SAYINGS (continued)

• "He went ballistic!" = he lost his temper (big time)!
• They're as thick as thieves" = They are extremely close, as in a business partnership. It is sometimes used to identify a pair of rogues but the 'thick' does not infer stupidity.
• "It's/SUBJECT beyond the pale". This is an historical saying, referring to the description by the English for Dublin's boundary, the Pale (from the French word for fence). The phrase usually refers to something uncivilized!
• "Well, I had one too, but the wheels fell off!" [said to your pal in response to hearing a foreign language whe don't understand it!]. Many thanks to Chris O'Dania for that!
• "The face o' that the price of marg...!" [A response to your friend when you see a look of amazement on someone else. 'Marg' = margerine, an expensive item when this saying came into use!

MEANINGS (with an example of spoken usage) 1 Feb 2007

• Flick = film, movie (flicks = cinema, movie theatre)
• Flutter = bet, gamble with bookmaker/bookies
• Hooley = a party or celebration, usually with drink taken! It frequently features entertainment, typically music and dancing.
• Plug = element that fits a socket (usually electrical) OR a shameless advertisement, frrequently informal or verbal (such as an announcement at an event for a forthcoming event)
• Windscreen = windshield
• Chip = piece of fried potato, small stone, small element removed from a larger section. See other uses of chip here. NEW
• Readies = cash [the saying probably originates from borrowed money, eg, "have you got the readies?"] NEW
• Sprog = child
• Slag = to mock someone, not a woman of ill repute!
• Windy = scared (as well as when the isobars become closer on the weather chart)
• Shagged = tired, knackered
• Devil's buttermilk = Guinness. An allusion to the power of alcohol over the (Christian) soul.
• Rigmarole = complicated sequence of events
• Mongrel = crossbred dog [mutt]
• Pearer = pencil sharpener

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Guest sayings

Maddie (Ireland): I'm like the wreck of the Hesperus = you're a mess (the Hesperus was a shipwreck)

Wind yer neck in = calm down, stop shouting / showing off

I wouldn't call the Queen my aunt = you're perfectly content

He's as Irish as McGonigall's pigs = he's very Irish!

Pogue Mahoney (Ireland): He's as thick as gick = not very intelligent

Tony Ward From Dublin (now in Sussex, England): Yer man is locked = he is drunk