Cultural Journal 12 - Idioms

The Irish have a number of idioms and turns of phrase that I find fascinating. Our house mother has two that I’ve grown quite fond of: “Grand” and “Happy Days”. “Grand” she uses as a synonym for good or well, as in “I’m grand” when we ask how she is, “you’re grand” when we express concern that we were doing something right or wrong (but were in fact right), and just “grand” as a response to things we tell her that she approved of. “Happy Days” is a more general expression that she is pleased. One time in particular we had come home after class and told her we were going to city center for dinner, and apologized for not knowing sooner. She replied that as far as she was concerned, if she didn’t have to cook “its happy days.” I’m not sure why, but that expression really sticks with me.
One that I love is appending, “self” to words (e.g. himself, herself, yourself) used as a direct reference. I don’t hear this one spoken quite as often as I read it; in A Star Called Henry Missis Drake says to Melody “Good girl yourself” after she climbs onto the newspaper-strewn bed (24). A bus driver says to Henry “How’s yourself?” in greeting and “Good man yourself” in response to Henry’s escape from Kilmainham (343). Reading this I was reminded of a coffee mug my father had when I was young that said “‘Tis Himself” on it. I always liked the expression, but had never thought of using it the way it seems to be used here.
“Allright?” is one that took me some time to get the hang of. Our house mother’s sons use this frequently, and at first I would answer (“Good, you?” or similar). But I noticed on a few occasions when I didn’t directly respond this way, the following question was usually something along the lines of “how are you?” I came to realize that “Allright” is more of a greeting, that it has essentially lost its original meaning as an inquiry into my current state and become and equivalent of “Hello.” The next time one of the boys said ‘Allright,’ I said “Allright, how are you?” and conversation proceeded normally from there. It was a great moment where I felt I had unraveled a small mystery about Irish communication – I felt like a resident, or at least a visitor, rather than just a tourist.