Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/287

 which they are not. In fact on almost every possible occasion, we—educated and uneducated—use convenient when near would be the proper word. An odd example occurs in the words of the old Irish folk-song:—


 * 'A sailor courted a farmer's daughter,
 * Who lived convaynient to the Isle of Man.'


 * Hannel; a blow with the spear or spike of a pegging-top (or 'castle-top') down on the wood of another top. Boys often played a game of tops for a certain number of hannels. At the end of the game the victor took his defeated opponent's top, sunk it firmly down into the grassy sod, and then with his own top in his hand struck the other top a number of hannels with the spear of his own to injure it as much as possible. 'Your castle-tops came in for the most hannels.' ('Knocknagow.')


 * Hap; to wrap a person round with any covering, to tuck in the bedclothes round a person. (Ulster.)


 * Hard word (used always with the); a hint, an inkling, a tip, a bit of secret information:—'They were planning to betray and cheat me, but Ned gave me the hard word, and I was prepared for them, so that I defeated their schemes.'


 * Hare; to make a hare of a person is to put him down in argument or discussion, or in a contest of wit or cunning; to put him in utter confusion. 'While you were speaking to the little boy that made a hare of you.' (Carleton in Ir. Pen. Journ.)


 * 'Don't talk of your Provost and Fellows of Trinity,
 * Famous for ever at Greek and Latinity,
 * Faix and the divels and all at Divinity—
 * Father O'Flynn 'd make hares of them all!'