An Irish Country Cottage Read online

  Officers Training Corps: Military reserve unit at a university, like the ROTC.

  óg: Young.

  on eggs: Worried sick.

  operating theatre: OR.

  Orange and Green: The colours of Loyalists and Republicans. Used to symbolize the age-old schism in Irish politics.

  Orange Order: Fraternal order of Protestants, committed to loyalty to the British Crown.

  out of the woods: Has sucessfully passed through a trying time.

  oxter/oxtercog: Armpit/help walk by draping an individual’s arm over one’s shoulder.

  paddy hat: Soft-crowned, narrow-brimmed, Donegal tweed hat.

  Paddy’s market: Disorganised crowd.

  pavement: Sidewalk.

  pay (me) no heed, to: Don’t mind (me). Pay no attention to.

  peat (turf): Fuel derived from compressed vegetable matter.

  Peeler: Policeman. Named for the founder of the first organised police force in Great Britain, Sir Robert Peel, 1788–1846. These officers were known as “Bobbies” in England and “Peelers” in Ireland.

  peely-wally: From lowland Scots. Unwell.

  petrol: Gasoline.

  pipes: Three kinds of bagpipes are played in Ireland. The great highland pipes, three drones; the Brian Boru pipes, three drones and four to thirteen keys on the chanter; and the uilleann (elbow), inflated by bellows held under the elbow.

  poulticed: Pregnant (usually out of wedlock).

  power/powerful: Very strong/a lot. “That’s a powerful smell of stout in there” or, “Them pills? They done our Sally a power of good.”

  Prod: Protestant (pejorative).

  quare: Ulster and Dublin pronunciation of “queer,” meaning “very” or “strange.”

  rabbitting on: Talking incessantly about a single subject.

  Raidió Éireann: Irish State radio network. Pronounced “Raddeeo Airann.”

  Raidió Telefis Éireann: Irish State Television network. Pronounced “Raddeeo Telluhfeesh Airann.”

  rapscallion: Ne’er-do-well.

  rare as hens’ teeth: Very rare indeed.

  raring to go: Eager and fully prepared.

  rear up: Take great offence. Become angry and pugnacious.

  redd up: Clean up and tidy.

  ricked: Sprained.

  rickets, near taking the: Ulster. Nothing to do with the vitamin-D-deficiency disease, but an expression of having had a great surprise or shock.

  rig-a-ma-toot: Complicated business.

  right enough/?: That’s true./Used with an interrogative inflection, is that true?

  rightly (do): Very well. (Be adequate if not perfect for the task.)

  rubbernecker: Curiosity-seeker.

  ructions: Violent argument, often physical.

  sandboy (happy as a): The meaning of sandboy is lost but to be happy as one was to be ecstatic.

  scrip: Script, short for “prescription.”

  scut: Rabbit’s tail.

  see him/her?: Emphatic way of drawing attention to the person in question even if they are not physically present.

  Shelmalier: A man from the Shelmalier area of County Wexford.

  shite/shit: “Shite” is the noun, “He’s a right shite,” “shit” the verb, “I near shit a brick.”

  skitters: Diarrhoea.

  slagging: Either a serious verbal telling-off or good-natured, apparently insulting banter.

  sláinte: Irish. Pronounced “slawntuh.” Cheers. Mud in your eye. Skoal. A toast.

  snap: Photograph.

  so/so it is, etc.: Tacked to the end of a sentence for emphasis in County Cork/Ulster.

  soft hand under a duck: Gentle or very good at.

  sound (man): Terrific (trustworthy, reliable, admirable man).

  sparks: Nickname for an electrician.

  speak of the devil: Is completed by “and he’s sure to turn up,” and said when someone whose name has been recently mentioned appears on the scene.

  special clinic: Euphemism for sexually-transmitted-disease clinic.

  spondulix: Money.

  sticking out (a mile): Good. (Excellent.)

  sweets/sweeties: Candies.

  Táin Bó Cúialange: Pronounced “Tawn bo Cooley.” “The Cattle Raid of Cooley,” one of the earliest Irish sagas.

  take a pew: Have a seat. (Pews are the benches found in churches.)

  take your hurry in your hand: Slow down.

  taste (wee): Ulster. Amount, and not necessarily of food. (Small amount.) “That axle needs a wee taste of oil.”

  ta-ta-ta-ra: Dublin. Party.

  that there/them there: That/them with emphasis.

  the height of it: All there is to tell.

  the morrow/day/night: Tomorow/today/tonight.

  there: Used for accuracy or immediacy. That there dog, that dog.

  there now: Now or very recently.

  the wee man: The devil.

  thick (as two short planks): Stupid. (Very stupid.)

  thole: Put up with. A reader, Miss D. Williams, wrote to me to say it was etymologically from the Old English tholian, to suffer. She remarked that her first encounter with the word was in a fourteenth-century prayer.

  thon/thonder: That or there. “Thon eejit shouldn’t be standing over thonder.”

  thrapple: Throat.

  threw up, off: Vomited.

  tinker’s toss/damn/curse: Tinkers were itinerants who mended pots and pans. Their attributes were not highly prized.

  toty (wee): Small. (Tiny.)

  townland: A mediaeval administrative region comprising a village and the surrounding countryside.

  traveller’s cheque: A monetary instrument purchased with your own currency at your bank that can be cashed (only by you) for face value in the currency of the country you are visiting.

  undertaker: Mortician.

  under the weather: Feeling off-colour.

  up one side and down the other: A severe verbal chastisement.

  up the spout/pipe/builders: Pregnant, often out of wedlock.

  wean: Pronounced “wane.” Little one.

  wee: Small, but in Ulster can be used to modify almost anything without reference to size. A barmaid, an old friend, greeted me by saying, “Come in, Pat. Have a wee seat and I’ll get you a wee menu, and would you like a wee drink while you’re waiting?”

  wee buns: Very easy.

  well mended: Healed properly.

  wheeker: Terrific.

  wheen: An indeterminate number. “How many miles is it to the nearest star?” “Dunno, but it must be a brave wheen.” See clatter.

  wheest, houl’ your wheest: Be quiet, or shut up.

  where to go for corn (not know): Completely at a loss.

  wink’s as good as a nod…: I can take a hint.

  worser nor: Worse than.

  you-boy-you (go on): Words of encouragement (usually during physical activity).

  youse: Plural of “you.”

  BY PATRICK TAYLOR

  Only Wounded

  Pray for Us Sinners

  Now and in the Hour of Our Death

  An Irish Country Doctor

  An Irish Country Village

  An Irish Country Christmas

  An Irish Country Girl

  An Irish Country Courtship

  A Dublin Student Doctor

  An Irish Country Wedding

  Fingal O’Reilly, Irish Doctor

  The Wily O’Reilly

  An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War

  An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea

  An Irish Country Love Story

  An Irish Country Practice

  An Irish Country Cottage

  Home Is the Sailor (e-original)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PATRICK TAYLOR, M.D., was born and raised in Bangor, County Down, in Northern Ireland. Dr. Taylor is a distinguished medical researcher, offshore sailor, model-boat builder, and father of two grown children. He lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.

  Visit him online at p
atricktaylorauthor.com, or sign up for email updates here.

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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Maps

  1. Blazes and Expires

  2. To Take Under My Wing

  3. Take All My Comfort

  4. A Mighty Maze, But Not Without a Plan!

  5. Who Clothed You in Scarlet?

  6. The Whirring Pheasant Springs

  7. My Belly Was Bitter

  8. A Row and a Ruction Soon Began

  9. The End Is to Build Well

  10. In Dubious Battle on the Plains

  11. If You Can Meet with Triumph and Disaster

  12. Builders Have Laboured

  13. Thy Throat Is Shut and Dried

  14. The Right to Be Consulted

  15. His Potion and His Pill

  16. Whether It Be the Heart to Conceive

  17. Asleep the Snow Came Flying

  18. To the Milking Shed

  19. Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt

  20. A Ticket for the Peepshow

  21. We Returned to Our Places

  22. Enough Religion to Make Us Hate

  23. Nothing Profits More than Self-Esteem

  24. That Bringeth Good Tidings

  25. Conspiring with Him How to Load and Bless

  26. Has She No Fault Then?

  27. Touching His Manhood

  28. Rebuild It in the Old Plan

  29. Towers, and Tombs, and Statues

  30. The Immanent Will and Its Designs

  31. Hail Wedded Love

  32. It Is the Generous Spirit

  33. … And Worn the Ancient Thatch

  34. Such Great Contests as These

  35. Take All of My Comfort

  Afterword

  Glossary

  Also by Patrick Taylor

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  AN IRISH COUNTRY COTTAGE

  Copyright © 2018 by Ballybucklebo Stories Corp.

  All rights reserved.

  Maps by Elizabeth Danforth

  Cover art by Gregory Manchess

  A Forge Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates

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  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Forge® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-7653-9681-5 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7653-9682-2 (ebook)

  eISBN 9780765396822

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  First Edition: October 2018