A wee taste a’ Craic, like! – Raymond McCullough
A Wee Taste
a’ Craic!
Raymond McCullough
Recent comments from listeners to Celtic Roots Radio:
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Gail & Greg Smith (Hawaii, USA)
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Jerry McLean (Los Angeles, USA)
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Mike Espinoza (Temecula, CA, USA)
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fingerpickin' good (iTunes, Ireland)
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Daniel Louis Berkowitz (Haifa, Israel)
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Anthony McCullough (Oceanside, California, USA)
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A wee taste
a’ craic, like!
All the Irish craic from
Celt
ic
Roots Radio shows 2-20
Raymond McCullough
Published by
Copyright © Raymond McCullough, 2011
The right of Raymond McCullough to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988
First published 2011
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
10a Listooder Road, Crossgar,
Downpatrick, Northern Ireland BT30 9JE
Contents
Author’s preface 9
2 No North Ireland! 11
3 'The more ye know, the less, the better!' 13
4 'If ye can see the mountains, it's gonna rain’ 15
5 'Ye can'nae dae aught, if ye hav'nae go' ... 19
6 'Aye, there y'are now! Where are ye?' 23
7 'Are ye right, there, bye!' 27
8 'Basket of eggs’ 'n' curr'n' soda 31
9 'Root 'n' troot supper, hey!' 35
10 'Yous three're a pair, if ivver there was one…’ 39
11 'Stan'in' wi' yer two arms the one length!' 43
12 'Don't make a whole song about it' 47
13 Famine, navvies and emmigration 51
14 'For 6 months Fermanagh is in Lough Erne' 55
15 'Stroke City, hey, mugger' 59
16 'Listen, son, you're tatie bread!' 63
17 'Aye, ye're funny, but yer face bates ye!' 67
18 'Janey Mac! Would ye ever stop?' 71
19 Warrior Maid - ‘a big hole in the sea ..' 77
20 Of Narnia, 'Jack' and other worlds 83
About the author 89
By the same author:
Ireland – now the good news!
The Best of ‘Bread’ – Personal Testimonies and Church/Fellowship Profiles from Around Ireland
The Whore and her Mother:
9/11, Babylon and the Return of the King
Thanks to my wife, Gerry, for editing and general encouragement and to Ken Riddles, for proof-reading the manuscript.
Author’s preface
I began adding ‘craic’ to my Celtic Roots Radio shows from the second broadcast - which is why this book has no Chapter 1! when I recorded the first two shows – back in 2006 – I had just had one of my own songs played on a USA station and the presenter introduced it by saying, ‘Raymond is from North Ireland.’
As I recorded the second show, I added in a little explanation in response to this, to the effect that there is no such place as, ‘North Ireland!’ This soon became an established part of the show – especially when I began to get positive feedback from American listeners, who were enjoying my explanations of all things Irish.
Of course, I’ve milked this response to give my own very personal, and Ulster, view on things such as history, culture, customs, language and even politics!
There may well be inaccuracies here and there. This is not intended to be a definitive primer on Ireland, but a light-hearted look at our idiosyncrasies and peculiarities.
Being from the north of this beautiful island of ours, I have a uniquely northern perspective on things, which includes a bit of Scots ancestry. Again I am no expert on things Scottish, either.