- cock of the town — not defined in dictionaries, but presumably from ((cock of the walk: "a person who asserts himself in a strutting pompous way" informal – Collins.)) (("Black, who had held his own against the cock of the town in the last row with the louts" – Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1867.))
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one foot up ... — from the children's rhyme "See-saw, sacaradown, Which is the way to London Town? One foot up, the other foot down, That is the way to London Town" – Nursery Songs and Ballads, 1869.
- top of the morn — traditional Irish greeting, often used in caricature. (("considered archetypal or stereotypical of Irish speech. It is rarely heard in Ireland" – Wiktionary.)) (("used everywhere [in Ireland], North and South" – PWJ 1910.))
- tip-top — excellent. ((colloquial – Partridge HS.)) dandy — fine, splendid. ((US, anglicized ca. 1905 – Partridge HS.))
- bare his head — lift his hat, usually as a token of respect. (("He came into the garden ... and bared his head, as it was always his custom to do when he saw my aunt" – Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850.))
- customer — chap, fellow. (("a person to have to do with" colloquial – OED.))
- bazaar — charity sale or fair. (("a fancy fair in imitation of the Eastern bazaar; especially a sale of useful and ornamental articles, in behalf of some charitable or religious object" – OED.))
- bill — advertisement. ((OED.))
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One Shilling per Guinea ... — a pound (£) at this time amounted to 20 shillings. A guinea amounted to 21 shillings. Tradesmen dealt in pounds, but gentlemen (doctors, lawyers, etc.) dealt in guineas. (The sense seems to be that one shilling out of every twenty-one spent at Mr Mack's shop is promised toward some charitable cause.) Pound Sterling -
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Belgian Refugees — a small number of Belgian refugees, displaced by the German advances through Belgium, were settled in Ireland during WW1. …
"During the four years of the war, over 2,300 refugees were received in Ireland for whom the Belgian Refugee Committee collected over £46,000 (including the proceeds of collections at the doors of Dublin churches). Some were placed in workhouses for lack of accommodation, in one case (Dunshaughlin, county Meath) the paupers were cleared out by the military to make way for 125 refugees. According to a Local Government Board report, 'public interest in the business chilled when Belgians showed little inclination to accept Irish hospitality, preferring to remain in England.' Perhaps there they were not reduced to displacing unfortunate paupers. At any rate, the number of refugees in Ireland gradually declined from 1,500 in June 1915 to 900 the following year and to 500 by the end of the war." – O'Brien, Dear Dirty Dublin, 1982. -
Comforts for the Troops in France — small "comforts" (soap, socks, tobacco, etc) collected by volunteers at home (usually women and children) for soldiers serving at the Front.
- Presentation Missions — Presentation Brothers
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Limpopo — a river in southeast Africa, used here by Mr Doyle to indicate an "outlandish" or "unheard of" place. At this time there were no Presentation Brothers missions to Africa. - milk — exploit. (("turn into a source of (usually) illicit profit" – OED.))
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Ladies' Mass — usually "Women's Mass", an informal name for early Mass on Sunday, attended especially by women (so that they might be home in time to begin preparing the family meal). Men's Mass was the later principle Mass of the Sunday. (("His mother had been to the Women's Mass at nine o'clock, and now his father was dressed and ready for the half-ten" – Hugh Leonard, Home Before Night, 1979.)) - sixpenny-door — the main entrance to the church, where it was usual to pay sixpence into the collection box for Sunday Mass. The side doors were for the use of the poorer people, who might not afford the front-door "charge". …
"My mother seldom went to mass when I was very young, and she finally gave up going altogether when one Sunday she was refused admission through the front door of Meath Street Chapel because she put only a penny in the collection box. Oul' Bennet the collector pulled her up and told her to go around the side door with her penny. She took back her penny and from then on she made her own arrangements with God. This custom of having a 'poor side' was detestable to those who couldn't put a thruppeny-bit or a sixpence in the collection box and incidents between the poor people and the collector were quite usual" – Máirín Johnston, Around the Banks of Pimlico, 1985.
- the Stations — Stations of the Cross, a pious chapel devotion.
- tanner — sixpence coin. ((slang – OED.))
- genteelery — ? "genteel-like". grocerly — ? "grocer-like", echoic on "grossly". Both would seem to be Nonce words.
- modest quencher — a small drink. ((colloquial – Partridge HS.)) (("a glass of spirits and water" – Hotten 1873.))
- your honour – (("used now all through Ireland by the peasantry when addressing persons very much above them" – PWJ 1910.))
- don't care if I do — (("generally in acceptance of a drink". US, anglicized ca. 1900 – Partridge HS.))
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- sargentleman — sergeant + gentleman. Ware 1909 gives (("sargentlemanly: satirical perversion of 'so gentlemanly', and importing that the person has taken rank above a mere private".))
- soldier of the Queen, me lads — from a popular Boer-War era song. (The Queen here is Victoria.) ♫♫
- Royal Dublin Fusiliers — an Irish regiment in the British Army. RDF
- the Old Toughs — regimental nickname of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (originally of the 2nd Battalion). (("For long and arduous service in India" – Farmer 1904.))
- old God's time — (("time immemorial" – Slanguage.))
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Tipp — short for Tipperary, an inland county of Ireland in the province of Munster. Mr Mack it transpires was born in County Tipperary. - Yorkshire of Ireland — Tipperary shares with Yorkshire in England the quirk of being divided into ridings – three in Yorkshire, and, oddly, two in Tipperary. Oddly, because a riding means a third. In the 19th century there seems to have been some rivalry amongst Irish counties in pursuit of this epithet, with County Cork usually gaining the laurel. …
For instance, "... the County Cork, be it remembered, is the Yorkshire of Ireland" – The Irish tourist's illustrated handbook for visitors to Ireland, 1852. But Tipperary too had its supporters: "... the consequent confidence reposed in him by the people, to rally the whole county of Tipperary against the very high aristocracy in that Yorkshire of Ireland" – Select Committee on Bribery at Elections, 1835.
- stretch — of the imagination, of course, but also punning ((stretch: "to be hanged" obsolete – OED)) a usual prospect for patriots in Ireland.
- Some say the devil ... — the rhyme appears in Padraic O'Farrell, How the Irish speak English, 1980. The words and sentiment are similar to the traditional anti-British Army song "The Devil Is Dead". ♫♫
- kidger — young lad. ((Dublin slang – Slanguage.)) (("We're leafin' the kidger here for a few seconds, said Tom's friend; he'll just sit quiet an' be in nobody's way" – O'Casey 2.))
- wandering soles on me feet — ? indicative of a yearning for travel, adventure.
- sodger — soldier. (colloquial and dialect – Partridge HS.)) …
O, why the deuce should I repine,
And be an ill foreboder?
I'm twenty-three and five feet nine,
I'll go and be a sodger.
Robert Burns, I'll go and be a sodger, 1782. - class — (("kind" – Slanguage.)) That class of thing = that sort of thing.
- galoot — (("a clownish fellow" – PWJ 1910.))
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Quartermaster-Sergeant — a non-commissioned officer in the British Army responsible for supplies or stores. ((Wikipedia.)) - yous — used in IE to form the second person plural pronoun. IE
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Relief of Ladysmith — a major event, February 1900, in the Boer War, fought 1899-1902 between the British Empire and the Dutch Boer settlers of southern Africa. Early in the war, the Boers blockaded British military and colonists in the towns of Natal province. The protracted Seige of Ladysmith (along with other similar sieges in Kimberley and Mafeking) was a cause of deep consternation to the British newsreading public. The Relief of Ladysmith, consequently, resulted in widespread celebration in Britain, and a reaffirmation of Imperial destiny. (The RDF played a prominent role in the battles leading up to the Relief of Ladysmith: for their gallantry, they were awarded the honour of marching into the town at the head of the relieving force.) - boy with the creature comforts — boy here, presumably, refers to the younger barman or potboy. creature comforts: ? the alcoholic beverages ordered. (("food and other things necessary for the comfort of the body – Brewer 1898.)) ((the creature: "whisky, especially Irish whiskey" – Partridge HS.))
- pardon me parsnips — ? an elaboration on ((I beg your parsnips: "I beg your pardon" low jocular colloquialism – Partridge HS.))
- do the aqua — (("to put in the water, as 'Jo, do the aqua', and Joe pours the water into the held-out glass, observing 'Say when!' 'When', says the other at the point he considers the dilution absolute" public-house slang – Ware 1909.)) ex Latin aqua, "water". Which indicates they're drinking whiskeys.
- may your purse nor your prick ... — a low form of "Cheers!" with the meaning "may you never fail in riches or sexual conquest". ((half-toast, half-catch-phrase. C.18-mid-19 – Partridge.)) ((Grose 1811, describes the phrase as "the beggar's benison".))
- accommodation — (("pecuniary aid in an emergency; a loan" – OED.))
- sodgering days — soldiering days. cf sodger above.
- huckster's emporium — pejoratively and pompously, a shop. ((huckster: "a retailer of small goods; a pedlar, hawker" – OED.)) ((emporium: "pompously applied to: a shop, warehouse" – OED.))
- splitting firewood till closing — ? chopping wood into kindling (to use or to sell) until closing time of the shop (or of the pub down the road). A make-work.
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kopjeses — solicistic plural of "kopje": (("in South Africa: a small hill" – OED.)) (("a small hill or mound (especially on the African veld)" – Wiktionary)) …
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Thomas Hardy, Drummer Hodge, 1899. - nothing'll suit — nothing will do, nothing is good enough. ((OED.))
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- South African Campaign — the name applied to the Boer War by British authorities during the conduct of the war. (Properly "South Africa Campaign".)
- mister-me-friend — (("form of semi-derisive address" – Slanguage.))
- saw spit of — ? saw anything of, saw much of, came close to. Perhaps on the analogy of a "spit" being a small or worthless amount ("a spit in the ocean").
- too cute by a quarter — an amplification, or diminution, of "too cute by a half" – too clever for one's own good.
- stowed for home — ((stow: "to conceal oneself on board a ship; be a stowaway" – OED.)) HMS Funk — a pretend name for a Royal Navy ship. ((funk: "cowering fear; a state of panic or shrinking terror" – OED.))
- mawsey — rotten-looking, hairy. ((mawsey, mosey: "mouldy, rotten, decayed" – EDD.)) ((mosey: "hairy". dialect – OED.)) ((mausey, mawsy: "having heavy buttocks" – DILR.)) hide — (("the human skin" – Partridge HS.)) Here probably meaning "backside".
- time-expired — having served the required number of years in the military. (("men at the end of their term of service" – Kipling.org.)) …
The Malabar's in 'arbour with the Jumner at 'er tail,from Troopin', in Rudyard Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads and Other Verses, 1892.
An' the time-expired's waitin' of 'is orders for to sail.
Ho! the weary waitin' when on Khyber 'ills we lay,
But the time-expired's waitin' of 'is orders 'ome to-day. - where it goes — a form of "Cheers". (("Where it goes, he said, and gurgled down more than half of his pint" – O'Casey 2)) it goes worth chasing — it's worth following with another drink. ((chaser: "mild beverage taken after spirituous liquor" – OED.)) The sense seems to be: "If it's worth drinking this one drink, it's worth drinking another (milder) drink afterwards."
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To be sure did yous hear ... — from a ditty against the Guinness brewing family, first published 1813. The Guinnesses, being Irish and of Irish descent, and also being wealthy and Protestant, were figures of constant scrutiny. The rhyme has to do with Catholic Irish anger at the Guinness family's perceived antipathy to Catholic Emancipation (when in fact the Guinnesses, canny businessmen all, were in favour). Quoted in Stephen Mansfield, The Search for God and Guinness, 2009. - a bird never hopped on one leg — ((a bird never flew on one wing: "frequently employed in response to the offer of a second drink" – Slanguage.)) Amplification, or diminution, of this.
- purge — beer. (military and low generally – Partridge HS.)) Farmer 1904, records this "barrack-room wheeze": "Comrades, listen while I urge | Drink, yourselves, and pass to purge"; which Partridge HS glosses with "copious liquid prevents costiveness".
- lamps — eyes. ((formerly poet.; now slang – OED.))
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jennet — small horse with "good disposition". ((Wikipedia.)) (("I can, I can, said Johnny eagerly; I've often dhrove the milkman's jennet, an' he's often a hard thing to handle" – O'Casey 2.)) - carry me out — ((carry me out and bury me decently: "an exclamation or objurgation generally called forth by an incredible story, or by something displeasing to the auditor" – Farmer 1904)) ((after ca. 1870, generally abbreviated to "carry me out!" – Partridge HS.))
- nuppence — no money at all. (("modelled on tuppence" – OED.))
- handle — nickname. ((slang – OED.))
- gallanty — ? gallant-like. nonce word. Perhaps from ((gallanty show: "a shadow pantomime produced by throwing shadows of miniature figures on a wall or screen" – OED.))
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magnolious — magnificent. (("humorously from magnolia + -ous" – OED.)) (("ex the splendour of the magnolia" – Partridge HS.)) -
purl one, plain one — stitches employed in knitting. "Knitting reached its height of popularity in England during World War I, when uniform items were in short supply. Queen Mary issued an appeal for woollens. Sheet music, posters, postcards, and patriotic knitting books urged both men and women to do their part in the war effort. So they knitted non-stop – in trains, restaurants, and the theatre – producing thousands of khaki-colored socks, vests, mitts, and a headdress known as a balaclava helmet that covered the ears and neck." – Jane Eldershaw, The Everything Knitting Book, 2003. -
general maid — the lowest of maidservants, having no particular employment. (("maid-of-all-work" – OED.)) (("The general servant, or maid-of-all-work, is perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration: her life is a solitary one, and in, some places, her work is never done. She is also subject to rougher treatment than either the house or kitchen-maid" – Mrs Beeton, The Book of Household Management, 1861.)) - whisht — silence!, be silent! (("used all over Ireland" – PWJ 1910.))
- hardened tea-drinker — convinced tee-totaller. (("a person as fond of tea as a drunkard of his liquor" jocular colloquialism; since ca. 1910 – Partridge.))
- his nibs — himself. (("the person mentioned" – Partridge HS.)) (("a mock title used to refer to a self-important man, especially one who is in authority" – Oxford Idioms.))
- old bags — that fellow, "your man". ((bags: "a despicable individual, generally male" – Slanguage.))
- old shoes, up again — (("no rest for the wicked!" semi-proverbial colloquiallism – Partridge HS.))
- that bangs it — that beats all. ((bang: "outdo, excel" – OED.)) that bangs Banaghan — ((to beat banaghan: "to tell a (too) marvellous story". orig. and mostly Anglo-Irish colloquial: late C.18-20 – Partridge HS.)) (("An Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories" – Farmer 1904.)) (("Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous" – Grose 1811
- Irish Times — a "posh" Protestant penny newspaper. ^
| UK | US-h | US-p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pages | 3-5 | 9-11 | n/a |
| POV | Mr Doyle | ||
| Where | Fennelly's public house, Glasthule | ||
| When | Wednesday late morning, May 5 1915 | ||
