Fierce: extreme-'there was a fierce crowd in there.'
Fine half: nice-looking girl.
Flah: to have sex with.
Flah'd out: exhausted.
Full shilling (not the): mentally challenged.
Funt: kick.
Ganky: unpleasant (of a person's looks).
Gawk: stare at, or vomit.
Gob: mouth.
Gobdaw: fool.
Gom: thickhead.
Gowl: idiot.
Grand: good, fine, okay.
Header: mentally unstable person.
High babies: grade school.
Holliers: holidays.
Holy show: spectacle-'you made a holy show of yourself.'
Hop (on the): playing hooky.
Hump off: go away.
Hurling: a Gaelic game played with sticks, not unlike hockey.
Jag: a date.
Langered/langers: drunk.
Letting on: pretending.
Massive: lovely-'your dress is only massive.'
Me Daza: very nice.
Mebs: testicles.
Messages: shopping-'I have to get the messages.'
Mighty: very good-'that was mighty.'
Monkey's (don't give a): don't give a damn.
Mooching: sponging for money.
One: woman-'some oul one.'
Rubber dollies: sneakers.
Sconce: look-'have a sconce at that.'
Scratcher: bed.
Septic: vain (of a girl).
Show: movie.
Shelityhorn: snail.
Slagging: making good-natured fun, teasing.
Soften his cough: teach him a lesson.
Soot: satisfaction-'I wouldn't give you the soot.'
Twisted: drunk.
Twigged: understood, caught on.
1
John had never seen so many hooded crows circling around the farm as he did that wet November morning. His father always used to say that whenever you saw more than seven hooded crows gathered together, they had come to gloat over a human tragedy.
It was tragedy weather, too. Curtains of rain had been trailing across the Nagle Mountains since well before dawn, and the northwest field was so heavy that it had taken him more than three hours to plow it. He was turning the tractor around by the top corner, close to the copse called Iollan's Wood, when he saw Gabriel frantically waving from the gate.
John waved back. Jesus, what did the idiot want now? If you gave Gabriel a job to do, you might just as well do it yourself, because he was always asking what to do next, and was it screws or nails you wanted, and what sort of wood were you after having this made from? John kept on steadily plowing, with big lumps of sticky mud
