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Top of the morning, where?

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  • 19-03-2017 3:11pm
    #1
    JamboMac
    Registered Users Posts: 3,952 ✭✭✭


    After the many years of hearing "top of the morning" on telly by so many non Irish and never hearing it in my daily life, I wonder where the **** do they say it or do they say it anywhere in this country?

    What things do others see associated with Irish but have never witnessed it first hand?


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    #2
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    JamboMac wrote: »
    After the many years of hearing "top of the morning" on telly by so many non Irish and never hearing it in my daily life, I wonder where the **** do they say it or do they say it anywhere in this country?

    What things do others see associated with Irish but have never witnessed it first hand?

    It's an archaic expression in use up to Victorian times. The Irish author Charles J. Kickham used it in the 1870s.

    I've have never seen anybody actually eating corned beef and cabbage until offered it as 'the traditional Irish meal' in the United States.


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    #3
    The_Valeyard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Braxton Damp Peroxide wrote: »
    I've have never seen anybody actually eating corned beef and cabbage until offered it as 'the traditional Irish meal' in the United States.

    F*cking hate cabbage.


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    #4
    Yourself isit
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,257 ✭✭✭Yourself isit


    Braxton Damp Peroxide wrote: »
    It's an archaic expression in use up to Victorian times. The Irish author Charles J. Kickham used it in the 1870s.

    I've have never seen anybody actually eating corned beef and cabbage until offered it as 'the traditional Irish meal' in the United States.

    It's bacon and cabbage here but bacon was too expensive over there for the early Irish immigrants.


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    #5
    Agricola
    Registered Users Posts: 6,547 ✭✭✭Agricola


    My mother was born in the 40's but it may have well been the 1840's. I have heard her use it, without irony, when greeting long lost relatives visiting while on summer trips to Ireland.


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    #6
    Paddy Cow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,576 ✭✭✭Paddy Cow


    Begorrah. Where did that come from? :confused:


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    #7
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Paddy Cow wrote: »
    Begorrah. Where did that come from? :confused:

    It is derived from By God.


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    #8
    Avatar MIA
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,750 ✭✭✭Avatar MIA


    Tis far from the Queen's English ye were reared. Now, get out that maudlin self pity you got going for yourself. Tis the grand soft day outside you should be enjoying. Thank God.


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    #9
    Atoms for Peace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    Tis, sure.


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    #10
    Avatar MIA
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,750 ✭✭✭Avatar MIA


    Atoms for Peace wrote: »
    Tis, to be sure.

    FYP :pac:


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    #11
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    The famous old cockney saying 'Cor Blimey' is derived from God Blind Me.

    An 18th century expression in England.


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    #12
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,672 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    I've only ever heard the expression used once, by an auld lad in Kerry.

    And that just might have been for the tourists...:pac:


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    #13
    DanMurphy
    Registered Users Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    I'm a child of the fifties and never heard that expression only on the silver screen.
    As far as Irish food went in ye olde times, in our house the staple diet was pigs head, spuds and cabbage.
    Give an Irish child some sliced pigs head nowadays and you'd be arrested!
    Corned beef (called bully-beef here) would've been luxury indeed.

    Begorragh wasn't so much a word. Just someone clearing his throat.


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    #14
    gramar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,045 ✭✭✭✭gramar


    It's all the House of Pain's fault.


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    #15
    Glenster
    Registered Users Posts: 2,626 ✭✭✭Glenster


    I've heard people saying it.

    Now you could argue that they were being ironic.

    But they still said it.


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    #16
    Your Face
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,277 ✭✭✭Your Face


    Ey, pisan, why you no speak with you accent no more?


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    #17
    D0NNELLY
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭D0NNELLY


    JamboMac wrote: »
    After the many years of hearing "top of the morning" on telly by so many non Irish and never hearing it in my daily life, I wonder where the **** do they say it or do they say it anywhere in this country?

    Tipperary.


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    #18
    Winterlong
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,759 ✭✭✭Winterlong


    Ireland must be a real disappointment to some american tourists.

    We don’t say ‘top of the morning’ or Begorrah.
    There are no leprechauns.
    Darby o’Gill and the Little people was a work of fiction.
    We do not live like they do in The Quiet Man.
    Every male American is treated more like yerman from The Field rather than yerman from The Quiet man.
    The crock of gold at the end of the rainbow is a crock of sh1t.
    The rain.
    And in the Trump era - we pity them more than they pity us.


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    #19
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    American movies have a long tradition of creating some weird stereotypes.
    And because people are fools they believe them.


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    #20
    hungry hypno toad
    Closed Accounts Posts: 646 ✭✭✭hungry hypno toad


    Winterlong wrote: »
    And in the Trump era - we pity them more than they pity us.

    You were doing alright until this crap. He was democratically elected, get over it.


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    #21
    Winterlong
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,759 ✭✭✭Winterlong


    hungry hypno toad wrote: »
    You were doing alright until this crap. He was democratically elected, get over it.

    Arragh relax the head to be sure to be sure.


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    #22
    DanMurphy
    Registered Users Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    The truth, is we did live like the 'Quiet Man' at one time, not that long ago either.
    An era of Bridal Dowry, thatched cottages, badly educated poor folks, ruled by the Clergy's iron fist, I could go on. All these things, and worse, existed in my young days.
    It's easy I know, for the present generation to laugh at our not so distant past, but it wasn't all bad.
    As far as Faeries, etc goes, well, as a writer I have a vivid imagination to inspire me, and I wouldn't write off the existence of the Little People so quickly!
    I can't see the wind, but it blew the cap off my head yesterday.


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    #23
    harry Bailey esq
    Registered Users Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    Yourself isit wrote: »
    It's bacon and cabbage here but bacon was too expensive over there for the early Irish immigrants.
    I never knew that!


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    #24
    D0NNELLY
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭D0NNELLY


    Braxton Damp Peroxide wrote: »
    I've have never seen anybody actually eating corned beef and cabbage until offered it as 'the traditional Irish meal' in the United States.

    Silverside with cabbage and flowery schpuds.
    Lovely. Maybe a Dublin thing? My wife is from Sligo, and her side never heard of it.


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    #25
    pauliebdub
    Registered Users Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭pauliebdub


    I've never heard it being used and I grew up in the country surrounded by old people. Apparently Mike Pence used it during the st Patrick's day celebrations.


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    #26
    Electric Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 2,106 ✭✭✭Electric Sheep


    Winterlong wrote: »
    Ireland must be a real disappointment to some american tourists.

    We don’t say ‘top of the morning’ or Begorrah.

    Not Begorrah, but Begor is used quite a lot in the Kilkenny area.


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    #27
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,268 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Electric Sheep wrote: »
    Not Begorrah, but Begor is used quite a lot in the Kilkenny area.

    Yeah, my Dad and family all say it.
    "Begor, aye" used for "actually, yes".


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    #28
    KarmaGarda
    Registered Users Posts: 1,009 ✭✭✭KarmaGarda


    Braxton Damp Peroxide wrote: »
    It's an archaic expression in use up to Victorian times. The Irish author Charles J. Kickham used it in the 1870s.

    I've have never seen anybody actually eating corned beef and cabbage until offered it as 'the traditional Irish meal' in the United States.

    I have read that the earliest known reference of this was in a book / novel called "Theodore Cyphon, or, The benevolent Jew" Volume 3 by George Walker, published in 1796. "The top of the morning" being said at a station in Essex. So apparently not even Irish in origin.


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    #29
    Electric Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 2,106 ✭✭✭Electric Sheep


    pickarooney wrote: »
    Yeah, my Dad and family all say it.
    "Begor, aye" used for "actually, yes".

    Begor always makes me think of The Riordans - Tom Riordan was always saying "begor aye" and "aye begor".


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    #30
    twill
    Registered Users Posts: 587 ✭✭✭twill


    John Locke, a Fenian from Kilkenny who emigrated to the United States, wrote a poem called 'Morning on the Irish Coast' in 1877 which contains the line 'I bid you the top of the mornin!' as a refrain. It was quite well-known in Ireland and in Irish-America and was quoted by Ronald Reagan on his visit to Ireland.


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