Many of the quaint old sayings about Irish places seem to be dying out. We have even forgotten the meaning of many of them. Some, like "The City of the Tribes", "The City of the Violated Treaty", "The County of Short Grass" and "Tyrone of the Bushes" explain themselves; but there are others whose meaning is less clear. Why, for instance, should Kerry be referred to as "Kerry God Help Us"? Are Dingle boys exceptionally fat as is implied in the saying "fat as a Dingle boy"? Have Mullingar heifers more beef to the heel than any other heifer? "A Kinsale fortune", I believe, meant a piano as a bride's dowry, and "as crooked as land in Cork" can easily be understood by anyone who has walked down Patrick street, Cork. "Shandon Steeple, partly coloured, like the people", refers of course, to the famous steeple - one face shows limestone and another red sandstone. "To make Dungarvan shake" I was recently told alludes to the days when O'Connell held one of his monster meetings in the town.

The Irish Times, August 22nd, 1930.