A child is afraid of a dog: 'Yerra he won't touch you': meaning 'he won't bite you.'
A man having a very bad aim in shooting:—'He wouldn't hit a hole in a ladder.'
Carleton's blind fiddler says to a young girl: 'You could dance the Colleen dhas dhown An ill-conducted man:—'That fellow would shame a field of tinkers.' The tinkers of sixty years ago, who were not remarkable for their honesty or good conduct, commonly travelled the country in companies, and camped out in fields or wild places. I was dying to hear the news; i.e. excessively anxious. Where an Englishman will say 'I shall be pleased to accept your invitation,' an Irishman will say 'I will be delighted to accept,' &c. Mick Fraher is always eating garlick and his breath has a terrible smell—a smell of garlick strong enough to hang your hat on. A mean thief:—He'd steal a halfpenny out of a blind beggarman's hat. (P. Reilly: Kild.) A dexterous thief:—He'd steal the sugar out of your punch.