English As We Speak It in Ireland

. 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 d

plain straight name 'devil' often c

thing. 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

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

cursed and he swo

uld devil betwe

at you often hear 'That fellow is as old as the devil,' 'That beefsteak is as tough as the devil,' 'He beats the devi

s a 'poor devil'; and not very long ago I heard a friend say to another-who was not

mall, thin in the ground and hard to dig, hard t

ld be always struggling, for he has

o you Dan,' say

il of a man,' s

Song o

nd'-'I have a devil of a temper myself'). An emphatic statement

our 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

ies and sayings the simpleton side of

n Ireland-a sort of Irish Croesus: so that 'as rich as Damer' has become a proverb in the s

Paddy Murphy h

hronell had tw

eir backs under ne

amer had removed the heel and fixed the boot in the floor, with a hole in the boards underneath, opening into the room below. The devil flung in handful after handful till his pockets were empty, but still the boot was not filled. He then sent out a signal, such as they understand in hell-for they had wireless telegraphy there long before Mr. Marconi's Irish mother was born-on which a crowd of little imps arriv

a wicked saying under a disguise: that's 'blindfolding the devil in the dark.' The devil is as cute

stian,' as the devil said

way somehow to our peasantry; for it was quite common to hear a crooked knavish man s

evil's blood in its body: the water

cky, we say 'The devil is a poor scholar to you.'

he money, the devil can't howld him': i

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. slende

lso in the words of an old Anglo-Irish song about p

ng those crim

shall afte

im for that

ells for not

ogs-a fine day for young ducks:-'The devil wou

ever see

ooden spad

aties for

tail coc

tantly in money difficulties-is said

ool,' as the devil said w

es off under the devil's belly.' Thi

ands the power of deciding the case. This would be 'goi

ll belonging to him 'as t

ple 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 th

young devils tied

utch and knocked o

n of their own:-'Time enough to bid the devil good-morrow when you meet him.' But an intelligent correspondent from C

n in a great fix is often driven to ille

will say to him:-'You'll get Paddy Ryan's supper-ha

alings with rogues or criminals, adopt very careful precautions, and don't come int

shame the devil' is

his own': meaning bad men often prosper. But it is now generally said i

and is sent in the downward direction: and-according t

was opened the dev

warm corner for y

a bitter threat which may be paraphrased: I'll persecute you to death's door; and for you to be

es, and had only one egg half raw for kitchen. He had no spoon, and took the egg in little sips intending to spread it over the dinner. But one time he tilted the

it is often kept up in joke, as in this and other stories:-The train was skelping away like mad along the main line to hell-for they have railways there now-

ed 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

e. '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 p

rran was charmed with his reverend friend. 'Ah Father O'Leary,' he exclaimed at last, 'I wish you ha

laimed his liberality by saying:-'Well Father -- I have been for sixty years in this world and I could never understand that there is any great and essential difference between the C

ple, were a mixed community, about half and half Catholics and Protestants, the latter nearly all Palatines, who were Methodist

van, a bright eyed colleen all the way from Kerry, a devoted Catholic, and fell head and ears in love with her. She liked him too, but would have nothing to say to him unless he became a Catholic: in the words of the old song, 'Unless that you turn a Roman

cotted him. So he visited round his Catholic neighbours who were very glad to receive him. I was present at one of the conversations: when Peter, recounting his successful career, wound up with:-'So you see, James, that I am now well off, thanks be to God and to Nelly. I have