AN GAODHAL.
128
57 Concord St. Brooklyn.
Mr. Logan:
Dear Sir — When I was a school-boy in Dublin a
fellow student provoked the laughter of his class
and was reprimanded by his teacher for using the
word Smithereens. “The mob attacked my father's
house last night” said the boy “and made smither-
ens of the windows.” At which the teacher frown-
ed and asked amid the laughter of the class,
“What do you mean by smithereens,“ a question
which confounded the speaker. Now I want you
to decide a dispute which this word has given rise
to. I maintain the word is Irish, my opponent
maintains with equal confidence that it is English.
Who will decide when doctors disagree
And learned casuists like him and me.“
He has found in Websters Unabridged the word
smithers, a provincial word, which means fragment-
ary atoms. But this does not make it English be-
cause it may be a loan word.
In O'Briens Dictionary I find the root-word
miot a small portion of anything. This combined
with, deire an end, would make smiot deire, end
bit, and this again joined to in little would make
smiotdeirin which is very like the word in question.
We leave the matter to your arbitration. Is it
Irish or English ?
Yours,
C. M. O’Keeffe.
We believe "smithereens” to be a cor-
ruption of the Gaelic phrase, "'s ioma
de roinn," which is identical in mean-
ing with it, and, by syncopation, has
been crammed into that form.
Ioma, many or divers; roinn, a part
or portion ; then, by joining the s, iom-
a and roinn and syncopating a part of
the letters. we have siomaderinn,
which, by Gaelic-speaking persons,
would be pronounced, "smithereen, and
the Anglicised form of plural would
make it "smithereens.” All Gaelic
speaking persons are aware that in
pronouncing such words as "siomade-
rinn," the sound of "io" is so short that
it is hardly heard; for instance. iarr-
bal, a tail, is pronounced as if written
"rubbal." Again, by rejecting the io
of ioma and joining the s and m, we
have "smaderinn," and d & t being in-
terchangeable letters, and inserting the
aspirate,"h” to thicken the sound of t,
we get “smatherin."
There is no doubt on our mind but
that "smithereens” is a contraction of
's ioma deroinn, many parts.
July 20th, at Bordenstown N. J. Miss Fanny
Parnell, in the 28th year of her age, breathed her
last. These lines will better portray her char-
acter than anything we could write.
What, give our land to you England!
What, give our land to you!
Our ravaged land, whose every rood
Our patriot's bones bestrew.
Our blood-steeped land, our plundered land
With seed of martyr's sown ;
Our tortured land, our writhing land,
Which yet we call our own !
PUBLICATION.
We have received a sample Irish Cepy Book
from Marcus Ward & Co. of Belfast Ireland. It is
the handsomest we have seen, also a sheet coutain¬
ing the arms of the provinces and principal towns
in Ireland: this is a rare work of art, and reflects
credit on the producers.
THE CELTIC MAGAZINE — for this quarter Edited
by Mr. Haltigan, 117 John st. N. Y., is the most
entertaining and instructive journal we have read
in a long time. It is a journal which should find
its way into every family desirous of providing
wholesome reading matter.
We have made arrangements to supply the fol-
lowing publications in and concerning the Irish
Language, at the prices named, post paid. —
O'Reily's & O'Donovan's Irish English Dictionary, $7
Bourkes Easy Lessons in Irish .90
College Irish Grammar by the very Rev Ulick
J. Canon Bourke, P. P., M. R. I. A. .90
School Irish Grammar, By P. W. Joyce, L. L. D.,
T. C. D., M. R. I. A. .40
Irish Catechism. .20
O'Connellans English Irish Dictionary. .90
First Irish Book .10
Second Irish Book .15.
Third Irish Book .20
Irish Head-line Copy Book .15.
Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne Part I. .45.
Foras Feasa air Eirinn; or Dr. Keating's History
of Ireland in the original Irish, with new Trans-
lations, Notes, and Vocabulary, for the use of
schools. Book I. Part I. .60
Vale of Avoca Songster 25.
Life Dean Swift, by T. Clark Luby .50
Also, any other books desired by subscribers if to
be had in New York.
The Gaelic Publication Company would appeal
to their Patriotic countrymen to buy shares of
their Capital Stock- The object of the company
is to publish cheap literature in the Irish Lan-
guage. The shares are Five Dollars each.
Address the Secretary, M. J. Logan, at 814 Pacific
St.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
