servant : Madam, I will.' (' Macbeth,' Act iii. scene ii.)

CH. VII.] GEAMMAB AND PBONUNCIATION. 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 indepen- dently, 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 V tense (in ed) is commonly known as the weak inflec- tion : — 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

to me,' ' I cotch him stealing the turf,' ' he gather 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 ivor on the road so late as this.' (Kuocknagow.)

' Wor you at the fair — did you see the wonder — Did you see Moll lloe ridiiig'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 propor- tion 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

CH. VII.] GRAMMAS AND PRONUNCIATION. 79

feature, as I have treated of ifc, and have given specimens, in rny ' 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 followinj examples. Here is one whole verse of a song about a young lady — ' The Phoenix of the Hall.'

' I being q-uite captivated and so infatuated I then prognosticated my sad forlorn case ; But I quickly ruminated — suppose I was defatted, I would not be implicated or treated with disgrace ; S) therefore I awaited with my spirits elevated, And no more I ponderated let "what would me befall ; I then to her reputed how Cupid had me thratetl, 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 power.'

One of these schoolmasters, whom I knew, com- posed 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

and the same poet winds up by declaring,

' In all my ranging and serenading I met no aiquelto Cast.lehyde.'

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 whicii 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 combustibles1 (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 >J urphy, 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, elsu the sword and the gun

were their fate.'

(R. D» JOYCE : Ballads of Irish Chivalry, p. 15.)

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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 he seen every- where 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

pretty certain that both have and do in these appli- cations 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.'

1 1 would hush my lovely laddo In the green arbutus shadow.'

(A. P. G HAVES : ' 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 bor- rowed 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 Avhich we are inclined to imitate in our Anglo-Irish speech. Our use of the

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 88

often adds a sort of emphasis to the noun or adjec- tive : — ' Ah John was the man,' i.e. the real man, a man pre-eminent for some quality — bravery, gene- rosity, &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 abduc- tion 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 1 ' (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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IEELAND. [CH. VII.

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

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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 under- stood 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 ex- pressing 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

ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IKELAND. [CH. VII.

' I have you found out at last.' ' The children had me vexed.' (Jane Barlow.)

' And she is a comely maid That has my heart hetrayed.'

(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 1 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. de- noting 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 Jo ; 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.' (Cousuetudinal.) ' You had better not wait till it bees night.' (Indicative.)

' I'll seek out my Blackbird wherever he he.' (Indicative.) (Old Folk Song—' The Blackbird.')

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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]. ('Knock- nagow.') 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 cornea 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 [regard- ing 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAR IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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.1

(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 some- times 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 posses- sive case direct on ye. Some English soldiers are singing ' Lillibulero ' —

1 And our skeans we'll make good at de Englishman's throat,'

on which Cus Eussed (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.'

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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 wind 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 GatLacir Mor, God rest him.'

And John Keegan in ' Caoch O'Leary ' : —

1 And there he sleeps his last sweet sleep — God rest you, Caoch 0' 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 cniel good man (where cruel in all means very : Ulster). ' That girl is fine and fat : her cheeks are fine and red.1 ' 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 W powerful Axy.* (' 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

' 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 & 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 6g 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 con- ceited little Dublin citizen). So also you hear Birdeen, Robineen-redibieasi, 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

CH, VII.] GRAMMAE AND PRONUNCIATION. 91

was a great big whacker of a fellow six feet high. In the south this diminutive is long (eeri) 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 illus- tration of this : —

' God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform ; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.'

(CowrER (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,1 &C.

' Kind sir be aixy and do not laize 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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 Com- mons, 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.'

(T.vn: AMI BRADY.)

OH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 98

Our people generally retain the old sounds of long e and ei ; for they say persah-e 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 y allow 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 : 1 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 partiwj — and this is still retained in correct English in a few words, like sergeant, cleric, &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 stock- ing. This is like what happened in the case of one of our servant girls who took it into her head that

94 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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.' (Carle ton, 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,

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 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 vaariotts And arbithraather on Ida's hill.

(Old Folk Song—' The Colleen Rue.')*

The gladiaathers both bold and darling, Each night and morning to watch the flowers. (Old Folk Song—' Castlehyde.')*

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'ConnelPs Eepeal 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 sfinntaan-yns.

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 ])rojnce 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

* For both of these songs see my ' Old Irish Folk Music and Songs.'

96 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

that he was now harrished every night by the ghosts of all the min he killed mjitels.

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/emm — two distinct syllables : ' that bird is looking for a wurrum.' Form, (a seat) we call a fur rum.

' 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 ehaa-rwns.'

(Old Folk Song.)*

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 IJullugariam.

In the County Monaghan and indeed elsewhere

* See my ' Old Irish Folk Music and Song?,' p. 202.

CH. VII.] GBAMMAK AND PRONUNCIATION. 97

in Ireland, us is sounded huz, which might seem a Cockney vulgarism, but I think it is not. In Boscommon and in the Munster counties a thong is called a fong.

Chaw for chew, oncet [wonst] for once, twiced for twice, and Jieighth, 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 hiyhth 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 hetlier, 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 com,ether, for come-hether, to denote a sort of spell brought about H

98 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

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 vei'y old English corruption. In Friar Clyn's Annals (Latin) written in the fourteenth century, the death is recorded in 1329 of Johannes de Brimeghain, i.e., the celebrated Sir John Berrningham 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 sk and ch. ' When you're coining home to-morrow bring the spade and chovel, and a pound of butter fresh from the shunt:' ' That shimney doesn't draw the smoke well.' So with the letters n and i. ' When I was crossing the bnidge I dropped the sweeping brisk into the ruvver.' 1 1 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 secJw for such ' (Lowell). So in Ireland : — ' Jeslice 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

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 99

'ighlands or The Brave Old Soak.' (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 every- where 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.1 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 boy- hood 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. K. 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 mtld guts,'

100 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

Final d is often omitted after / 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 pan ' (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 win 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 tn.' (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

CH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 101

for the ingions,' as I once heard a woman say in Limerick.

' Men are of different opinions, Some like leeks and some like mgionsS

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'lentt his Ex-eel1 -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-cliee'-voits : but I have come across this

102 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VII.

in Spenser's Faerie Queene. We accent character on the second syllable : —

' Said he in a whisper to my benefactor,

Though good your character has been of that Jad.' (Song by Mr. Patrick Murray of Kilfinane, a schoolmaster of great ability : about 1840).

One of nay 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 itl-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."1

(Old Irish Folk Song.)

OH. VII.] GRAMMAR AND PRONUNCIATION. 103

The old English pronunciation of oblige was obleeqe : —

' Dreaded by fools, by flatterers besieged, And so obliging that be ne'er obliged.'

(POPE.)

Among the old-fashioned and better-educated of our peasantry you will still hear this old pronuncia- tion preserved: — I am very much obleeged to you. It is now generally heard in Kildare among alj. 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 every- where 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, party 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 nover say traveller : it was always throllh'er.

There is a tendency here as elsewhere to shorten many words : You will hear garner for gardener, ornanj 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. Theysound sir either siirr (to rhyme with cur),

104 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IBELAND. [CH. VII.

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 mis- pronounced. 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 imrride. 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 II' 'Well Jack,' replied Father Tom, benignly, ' If you didn't feel it— that would be a nicnicle.'

CH. VIII.] PROVERBS. 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 transla- tions by John 0 '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 Archeology (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.

1 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VIII.

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 beggarnien 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.

CH. VIII.] PROVERBS. 107

You say to a man who is suffering under some continued hardship : — ' This distress is only tem- porary : have patience and things will come round soon again.' ' 0 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. 1 say : ' Oh wait : apples will grow again.1 He answers — 'Yes if tlie trees baint cut' — a defiant and un- grateful 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. Lime- rick) : 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VIII.

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.)

CH. vm.] PROVERBS. 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.

1 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 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VIII.

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.'

CH. VIII.] PROVERBS. Ill

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 knetbuckle, 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 thuiu boots with other people's leather.'

112 ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND. [CH. VIII.

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.

1 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