Turf-fire Stories and Fairy Tales of Ireland |
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Common terms and phrases
afeerd Aileen Andy bailiff beautiful Begorra bowld Brian bright cabin Castle cluricaun coorse Corney cottage cried d'ye Darcy darlin Dermot Dinny door drame Dublin Eveleen exclaimed eyes face fairy faix father Fermoy Fierna Geraghty Gerald give go bail goin goold green guineas hand happened head heart horse howld Hyland Ireland Irish Jack Jack Mulcahy Jerry Jerry Mooney kish land Larry lave Leprechaun look Lord lordship luck mane Matt mighty minit mornin mother Mullinahone never night niver O'Daly owld pepper-box Peter Skinner Phadrig Phil Phil O'Shea Phooka pocket poor poteen pounds purty rapparee says Shaun shillin singin Skinacres soon spake squire stone stood stranger sure takin tell ye there's thought Tom O'Carrol towld troth twas Ulick weddin What's whispered wife wish word young
Popular passages
Page 381 - I have heard That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions ; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.
Page 148 - But och ! it hardens a' within, And petrifies the feeling! To catch dame Fortune's golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her; And gather gear by every wile That's justified by honour; Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant; But for the glorious privilege Of being independent.
Page 8 - ... twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of others.
Page 331 - ... throw in a semblance of green summer to cheer the fireside: all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind.
Page 323 - Some saw his skill tried on a horse which could never before be brought to stand for a smith to shoe him. The day after Sullivan's half-hour lecture I went, not without some incredulity, to the smith's shop, with many other curious spectators, where we were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his art. This, too, had been a troop-horse; and it was supposed, not without reason, that after regimental discipline had failed no other would be found availing. I observed that the animal seemed afraid...
Page 323 - J once," continues Mr. Townsend, " saw his skill tried on a horse which could never before be brought to stand for a smith to shoe him. The day after Sullivan's half-hour lecture I went, not without some incredulity, to the smith's shop, with many other curious spectators, where we were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his art.
Page 306 - Pooka seems to be to obtain a rider, and then he is in all his most malignant glory. Headlong he dashes through briar and brake, through flood and fell, over mountain, valley, moor, or river, indiscriminately; up or down precipice is alike to him, provided he gratifies the malevolence that seems to inspire him. He bounds and flies over and beyond them, gratified by the distress, and utterly reckless and ruthless of the cries, and danger, and suffering, of the luckless wight who bestrides him. As...
Page 322 - Every description of horse, or even mule, whether previously broke or unhandled, whatever their peculiar vices or ill -habits might have been, submitted without show of resistance to the magical influence of his art, and in the short space of half an hour became gentle and tractable. The effect, though instantaneously produced, was generally durable. Though more submissive to him than to others, yet they seemed to have acquired a docility unknown before.
Page 148 - Peat consists of vegetable matter which has undergone a peculiar change. Under a degree of temperature not sufficiently great to decompose the plants that have sprung up upon the surface, these plants accumulate ; and, aided by a certain degree of humidity, are converted into peat, which is either found in strata upon the surface of plains, or accumulated in great beds on the tops and acclivities of mountains, or in valleys, hollows, and ravines, successive layers...
Page 87 - Some on the shores of distant lands Their weary hearts have laid, And by the stranger's heedless hands Their lonely graves were made...