Seminar Four (Hiberno-English)

1. Translate into Standard English:

Dear Fiona,
It is a long time since our meeting at last Christmas, and a great distress is on me, for its
you I do be thinking of ever since. I dont know do you remember me girleen and me at
the party singing with Jimmy Farrell. Dancing you were with me, and to Dublin for the
ew !ear you said youd come. I was after waiting on you. "urely you didnt turn up. I
dont know what to be thinking of this. !ourself must have the flu, I think. #et me know
is it true or not.
"ean
2. The following excerpt is from John Millington Synges famous tragicomedy The
Playboy of the Western World.
a !ead it" and notice the particularities of #i$erno%English syntax.
$ &isten to it" and notice the particularities of #i$erno%English pronunciation.

$%&%% "i' yards of stuff for to make a yellow gown. ( pair of lace boots with lengthy
heels on them and brassy eyes. ( hat is suited for a wedding)day. ( fine tooth comb. *o
be sent with three barrels of porter in Jimmy Farrell+s creel cart on the evening of the
coming Fair to ,ister ,ichael James Flaherty. -ith the best compliments of this season.
,argaret Flaherty.
".(- /%0&.. -here+s himself1
$%&%% .e+s coming. 2"he directs the letter.3 *o ,ister "heamus ,ulroy, -ine and
"pirit Dealer, Castlebar.
".(-. I didn+t see him on the road.
$%&%%. .ow would you see him and it dark night this half hour gone by1
".(-. I stood a while outside wondering would I have a right to pass on or to walk in
and see you, $egeen ,ike, and I could hear the cows breathing, and sighing in the
stillness of the air, and not a step moving any place from this gate to the bridge.
$%&%%. It+s above at the cross)roads he is, meeting $hilly Cullen4 and a couple more
are going along with him to /ate Cassidy+s wake.
".(-. (nd he+s going that length in the dark night1
$%&%%. .e is surely, and leaving me lonesome on the scruff of the hill. Isn+t it long the
nights are now, "hawn /eogh, to be leaving a poor girl with her own self counting the
hours to the dawn of day1
".(-. If it is, when we+re wedded in a short while you+ll have no call to complain, for
I+ve little will to be walking off to wakes or weddings in the darkness of the night.
$%&%%. !ou+re making mighty certain, "haneen, that I+ll wed you now.
".(-. (ren+t we after making a good bargain, the way we+re only waiting these days
on Father 5eilly+s dispensation from the bishops, or the Court of 5ome.
$%&%%. It+s a wonder, "haneen, the .oly Father+d be taking notice of the likes of you4
for if I was him I wouldn+t bother with this place where you+ll meet none but 5ed
#inahan, has a s6uint in his eye, and $atcheen is lame in his heel, or the mad ,ulrannies
were driven from California and they lost in their wits. -e+re a 6ueer lot these times to
go troubling the .oly Father on his sacred seat.
".(-. If we are, we+re as good this place as another, maybe, and as good these times
as we were for ever.
$%&%%. (s good, is it1 -here now will you meet the like of Daneen "ullivan knocked
the eye from a peeler, or ,arcus 7uin, &od rest him, got si' months for maiming ewes,
and he a great warrant to tell stories of holy Ireland till he+d have the old women shedding
down tears about their feet. -here will you find the like of them, I+m saying1
".(-. If you don+t it+s a good 8ob, maybe4 for Father 5eilly has small conceit to have
that kind walking around and talking to the girls.
$%&%%. "top tormenting me with Father 5eilly when I+m asking only what way I+ll
pass these twelve hours of dark, and not take my death with the fear.
".(-. -ould I fetch you the widow 7uin, maybe1
$%&%%. Is it the like of that murderer1 !ou+ll not, surely.
".(-. *hen I+m thinking himself will stop along with you when he sees you taking on,
for it+ll be a long night)time with great darkness, and I+m after feeling a kind of fellow
above in the fur9y ditch, groaning wicked like a maddening dog, the way it+s good cause
you have, maybe, to be fearing now.
$%&%% . -hat+s that1 Is it a man you seen1
".(-. I couldn+t see him at all4 but I heard him groaning out, and breaking his heart.
It should have been a young man from his words speaking.
$%&%%. (nd you never went near to see was he hurted or what ailed him at all1
".(-. I did not, $egeen ,ike. It was a dark, lonesome place to be hearing the like of
him.
$%&%%. -ell, you+re a daring fellow, and if they find his corpse stretched above in the
dews of dawn, what+ll you say then to the peelers, or the Justice of the $eace1
".(-. I wasn+t thinking of that. For the love of &od, $egeen ,ike, don+t let on I was
speaking of him. Don+t tell your father and the men is coming above4 for if they heard
that story, they+d have great blabbing this night at the wake.
$%&%%. I+ll maybe tell them, and I+ll maybe not.
".(-. *hey are coming at the door, -ill you whisht, I+m saying1
$%&%%. -hisht yourself.