The more things change....

I have heard it said on more than one occasion that the 'best' English is spoken in Ireland. Where this idea came from is lost in the mists of time, but many people who grew up with it believe it Furthermore, the tale continues, Queen Anne's English was the English spoken in Dublin and is reputed to be the finest English of all, and I remember hearing this as a child, said by those who believed that they spoke this mythical tongue. I could find nothing about it when I googled it, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Queen Anne was the last of the Stuarts, and Irish people on the southern side of the border, being Catholics in the main, favoured the Stuarts.


What made me think of all this was a very interesting book I came across at the recycling centre. It is a paperback called "English As It Is Spoken In Ireland" by P. W. Joyce, published in 1991 by Wolfhound Press, Dublin. Both front and back covers are in poor condition, with half of the back cover missing. However, its external deficiencies are more than made up for by the fascination of its contents. This publication is a facsimile of the very first edition, dated 1910, which was published by Longmans, Green, & Co. London and M.H. Gill & Son, Ltd. of Dublin. It deals with the origins of  English as spoken in Ireland, and there are pages and pages of expressions such as: "eating the calf in the cow's belly" which means "spending your money before you get it", - going by this, think about credit cards today and realise how much they would have been frowned on in Ireland more than a century ago.

There is an explanation for a saying which is still heard in Ireland at times: 'wouldn't know a B from a bull's foot' (I always thought it was a 'bee', by the way.) Joyce explains "The catching point here is partly alliteration, and partly that a bull's foot has some resemblance to a B.' I never knew that and I'd be surprised if you did either. Now, here's an interesting one, he" 'could kiss a goat between the horns.' " well, that meant he was "a man with a very thin face". In the "Vocabulary and Index" section of the book, I see " Gossip; a sponsor in Baptism" . There is no further explanation, unfortunately.

Here is an item of news I found a couple of days ago in the Irish Daily Mail: a bookseller in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, John Brennan, who works with David Faughnan at his Universal Bookshop, recently came across a 1st Edition of the Irish Constitution dated 1937 and signed by Eamon de Valera. It really just goes to show that you never know what you will find in a load of old books. We ourselves once came across a quite valuable book which had been taken out on loan from a university library in Dublin in the 1940s and never returned. When we returned it to them they were delighted to have it back,  as it was a rare second edition and they actually didn't have another copy. So whenever you go to a sale or to the recycling centre, it's worth being on the alert for such finds. You may lay a ghost to rest as well as perform a public service.

I found the next two books at sales: the first, which came from a local library sale, .is a novel by John M. Feehan,  "My Village My World" , published by Mercier Press of Cork and Dublin in 1992. John Feehan wrote other books, according to the information on the back cover of this work, but I think this is his only novel, and it appears to be largely autobiographical. The foreword is written by the famous J.B. Keane, who says he knew him for thirty years, and that:

"This is a book that never palls or drags. It is boisterous and ribald and I am tempted to say that it is by far the funniest book I have ever read. It is also an accurate and revealing history of rural Ireland half a century ago and more.. John M. Feehan writes beautifully throughout.  I love this book."

High praise indeed, and if you are lucky enough to get your hands on it, I think you will understand J.B. Keane's words in your own heart. In the epilogue to his work, John Feehan says

"I hope I never see myself bent over shuffling towards the grave. I would much prefer to walk briskly towards it with my head held high and the lilt of a song in my heart. The grave is in reality the gateway to the fullness of life - the dark passage after which comes the light of eternity, the answer to every question that has baffled me during the course of my life.......I confess to a certain morbid curiosity, but I have one great consolatiion. I will be judged by a God, and not by a human, who is unlikely to run me in for all eternity because I liked the sparkle of wine or the flash of a pair of pretty legs.........I have very little to show after a long life, but I also ask for very little - a few dogs, a few books, birds and nature and a few companions like Lahy. Surely He will grant me that."

Lahy is one of the characters who springs to life in this book, which I urge you to get for yourself if you can at all. John M Feehan died suddenly in 1991 just before it was published, and that last piece I quoted consisted of two scraps of paper found with the manuscript which were added by the publisher as "they seemed like a fitting epilogue."

The second book, Nell McCafferty's "In The Eyes Of The Law" is a collection of articles on her

days spent as a reporter for the Irish Times in the Irish courts system. They make powerful reading.

Many who find themselves in the same place today are no different from the characters which

people these reports. Nell breathed life into these people, not just those going before the courts, but

also those who worked there, including the gardaí, the court clerks and not least the judges, Among

these was Justice Herman Good, whose family, originally called Godansky, came into Ireland from

Russia in the 1800s. In the essays, he seemed to show at times some empathy for the unfortunates before him. Recently I have discovered intriguing facts about his life which suggest that

this empathy may well have been acquired 'on the ground'. He began working as a solicitor in the

poorest parts of Dublin City, joined the Irish army during World War II, the period known as ' The

Emergency'  in Ireland, and led a long and colourful life about which little is in the public domain at

present. A biography of this gentleman would be a riveting exercise, although some astute

detective work might be a necessity before embarking on it, as documentary information on himself

and his family after they came to Ireland is, for whatever reason, hard to come by.

In her introduction to "In The Eyes Of The Law" Nell says:

"In the ten years I spent in and around the courts, I learned that there is a clear distinction between law and justice. The parent who steals for food for the children is praised in parable and convicted in the court; the alcoholic who needs treatment is punished; the beggar who needs money is jailed; the person who goes to jail again and again, and is not rehabilitated, is sent back to the jail again and again and again. Because these people have suffered more than enough by appearing in court in the first place, I never used their real names and addresses. I have named the Justices who decided their fate. Hopefully, this collection of articles will put them in the dock for a change."

I suppose the only people in Nell's book who have changed are the beggars, as many though not all of these appear to be following a profession in mendicancy today, but the others, the addicts, the petty thieves,  the homeless and the completely broke all still feature daily in our newspapers. Incidentally, I remember my brother telling me that he had met Nell in a friend's house, and the first thing he saw of her were two very large boots plonked firmly on the friend's table pointing towards the door,in the manner of a cowboy from an old wild west film. Since I first read this book I have thought what a wonderful film it would make, with cameo roles for countless actors and more than enough human interest in it to justify the most inspired direction.

If you can find this book I promise you that you will never grow tired of it.  I do not recommend that you lend it easily either, for the borrower will think very hard of returning it.  That, in fact, could be said for all the books in today's blog.