Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/340

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'Then ochone I'm going to Skellig:
O Moreen, what will I do?
'Tis the woeful road to travel;
And how lonesome I'll be without you!'[1]

Here is a verse from another:—

Poor Andy Callaghan with doleful nose
Came up and told his tale of many woes:—
Some lucky thief from him his sweetheart stole,
Which left a weight of grief upon his soul:
With flowing tears he sat upon the grass,
And roared sonorous like a braying ass.

Skelly; to aim askew and miss the mark; to squint. (Patterson: all over Ulster.)
Skelp; a blow, to give a blow or blows; a piece cut off:—'Tom gave Pat a skelp': 'I cut off a skelp of the board with a hatchet.' To run fast:—'There's Joe skelping off to school.'
Skib; a flat basket:—'We found the people collected round a skibb of potatoes.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')
Skidder, skiddher; broken thick milk, stale and sour. (Munster.)
Skillaun. The piece cut out of a potato to be used as seed, containing one germinating eye, from which the young stalk grows. Several skillauns will be cut from one potato; and the irregular part left is a skilloge (Cork and Kerry), or a creelacaun (Limerick). Irish sciollán, same sound and meaning.
Skit; to laugh and giggle in a silly way:—'I'll be
  1. From my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 56, in which also will be found the beautiful air of this.