SÉADNA

Chapter 2

Sea, a Pheig!	well [“well” as an interjection is often bhuel in modern Irish, but this is a borrowing from English, and Peadar Ua Laoghaire uses “sea” for “well”, and “sea, anois” for “well then!”]
tá saothar orm	I am out of breath [saothar=exertion]
im briathar	upon my word!
cuigeann	a churning, churning some milk
ag teacht abhaile an cóngar	coming home by the shortcut
geallaim dhuit	I can assure you, I swear to you that...
sara mbeinn déanach	lest I were late [sara, meaning “before”, can also mean “lest”, followed by the conditional or past subjunctive]
ar m’aghaidh amach	right in front of me
do thabharfainn an leabhar go	I could have sworn that... [literally, I would give, or I would have given, the book that...]
b’fhéidir go gcuirfeadh Cáit Ní Bhuachalla orm-sa é	maybe she will blame me for it [literally: she would put it on me]
fé ndear an obair seo	the reason for all this carry-on, all this fuss [see note on fé ndeara in chapter 1]
i riocht sparáin d’fháil	seemed on the verge of getting a purse [i riocht, in the guise of]
thíos agus tuas	above and below [the th of thuas can become a simple t after an s]
is iad a bhí go dlúite ar a cheile	notice the emphasis on “iad” - they were really crowded together
dhéanamh amach	to make out, work something out [one of the examples where English idiom parallels the Irish]
lena linn sin	at that time
tarna	the Munster form of dara, second
don mhnaoi	to the woman [mnaoi is the dative of bean, but is rarely used in the current-day Cork Gaeltacht, where don bhean would be said today]
cad do bheir cosnochtaithe í?	how did she come to be barefoot? [“do bheir” is used here as the past tense of beirim, where the normal past tense would be “do rug”.]
cad do bheir di mo scilling do bhreith uaimse?	what made her take my shilling from me? [this is similar to the example above: bheir is being used as the past tense of beirim. In modern Irish, tugaim may be used in this idiom in preference to beirim: cad do thug di mo scilling do bhreith uaimse?]
ní foláir	it can’t be otherwise, it must be that... [ní foláir dom: I must]
aireachtaint [stress on the 2nd syllable]	the verbal noun of airím, I hear. The use of airím instead of cloisim is characteristic of Cork Irish, although Peadar Ua Laoghaire uses both.
teacht thairsi	mention of her [literally: coming across her]
ciorrú ort!	damn you! [literally, maiming on you!]
tráth is [pronounced trás]	seeing as, since
dá dtiocfadh liom	if I could [thig liom is a well known way of saying “I can” usually thought of as Ulster Irish, but Peadar Ua Laoghaire uses the conditional of this here]
ná fuil sé chomh maith agat....	isn’t it just as well for you to...? [tá sé chomh maith agam rud a dhéanamh, I might as well do something]
ní héidir go/ná	surely it is not possible that....? [éidir is a variant of féidir]
chomh géar in Éirinn agus is maith leat é	as rapidly as you wish [in Éirinn is an intensifier; see phrases like “ní fheadar in Éirinn”, I haven’t a clue]
neart dom	I can, I am able to [literally “strength to me”, one of the many ways in Irish to express “can, am able to”
bheirimse brí gach mionna agus brí gach móide dhuitse	I swear by every oath and every vow to you [just as taim is the absolute form of fuilim, so bheirim is the absolute form of tugaim, but this is now largely replaced by tugaim; tugaim mionn, I swear an oath]
go mbainfear ceol asat	a great time will be had with you [bhain sé ceol as an airgead, he spent the money freely, enjoyed the money; literally, he got music out of the money]
gan rath orthu mar chathaoir agus mar mhealbhóig agus mar chrann úll	damn them--the chair, the bag and the apple tree
dá mbarr	as a result of them
aontíos do thabairt dó	to let him move in [aontíos, literally, cohabitation]
a dhrólainn na bhfeart	goodness gracious! [drólann, colon, or in the pl, intestines. Feart, virtue, power, used to make oaths. A Dhia na bhfeart, O God of power!]
doicheall	inhospitality: doicheall bheith ort roimh, to be unwelcoming to
is dó’ [the same as “is dóigh”]	indeed
ní chuchusan a bhíos	I wasn’t referring to them [“chuige” can mean “referring to it”]
thar a bhfeacaís riamh	exactly so! [literally: beyond everything you every saw!]
go dtitfeadh an t-anam tur te asam	I would collapse [tur te “hot and dry” is an idiom meaning “immediately”; the whole phrase is “the soul would fall out of me at once”]
cá bhfios duit? [pronounced: cávas]	how do you know?
tigh tábhairne [pronounced ti tábhairne]	inn, public house
a dó agus dá thistiún	“two and eight” in the pre-decimal coinage, ie “two shillings and eight pence”. Tistiún [or tuistiún] is a four pence coin.
diablaíocht	wizardry [he placed a spell on them; diablaíocht is the Cork form of diabhlaíocht]
cheap sí gurbh airgead dleathach iad [gurbh is pronounced bisyllabically as gurav in Cork Irish]	she thought they were genuine money [gurbh=go+ba]