Patrick Weston Joyce

“ At the mention of the name of a person that is dead, the Roman Catholic people invariably utter the little prayer 'God rest his soul' or 'the Lord have mercy on him.'
The people thank God for everything, whatever it may be His will to send, good or bad. ‘Isn't this a beautiful day, Mike.’ ‘’Tis indeed, thank God.’ ‘This is a terrible wet day, William, and very bad for the crops.’ ‘It is indeed Tom, thanks be to God for all: He knows best.’
As might be expected where expressions of this kind are so constantly in the people's mouths, it happens occasionally that they come in rather awkwardly. ”

“ A pensioner, a loafer, or anyone that has nothing to do but walk about, is an inspector of public buildings.
Those who leave Ireland commonly become all the more attached to it: they get to love the old sod all the more intensely. ”

“ Little Kitty, running in from the dairy with the eyes starting out of her head, says to her mother who is talking to a neighbour in the kitchen: 'Oh, mother, mother, I saw a terrible thing in the cream.' 'Ah, never mind, child,' says the mother, suspecting the truth and anxious to hush it up, 'it's nothing but the grace of God.' 'Oh but mother, sure the grace of God hasn't a long tail.'
The following story was current when I was a child, long before Charles Kickham wrote 'Knocknagow,' in which he tells the story too: but I will give it in his words. ”

“ Heard everywhere in Ireland.
A man who is going backwards or down the hill in circumstances is said to be 'going after his back.' The sense is obvious. (Moran: Wexford.)
'Come day go day God send Sunday,' applied to an easy-going idle good-for-nothing person, who never looks to the future.
When a person is asked about something of which for some reason he does not wish to speak, he says 'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.' (General.) ”

“ A shopkeeper goes to a customer for payment of a debt, and gets no satisfaction, but, on the contrary, impudence. 'Oh well, I'll send you an attorney's letter to-morrow, and may be that will cure your hiccup.' The origin of this expression is the general belief through Ireland that a troublesome fit of hiccup may be cured by suddenly making some very startling and alarming announcement to the person—an announcement in which he is deeply concerned: such as that the stacks in the haggard are on fire—that three of his cows have just been drowned, &c. ”

“ When a person is smooth-tongued, meek-looking, over civil, and deceitful, he is plauzy [plausible] , 'as mild as ever on stirabout smiled.' 'Oh she is sly enough; she looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.' (Charles Macklin—an Irish writer—in The Man of the World.) This last expression of Macklin's is heard everywhere here.
A person is in some sore fix, or there is trouble before him: 'I wouldn't like to be in his shoes just now.'
A person falls in for some piece of good fortune:—'Oh you're made up, John: you're a med man ”

“ A person arrives barely in time for his purpose or to fulfil his engagement:—'You have just saved your distance.'
To put a person off the walk means to kill him, to remove him in some way. (Meath.)
A man has had a long fit of illness, and the wife, telling about it, says:—'For six weeks coal nor candle never went out.' (Antrim.)
'To cure a person's hiccup' means to make him submit, to bring him to his senses, to make him acknowledge his error, by some decided course of action. ”

“ A man who supplants another in any pursuit or design is said to 'come inside him.'
A person is speaking bitterly or uncharitably of one who is dead; and another says reprovingly—'let the dead rest.'
When it is proposed to give a person something he doesn't need or something much too good for him, you oppose or refuse it by saying:—'Cock him up with it—how much he wants it!—I'll do no such thing.' Two gentlemen staying for a night in a small hotel in a remote country town ordered toast for breakfast, which it seems was very unusual there. ”

“ A person addresses some abusive and offensive words to another, who replies 'Talk away: your tongue is no scandal.' The meaning is, 'You are so well known for the foulness of your tongue that no one will pay any attention to you when you are speaking evil of another.' (Moran: Carlow.)
'Come and have a drink,' said the dragoon. 'I don't take anything; thank you all the same,' replied Billy Heffernan. (Knocknagow.) Very general everywhere in Ireland. ”

“ When you make a good attempt:—'If I didn't knock it down, I staggered it.'
'Love daddy, love mammy, love yourself best.' Said of a very selfish person.
An odd expression:—'You are making such noise that I can't hear my ears.' (Derry; and also Limerick.)
Plato to a young man who asked his advice about getting married:—'If you don't get married you'll be sorry: and if you do you'll be sorry.'
Our Irish cynic is more bitter:—
If a man doesn't marry he'll rue it sore:
And if he gets married he'll rue it more. ”

“ When a person singing a song has to stop up because he forgets the next verse, he says (mostly in joke) 'there's a hole in the ballad'—throwing the blame on the old ballad sheet on which the words were imperfect on account of a big hole. ”

“ Similarly, expressions of pity for another such as 'That poor woman is in great trouble, God help her,' are translations.
In Dublin, Roman Catholics when passing a Catholic church (or 'chapel') remove the hat or cap for a moment as a mark of respect, and usually utter a short aspiration or prayer under breath. ”

“ Answer: a girl milking a cow.
Four-and-twenty white bulls tied in a stall: In comes a red bull and over licks them all. Answer: teeth and tongue.
These are perhaps not very hard, though not quite so easy as the Sphinx's riddle to the Thebans, which Œdipus answered to his immortal renown. But I should like to see Œdipus try his hand at the following. Samson's riddle about the bees is hard enough, but ours beats it hollow. ”

“ Anything that cheers you up 'takes the cockles off your heart': 'Here drink this [glass of punch, wine, &c.] and 'twill take the cockles off your heart.' 'It raises the very cockles o' my heart to see you.' ('Collegians.') ‘’Twould rise the cockles av your heart to hear her singing the Coolin.’ (‘Knocknagow.’) Probably the origin is this:—Cares and troubles clog the heart as cockles clog a ship.
Instead of ‘No blame to you’ or ‘Small blame to you,’ the people often say, ‘’Tis a stepmother would blame you.’
'Cut your stick, now,' 'cut away' ”