Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/348

 brown paper in a solution of nitre; lately gone out of use from the prevalence of matches. Often applied in Ulster and Scotland to a spark of fire: 'See is there a spunk of fire in the hearth.' Spunk also denotes spirit, courage, and dash. 'Hasn't Dick great spunk to face that big fellow, twice his size?'


 * 'I'm sure if you had not been drunk
 * With whiskey, rum, or brandy—O,
 * You would not have the gallant spunk
 * To be half so bold or manly—O.'


 * (Old Irish Folk Song.)


 * Irish sponnc.


 * Spy farleys; to pry into secrets: to visit a house, in order to spy about what's going on. (Ulster.)


 * Spy-Wednesday; the Wednesday before Easter. According to the religious legend it got the name because on the Wednesday before the Crucifixion Judas was spying about how best he could deliver up our Lord. (General.)


 * Squireen; an Irish gentleman in a small way who apes the manners, the authoritative tone, and the aristocratic bearing of the large landed proprietors. Sometimes you can hardly distinguish a squireen from a half-sir or from a shoneen. Sometimes the squireen was the son of the old squire: a worthless young fellow, who loafed about doing nothing, instead of earning an honest livelihood: but he was too grand for that. The word is a diminutive of squire, applied here in contempt, like many other diminutives. The class of squireen is nearly extinct: 'Joy be with them.'


 * Stackan; the stump of a tree remaining after the