Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor (56 page)

brave:
Ulster. Large or good.

brave wheen:
Ulster. Large number of.

brung:
Brought.

buck eejit:
Imbecile. See
eejit.

bull’s-eyes:
Hard, boiled, black-and-white candies.

bye:
Boy.

capped/cap:
A cap was awarded to athletes selected for important teams. Equivalent to a letter at a U.S. university.

carbuncle:
Boil (abscess) with multiple cores.

champ:
A dish of boiled potatoes, butter, chives, and milk.

chemist:
Pharmacist.

chiseller/chissler:
Dublin. Child.

chuckin’ it down:
Pouring with rain. See
rain.

clatter (a brave):
A quantity (large).

clove rock:
Boiled, clove-flavoured hard candy.

confinement:
Delivery of a preganant woman, or incarceration.

Continent:
Europe.

corncrake:
Bird also known as a landrail (C
rex crex
).

cracker:
Ulster. Excellent, often used admiringly of a young woman.

craic:
Pronounced “crack.” Practically untranslatable, it can mean great conversation and fun (the
craic
was ninety) or “What has happened since I saw you last?” (What’s the
craic
?). Often seen outside pubs in Ireland:
“Craic agus ceol,”
meaning “fun and music.”

crayture:
Creature.

crick:
Painful strain.

cross:
Angry.

cruibín
:
Irish, pronounced “crewbeen.” Pickled boiled pig’s trotter, usually eaten cold with vinegar.

culchie:
See
Jack.

currency:
In Dublin in 1936 the coins, although bearing different emblems from their British counterparts, were pegged to sterling and had the same names. In 1965, prior to decimalization, sterling was the currency of the United Kingdom, of which Northern Ireland was a part. The unit was the
pound
(quid), which contained twenty
shillings
(bob), each made of twelve
pennies
(pence), thus there were 240 pennies in a pound. Coins and notes of combined or lesser or greater denominations were in circulation often referred to by slang or archaic terms:
Farthing
(four to the penny),
halfpenny
(two to the penny),
threepenny
piece (thruppeny bit),
sixpenny
piece (tanner),
two shillings
piece (florin),
two shillings and sixpence piece
(half a crown),
ten-shilling note
(ten-bob note),
guinea
coin worth one pound and one shilling.
Five-pound
note (fiver). Most will be encountered in these pages. In 1965 one pound bought nearly three U.S. dollars.

dander:
Ulster. Leisurely stroll or temper. Literally horse dandruff.

dead (on):
Ulster. Very (hit the mark).

deadner:
Dublin. A blow to the upper arm muscles, often affectionate, but can be painful.

delivery room:
Case room.

desperate:
Ulster. Immense or terrible.

digs:
Lodgings.

divil:
Devil.

divil the bit:
None.

doddle:
Short walk or easy task.

doh-ray-mi:
Dough, as in money.

domiciliary:
Visit at home by a specialist. G.P.s made home visits (house calls).

do rightly:
Be adequate if not perfect for the task.

dosser:
Dublin. Homeless man who slept in tenement halls.

dote/doting:
Something (animal) adorable/being crazy about or simply being crazy (in one’s dotage).

dripping:
Congealed animal fat often spread on bread.

drop of the pure:
A drink—usually
poitín
(see
here
).

drouth (raging):
Thirst or drunkard (degenerate drunkard).

drumlin:
Ulster. From the Irish
dromín
(little ridge). Small rounded hills caused by the last ice age. There are so many in County Down that the place has been described as looking like a basket of green eggs.

dudeen:
Short-stemmed clay pipe.

Duffy’s Circus:
A travelling circus that was begun by the Duffy family more than three hundred years ago and is still running. I used to be taken to it in the ’50s.

duncher:
Ulster. Cloth cap, usually tweed.

dungarees:
One-piece coveralls. Originally from the Hindi describing a coarse Indian calico used in their manufacture.

Dun Laoghaire:
Port near Dublin. Pronounced “Dun Leery,” literally, Leary’s Fort.

Dutch:
Used to modify certain activities or objects. “Dutch treat,” each party paying half the costs. “Dutch courage,” bravado brought on by liberal quantities of alcohol. “Dutch cap,” contraceptive diaphragm.

eat the tyres off a truck:
Dublin. One of a number of expressions like
eat the arse off a farmer through a tennis racquet,
or eat
a baby’s arse through the bars of a cot,
all signifying ravenous hunger.

eejit:
Idiot.

estate agent:
Realtor.

fag:
Cigarette, derived from “faggot,” a very thin sausage.

fair play to you:
Dublin. To be fair or well done or good luck.

fair stretch of the legs:
A long way.

feck, and variations:
Dublin corruption of “fuck.” For a full discussion of its usage see the Author’s Note in
A Dublin Student Doctor.
It is not so much sprinkled into Dublin conversations as shovelled in wholesale, and its scatalogical shock value is now so debased that it is no more offensive than “like” larded into teenagers’ chat. Now available at reputable bookstores is the
Feckin’ Book of Irish
—a series of ten books by Murphy and O’Dea.

Feile na Marbh:
Irish. Pronounced “fayle na marev.” Festival of the dead celebrated on November 1.

ferocious:
Extremely bad or very upsetting.

festering:
Infected and draining pus.

fey:
Posessing second sight.

fierce:
Severe.

fire away:
Go right ahead.

fist of:
Attempt.

florin:
Silver two-shilling piece about the size of a silver half-dollar. Worth about forty cents today. In 2010, 120 florins, about twenty-five dollars, would be required to purchase the same amount of goods as a single florin would have in 1930. This must be interpreted in light of today’s wild currency fluctuations.

flounder:
Flat edible fish.

fly your kite (go):
Have a good time. (Go away and stop annoying me.)

fornenst:
Ulster. Near to.

foundered:
Frozen.

gander:
Look-see, or male goose.

gansey:
From the Irish
geansaí
. A jumper (sweater). Used in the Anglicised form by Irish and non-Irish speakers.

Garda Síochána:
Pronounced “Garda Sheekawna,” State Guards. National police force of the Republic of Ireland. Used to be RUC in the north. The Royal Ulster Constabulary is now PSNI, Police Service of Northern Ireland.

gargle:
Dublin. Alcoholic drink. “The gargle’s dimmed me brain,” is an alternate line to “The drink has dimmed my brain” from the song “Dublin City in the Rare Old Times” by Pete St. John.

gas (man):
Very amusing/comedian.

gasper:
Cigarette (archaic, no longer used).

gee-gees:
Horses.

gerruptheyard:
Dublin. Literally “get up the yard.” Polite rendition of “feck off.”

gobshite:
Dublin. Literally, dried nasal mucus, used pejoratively about a person.

gobstopper:
Literally “mouth [gob] filler.” A very large spherical candy made of multicoloured layers. Jawbreaker in North America.

going spare:
Totally losing one’s temper.

gombeen man:
Irish moneylender.

good man-ma-da:
Ulster. Literally “good man my father,” but is actually used as an affectionate term of encouragement or approval.

good skin/head:
Dublin/Ulster. Decent person.

go up one side and down the other:
Deliver a ferocious verbal chastisement.

go ’way (out of that):
Dublin. I don’t believe you, or I know you are trying to fool me.

grand man for the pan:
One who really enjoys fried food.

grushie:
Dublin. After a wedding it was the custom for the groom to throw out copper coins—the grushie.

gulder:
To scream (v.), a scream (n.).

gurn:
Moan and groan irritably.

gurrier:
Dublin. Street urchin, but often used pejoratively about anyone.

gymkhana:
Competitive e
vent where horses demonstrate their paces show jumping.

half-un (hot):
Measure of whiskey. (With cloves, lemon juice, sugar, and boiling water added. Very good for the common cold. Trust me—I’m a doctor.)

hang about:
Belfast. Wait a minute.

hare coursing:
Hunting hares with greyhounds, a traditional field sport which preceded greyhound racing. It has been illegal in the UK since 2005, but is still legal in Ireland.

head case:
Idiot.

Heath-Robinson:
A British cartoonist who preceded the American Rube Goldberg but was his British equivalent. They both invented enormously complicated machines for doing simple tasks.

hinch bone:
Iliac crest. The bone that encircles the lower abdomen and forms part of the pelvis.

hirple:
Limp.

HMS:
His 1936/Her 1965 Majesty’s Ship.

holdall:
Canvas general-purpose bag, often used to carry sporting gear.

hold the lights:
Dublin. Expression of extreme surprise.

how’s about ye?/ ’bout ye?
Ulster. How are you?

house floors:
The first floor in a multi-storey house in America would be called the ground floor in Ireland, thus the U.S. second floor is the Irish first floor and so on.

houseman:
Medical or surgical intern. In the ’30s and ’60s used regardless of the sex of the young doctor.

I’m your man:
I agree to and will follow your plan.

in soul:
Emphatic agreemeent.

Irish Free State:
In 1922, after the Irish war of independence twenty-six counties were granted Dominion status within the British Empire and were semi-autonomous. This entity was the Irish Free State, later to become the independent Republic of Ireland.

Jack/culchie:
Dublin. The inhabitants of Ireland are divided between those who live in Dublin, “Jacks” or “Jackeens,” sophisticated city dwellers; and those who live outside the city, “culchies,” rural rubes. Both terms now are usually applied in jest and “Jack” has been superseded by “Dub.”

jam piece:
Ulster. See
piece
. Slice of bread and jam or jam sandwich.

jar:
Alcoholic drink.

John Bull top hat:
A top hat with a very low crown as depicted in cartoons of the British mascot, as the exaggerated top hat is worn by Uncle Sam. Popular headgear for ladies hunting and Winston Churchill before World War I.

just the jibby-job:
Terrific.

knackered:
Very tired. An allusion to a horse so worn out by work that it is destined for the knacker’s yard where horses are destroyed.

knickers:
Females’ underpants.

knockabout:
Dublin. Homeless man who slept in tenement halls.