#irishbooks — Public Fediverse posts

Check back Friday for the big reveal!

#ReadingCommunity #YAFantasy #Fantasy #Paranormal #UrbanFantasy #Magic #IrishBooks #MastoDaoine

Eavan Boland and the emergence of a poetic self

I picked up Object Lessons (1995) by Eavan Boland (1944–2020) thinking it was a memoir, but it’s more focused than that: a meditation on the emergence of her identity as a poet, specifically a woman poet and an Irish poet.

This identity is further complicated by her emigration from Ireland as a five-year-old girl when her father, a diplomat, took up work in London in the mid-20th century:

Hardly anything else that happened to me as a child was as important as this: that I left one country and came to another. That an ordinary displacement made an extraordinary distance between the word place and the word mine.

In England, everyday words reinforced her sense of difference and lack: ‘They [the other children at school] could say “orchard” instead of “garden” with the offhand grace imparted by nine-tenths of the law. I could not.’ But it would be an Irish English word that crystallized her alienation:

The inevitable happened. One day my tongue betrayed me out of dream and counterfeit into cold truth. I was in the cloakroom at school in the middle of the afternoon. A winter darkness was already gathering through one of the stubborn fogs of the time. A teacher was marshaling children here and there, dividing those who were taking buses from those who were being collected. “I amn’t taking the bus,” I said. I was six or seven then, still within earshot of another way of speaking. But the English do not use that particular construction. It is an older usage. If they contract the verb and the negative, they say, “I’m not.”

Without knowing, I had used that thing for which the English reserve a visceral dislike: their language, loaded and aimed by the old enemy. The teacher whirled around. She corrected my grammar; her face set, her tone cold. “You’re not in Ireland now” was what she said.

This account elaborates on Boland’s description of the incident in her poem ‘An Irish Childhood in England: 1951’, which I excerpted in a 2014 post about the Irish use of amn’t.

In her mid-teens Boland returned to live in Ireland and began to explore the inchoate sense of Irishness from which she felt semi-estranged:

Language. At first this was what I lacked. Not just the historic speech of my country. I lacked that too, but so did others. This was a deeper loss; I returned to find that my vocabulary of belonging was missing. The street names, the meeting places—it was not just that I did not know them. It was something more. I had never known them. I had lost not only a place but the past that goes with it and, with it, the clues from which to construct a present self.

I had to learn a new sensory idiom. A fog in the mouth, for example, which was different from the London one: less gritty, with more of an ocean aftertaste. An unkempt greenness on the streets. A drizzle which was interseasonal, constant. Different trees. Different birds.

Nurturing this idiom, she found, years later, that ‘language can reclaim location’, a beautifully concise expression of this insight.

It was not just Irish English with which Boland familiarized herself. In her final year in school she was struggling with Latin, resentful of its difficulty. Then came a turning point:

It was something about the economy of it all: the way the ablative absolute gathered and compressed time. One day, again figuratively, it was a burdensome piece of grammar. The next, with hardly any warning, it was a messenger with quick heels and a bright face. I hardly knew what had happened. I began to respect, however grudgingly, the systems of a language which could make such constructs that, although I had no such words for it, they stood against the disorders of love or history. They had left the mouth of the centurion and entered the mind of a Sicilian farm worker. They had forged alliances and named stars. And at that point of my adolescence, where the words I wrote on a page were nothing but inexact, the precision and force of these constructs began to seem both moving and healing.

As Boland developed her poetic ability and her confidence in its effect, she found herself entering a heavily male tradition. There were pivotal encounters with avatars of that tradition: with Padraic Colum at an elevator; with Patrick Kavanagh in a café in Dublin (his style of speech ‘shy and apocalyptic’).

But the constraints of history and structural intransigence pressed tight:

Gradually the anomaly of my poetic existence was clear to me. By luck, or its absence, I had been born in a country where and at a time when the word woman and the word poet inhabited two separate kingdoms of experience and expression. I could not, it seemed, live in both. As the author of poems I was an equal partner in Irish poetry. As a woman—about to set out on the life which was the passive object of many of those poems—I had no voice. It had been silenced, ironically enough, by the very powers of language I aspired to and honored.

Object Lessons abounds in eloquent, carefully honed ideas about womanhood and nationhood and the complications of a poetic self at their intersections. For this post I’ve selected just a few language-themed passages; if they appeal to you, you’ll enjoy Boland’s book.

💙📚 #irishbooks #Irishwriter #speirgorm #ttrpg

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5yuuvfkhsk3dmn7fhppqy3ah/post/3mfr425scgk2m

On the peculiarly Irish use of "grand", from Garrett's Carr's novel The Boy from the Sea

More on that usage here: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2019/06/27/a-grand-irish-usage/

#books #IrishBooks #reading #GarrettCarr #words #grand #EnglishUsage #Ireland #IrishEnglish

I read Rule of the Land years ago (a gift from Sinéad Gleeson) and was very impressed by it. Recently I read Carr's novel, shortlisted at the Irish Book Awards 2025, and found it a whole other kettle of complicated fish and family. The village it's set in becomes a character in its own right in a sort of wry, John McGahern way. Both well worth reading.

#books #IrishBooks #reading #GarrettCarr #fiction #nonfiction #Ireland

Ted Turton, the painter who co-founded the Galway Arts Festival, wrote a wonderful memoir about his adventures with the legendary Footsbarn Travelling Theatre. I had the pleasure of copy-editing it.

Here's a short review in the Irish Times, and Ted's testimonial for my work. If you're looking for an editor or proofreader, I'm available!

https://tedturtonart.com/
https://stancarey.com/testimonials/

#books #memoir #theatre #IrishBooks #TedTurton #Footsbarn #painting #copyediting #editing #Mastodaoine #arts

https://www.europesays.com/ie/256913/ 16 Irish books to watch out for in 2026 · TheJournal.ie #Books #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Ireland #IrishBooks #literature #Reading #WhatToRead

https://www.europesays.com/ie/195477/ Take this quiz to win yourself some wonderful Irish books (just in time for Christmas) #Awards #Booked #Éire #IE #Ireland #IrishBooks #Sports

Happy #Halloween Everyone! I was thinking about what books I would recommend around this time of year and remembered a review I did back in 2023 - Big Bad Me by @Ashilockie

I reposted to my blog here: https://markkieltywriter.com/2025/10/31/book-review-big-bad-me-by-aislinn-oloughlin/

Excellent book with #Buffy the Vampire vibes.

#YAFantasy #Supernatural #IrishBookBlogger #ReadingCommunity #MastoDaoine #IrishBooks

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #KindleUnlimited

Can Will and Isobel navigate an uncertain future?

A Perfect Solution: The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Book Ten is out on 2 October and is available for pre-order.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/aperfectsolution

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #KindleUnlimited

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'A beautiful story, skillfully told to expose the harsh truths of a troubled period of Ireland’s history.' Readers' Favorite.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/brotherly-love

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/BrotherlyLove

#BrotherlyLoveByLornaPeel #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #HistoricalFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #IrishBooks #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #BooksSetInIreland @bookstodon

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries
Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'An excellent book depicting village life and morals in the Ireland of 1835.' Discovering Diamonds

Amazon - http://mybook.to/brotherly-love
Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/BrotherlyLove

#BrotherlyLoveByLornaPeel #BooksByLornaPeel #KindleUnlimited #HistoricalFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #IrishHistoricalRomance #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #BooksSetInIreland @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries
Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Congratulations to Skibbereen & District Historical Society on the launch of Vol. 21 of their Journal. This in now on sale at via Coolim Books at https://tinyurl.com/SHJ-2025. To see the full list of local journals for sale from Coolim Books visit https://tinyurl.com/Local-Journals.

#WestCork
#Skibbereen
#MizenHead
#CorkHistory
#IrishBooks

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Victorian #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Victorian #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'A beautiful story, skillfully told to expose the harsh truths of a troubled period of Ireland’s history.' Readers' Favorite.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/brotherly-love

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/BrotherlyLove

#BrotherlyLoveByLornaPeel #BooksByLornaPeel #HistoricalFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #LornaPeel #HistoricalRomance #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalRomance #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #BooksSetInIreland @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Anne Enright describing a retired couple: "They rubbed against each other until they had rubbed themselves away."

#books #reading #AnneEnright #IrishBooks #IrishLit #IrishLiterature

This was on the shelf for years and I resisted it even though I love Anne Enright because the cover made me think it was a sassy city-office comedy, which I was never in the mood for.

It's not that at all, but it is (patchily) great. And it's not a bad cover, just unsuitable, I think.

#books #reading #AnneEnright #IrishBooks #IrishLit #IrishLiterature #BookCovers #BookDesign

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Victorian #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalFiction #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'An excellent book depicting village life and morals in the Ireland of 1835.' Discovering Diamonds

Amazon - http://mybook.to/brotherly-love

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/BrotherlyLove

#BrotherlyLoveByLornaPeel #BooksByLornaPeel #KindleUnlimited #HistoricalFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #IrishHistoricalRomance #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #BooksSetInIreland @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BookSeries #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Congratulations to Sarah Rees Brennan for being a @Locusmag award finalist with #LongLiveEvil. Check out the other finalists here:

https://locusmag.com/2025/05/2025-locus-awards-top-ten-finalists/

#Fantasy #readingcommunity #FantasyNovels #IrishBooks #IrishFantasy

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Victorian #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalFiction #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

'Should come with an addiction warning!'

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsSeries

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/LornaPeel

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Escape to 19th-century Ireland with The Fitzgeralds of Dublin Series.

Books 1-9 box sets - http://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #19thCentury #Victorian #Dublin #Ireland #IrishFiction #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalFiction #BooksSetInIreland #KindleUnlimited @bookstodon

Check out my #bookreview of The Inferior by @TheCallYA. A #scifi about a tribe of humans fighting to survive in a world filled with flesh eating #monsters And #spaceships!

https://markkieltywriter.com/2025/01/13/book-review-the-inferior-by-peadar-o-guilin/

#Octobooks #Octocon #IrishBooks #SFF #ReadingCommunity #IrishBookBlogger #MastoDaoine

My first #Bookreview for my #Octobooks series is live on my #Blog. #LongLiveEvil by Sarah Rees Beennan. I hope if you read it, you enjoyed it as much as I did.

https://markkieltywriter.com/2024/11/17/book-review-long-live-evil-by-sarah-rees-brennan/

#Octocon #Fantasy #ReadingCommunity #IrishFantasy #MastoDaoine #IrishBooks #SSF

A lovely new book of local history and community development in Connemara, Galway, which I had the pleasure of copy-editing:

https://artisanhouse.ie/product/community-a-time-place-and-people/

#books #Connemara #Mastodaoine #Galway #Ireland #CommunityDevelopment #publishing #copyediting #AmEditing #IrishBooks

"She insisted that literature was a precursor to sin and damnation, whereas I believed it was the only alchemy that there was."

—Edna O'Brien, Saints and Sinners, 2011

#EdnaOBrien #IrishLiterature #IrishBooks #writing #words #literature

"I'm not a bad match," he said. "I've a pump in the yard, a bull and a brother a priest. What more could a woman want?"

—Edna O'Brien, Girl with Green Eyes (aka The Lonely Girl), 1962

#EdnaOBrien #IrishLiterature #IrishBooks #Ireland #romance

Sad to hear that Edna O'Brien has died. What an amazing body of work she leaves, and what a life she had. The controversy over her early books had ebbed by the time I started reading her, but the elegance of her writing and the power of her stories remained, and remains, unaltered

#EdnaOBrien #IrishLiterature #IrishBooks #Ireland #books #writing

Misjudged this one by its cover. It's funnier than its gloomy title and photo suggest, handling heavy enough topics with a gentle, deft touch. It's a pity she didn't write more.

#books #IrishBooks #KateCruiseOBrien #IrishLiterature #reading #bookstodon

'A beautiful story, skillfully told to expose the harsh truths of a troubled period of Ireland’s history.' Readers' Favorite.

Amazon - http://mybook.to/brotherly-love

Other Retailers - https://books2read.com/BrotherlyLove

#BrotherlyLoveByLornaPeel #BooksByLornaPeel #HistoricalFiction #IrishHistoricalFiction #LornaPeel #HistoricalRomance #IrishBooks #IrishHistoricalRomance #19thCentury #Ireland #IrishFiction #BooksSetInIreland @bookstodon

Fiction can be a fabulous entry point to engage with a culture's history, so together with my @IrishStewPodcast cohost @Johnleemedia I was delighted to have the opportunity to talk to #NewZealand based Brian O'Sullivan about his approach to reimagining ancient #Ireland

We talked about the problems with #Mythology, the importance of the #IrishLanguage and the need for a more authentic understanding of Ireland's deep past

#IrishHistory #IrishPodcast #IrishBooks #IrishAuthors #IrishPrehistory

Micheline's Three Conditions, by Rose Foley & Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, was launched yesterday in Charlie Byrne's bookshop in Galway

The book is a fantastically entertaining account of a grassroots campaign against gender discrimination in higher education (and wonderful to work on as copy-editor)

#books #BookLaunch #Ireland #Galway #IrishBooks #copyediting #AmEditing

It’s #IrishBookWeek and just a gentle reminder that my memoir is available from New Island Books (and of course in bookshops and wherever you buy!) 😊

Also of course to note that it's free too from the library or also helps if you request it in the library! 📚

https://www.newisland.ie/nonfiction/anseo

#irish #irishbooks #irishauthors #AuthorTalk #authors #books #book #reading #ReadMoreWomen #ireland

Todays postal arrival, bought with some birthday money: Literary Hauntings, A Gazetter of Literary Ghost Stories from Britain and Ireland. From #TartarusPress. #Books #GhostStories #Gazetteer #Literature #Fiction #Geography #Psychogeography #Bookstodon #Reading #ShortStories #Ghosts #Hauntings #Britain #BritishFiction #Ireland #IrishFiction #Horror #BritishBooks #IrishBooks

The least lonely place in the whole world, from Eugene McCabe's novel Death and Nightingales. Beautiful.

#books #IrishBooks #nature #farm #corncrake #animals #countryside

This Friday, 21 July, from 5pm in the Working Artist Studios, Main Street, Ballydehob, Amanda Clarke will have the launch of her book Holy Wells of County Cork. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

#WestCork #Cork #Ballydehob #IrishBooks

If you're on Instagram we have a new InstaZine out today!

This is the first in a series of short magazines just for Instagram that you can swipe through to discover fantastic Irish heritage sites, books we love and Tuatha Members share their favourite place in Ireland.

You can find it right here, if you enjoy it please do give us a follow:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClvwCGBMbNK/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

#Ireland #IrishArchaeology #IrishHistory #Irish #Jerpoint #JerpointAbbey #Glendalough #SkelligMichael #Skelligs #IrishBooks

Giving out, Irish style

The phrasal verb give out has several common senses:

distribute – ‘she gave out free passes to the gig’

emit – ‘the machine gave out a distinctive hum’

break down, stop working – ‘at the end of the marathon her legs gave out’

become used up – ‘their reserves of patience finally gave out’

declare, make known – ‘management gave out that it would change the procedure’

In Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale I read an example of this last sense: ‘At the moment the Communist Party is giving out that he was off his head.’ Had Fleming been Irish, this line would be ambiguous – give out in Irish English commonly means complain, grumble, moan; or criticise, scold, reprimand, tell off.

I think this give out comes from Irish tabhair amach, same meaning. It’s intransitive and often followed by to [a person]. People might give out to someone for some mistake, oversight, or character flaw, or about politics, the weather, or the state of the roads. Or they might just give out in an unspecific or habitual way.

Here are some examples from literature:

He always seemed to be in bad humour and was always giving out. (Joe McVeigh, Taking a Stand: Memoir of an Irish Priest)

Pot Belly gives out and tells Slapper he’s not to be going home in this weather. (Claire Keegan, ‘The Ginger Rogers Sermon’, in Antarctica)

She had a good figure, although she was always giving out about her too-tight size twelve jeans, but she said buying a pair of size fourteens would be giving in. (Fiona O’Brien, Without Him)

‘If I eat any more turnips I’ll turn bleedin’ yellow.’
‘Ah, don’t be always giving out,’ said Mother. (Christy Brown, Down All the Days)

Giving out to him the whole time: ‘I’ve hated you for years, you old fecker, so take this.’ (Anne Emery, Obit: A Mystery)

Both brothers would do Mr McGurk’s voice but Tee-J did it brilliant. He did Mr McGurk as a cranky old farmer who was always giving out. (Kevin Barry, ‘White Hitachi’, in Dark Lies the Island)

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) giving out to me about something

Irish give out is sometimes intensified by adding stink, yards, spades, to high heaven, or the pay:

Afterwards in the car my mother would give out yards to my father for being so generous to his sponging relations. (Sinead Moriarty, Keeping It In the Family)

Of course you prefer your little pet of a daughter who gave out stink to me this morning and wanted me to shift myself and my bed and I in the throes of mortal suffering. (John B. Keane, Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer and other stories)

I heard the mother giving out stink to the father about it the other night; she was doing the old shout-whisper… (Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart)

‘I had her mother on the phone to me last night, giving out yards.’ (Clare Dowling, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)

‘We’re gone fierce boring now. Real suburbanites, I guess. Mowing the lawn and giving out yards about the neighbours.’ (Joseph O’Connor, Two Little Clouds)

For all we know, they give out to high heaven behind closed doors but we’ve no indication of that so we have to presume they are ok with things. (JoeyFantastic on Munsterfans.com forum)

…even if I did have to listen to him giving out the pay about the dangers of the Teddy Boys now inhabiting the place. (Brendan Behan, Confessions of an Irish Rebel)

Bernard Share, in Slanguage, says give out is an abbreviation of give out the hour, and is also seen in the form give off. I haven’t encountered these versions much.

Dermot, she said again, say something. Give off to me but don’t stay quiet. (Dermot Healy, The Bend for Home)

You’ll find give out = complain, criticise, etc. in many dictionaries of Irish slang, but it’s not slang: it’s an idiom in most or all of the dialects on this island, a regular feature of vernacular Hiberno-English. And it doesn’t end there.

On Twitter, Oliver Farry said ‘people in Kansas and Missouri use give out in much the same way as Irish people do’. This was news to me, and I’d be interested to hear more about it – or about its use anywhere else in this Irish sense. Including Ireland: I use it myself. But don’t give out to me if I’ve overlooked something important.

Update:

LanguageHat follows up, wondering about the Kansas/Missouri use of the phrase. A few commenters from these States have never heard it, so its distribution is evidently limited.

Eoin McGee’s book How to Be Good with Money (Gill Books, 2020) has a sentence with Irish English give out ‘complain’ followed by standardized-English give out ‘issue, distribute’:

The banks often give out that the rules are too tight and they can’t give out the money people need.

[Hiberno-English archives]