English As We Speak It in Ireland

by P. W. Joyce

Dry for thirsty is an old English usage; for in Middleton's Plays it is found used in this sense. (Lowell.) It is almost universal in Ireland, where of course it survives from old English. There is an old Irish air and song called 'I think it no treason to drink when I'm dry': and in another old Folk Song we find this couplet:

'There was an old soldier riding by,

He called for a quart because he was dry.'

Instances of the odd perversion of sense by misplacing some little clause are common in all countries: and I will give here just one that came under my own observation. A young friend, a boy, had remained away an unusually long time without visiting us; and on being asked the reason he replied:—'I could not come, sir; I got a bite in the leg of dog'—an example which I think is unique.

On the first appearance of the new moon, a number of children linked hands and danced, keeping time to the following verse—

I see the moon, the moon sees me,

God bless the moon and God bless me:

There's grace in the cottage and grace in the hall;

And the grace of God is over us all.