A man who supplants another in any pursuit or design is said to 'come inside him.'
A person is speaking bitterly or uncharitably of one who is dead; and another says reprovingly--'let the dead rest.'
When it is proposed to give a person something he doesn't need or something much too good for him, you oppose or refuse it by saying:--'_Cock him up with it_--how much he wants it!--I'll do no such thing.' Two gentlemen staying for a night in a small hotel in a remote country town ordered toast for breakfast, which it seems was very unusual there. They sat down to breakfast, but there was no sign of the toast. 'What about the toast?' asks one. Whereupon the impudent waiter replies--'Ah, then cock yez up with toast: how bad yez are for it.'
A very general form of expression to point to a person's identity in a very vague way is seen in the following example:--'From whom did you buy that horse, James?' Reply:--'From _a man of the Burkes_ living over there in Ballinvreena': i.e. a man named Burke. Mr. Seumas MacManus has adopted { 201} this idiom in the name of one of his books:--'A Lad of the O'Friels.'
'I never saw the froth of your pot or the bead of your naggin': i.e. you have never entertained me. _Bead_, the string of little bubbles that rise when you shake whiskey in a bottle. (Kildare.)
Of a man likely to die: 'he'll soon be a load for four': i.e. the four coffin-bearers. (Reilly: Kildare.)
When a person attempts to correct you when you are not in error:--'Don't take me up till I fall.'
When you make a good attempt:--'If I didn't knock it down, I staggered it.'
'Love daddy, love mammy, love yourself best.' Said of a very selfish person.
An odd expression:--'You are making such noise that _I can't hear my ears_.' (Derry; and also Limerick.)
Plato to a young man who asked his advice about getting married:--'If you don't get married you'll be sorry: and if you do you'll be sorry.'
If a man doesn't marry he'll rue it sore: And if he gets married he'll rue it more.
The children were great pets with their grandmother: 'She wouldn't let anyone _look crooked_ at them': i.e. she wouldn't permit the least unkindness.
'Can he read a Latin book?' 'Read one! why, he can write Latin books, _let alone_ reading them.' _Let alone_ in this sense very common all over Ireland.