Poetry And Humour Of The Irish

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 5

Poetry And Humour Of The Irish

In many of the quaint and humorous phrases that keep Irish conversation sparkling, there is a flash of real genius and inspiration. The line between poetry and humour is hard to draw. To go and listen "to the crack" is a literary education. To talk to some old Irish people once you have gained their confidence and friendship, is a perpetual delight. Miss Somerville and Miss Martin Ross have preserved many of these old phrases in their books. J. M. Synge hardly ever put a phrase into his plays that he had not actually heard in conversation among the peasants. Here are a few such phrases, chosen at random. Look for the poetry as well as the humour as you hear them. "Would you know him again?" a man was asked. "Know him! I’d know his skin in a tanyard." A racehorse coming up the straight may be in need of "some nourishment from the stick." (You may have known horses like that, but lacked the poetry to express it so aptly). I once heard a woman complain to another about some misdemeanour of her small son. "Wait till I get him. I'll persevere on him." A moody child was described by her mother: "She’s like porridge, she’s lumpy." If you wish to cheer someone up, you try to " lift a smile

to their lip."

(Rev.

A. C.

Acheson

66 Irish

Humour; 3YA, October 17)-