 a lot of our little vocabulary peculiarities here in Ireland and it's a great title as well it's a hundred words for grand and I don't know if there's a hundred but maybe there's close to that and there's all sorts of other phrases and words in there as well that we use every day and we think nothing of them and and sometimes it's only that you know when we're chatting to people from other countries and they go so sorry what was that you said that we realise just that our vocabulary has a lot of these phrases and words in them. The writer is Kunak McCann and Kunak now joins us live. Hi John how are you? Yeah good good good and let me just get you open the screen here as well so this is a well it's a bit unusual I suppose as well but how did the idea come about? Well I do I do love I've written a few books in this kind of area I do love looking at the things that make us a bit different and make us a bit you know unique really the Irish are we have we have an interesting use of language we always have and we have the kind of the mix of the Irish language coming in and we have lots of different local versions of phrases and things like that and I just love listening out for them and I love coming across them so it's fun to put a book like this together. Yeah because you've written Red Rover, Red Rover games from Irish Childhood and then co-written Irish Mammy in your pocket and the eighties there have been Irish in other books as well so this is a it's almost a variation I suppose of of a kind of all things Irish anyhow for sure and it's funny you should mention there about local variations because there's some of the the words here most of the words actually that I use regularly but then there's there's some then that have sort of regional variations if you like yeah and it's actually it's lovely to hear them and you know when I'm when I'm talking to people like yourself John and to other people other lovely radio hosts around the country it's great to hear you know people texting them with their own variations are saying oh we'd never use that one here but we use this instead so there's lots with a book like this you're never going to be comprehensive it's just not possible really with the Irish there's so many lovely little variations everywhere and there's no compendium so therefore there's nothing nothing to compare it to well exactly there's no one to say I'm absolutely wrong or absolutely right on anything either it's all kind of a little bit of everything in there and because most of us have been using them for a lifetime we think nothing off them and it's only you know when we're when we're in other English speaking countries and we and we just throw them into your casual conversation and then they're going sorry you have to explain that you know it's funny you should say that we have a woman a young woman working with us from America and she keep every time she comes across she the people use these phrases so casually and she thought somebody was playing practical jokes in her and she's saying banjax does that a word banjax I was like yeah yeah totally but every time we keep having this conversation she's like that can't be real I'm like yep it's totally real and and some of them are so real to us that you know you'd always be you'd always feel like saying well listen look it up it's in the dictionary it's got to be somewhere do you know and that's an interesting thing this not all this stuff is documented in you know in books and stuff a lot of it is it's verbal it's passed on from you know people in the same area or families and so on you won't see all of it written down you know some of the words and phrases come from old old English and some come from Irish yes they do quite so we have we have a great mix we we've take and we sometimes we'll take phrases that come from old English or middle English and then we put our own spin on them as well so we're you know where it language is always evolving so it's and it's we're a prime example of that and there's some lovely phrases like things like on the long finger comes from a lovely Irish that's an Irish language phrase putting things on the long finger or make the finger too short yeah and so there's there's lovely or splitting the stones is a lovely one that comes from the Irish language and and then you've got lots of things that come from say middle English so the word don't you know you might say to don't to don't on somebody and that comes from middle English but we've used it we've kind of adapted it we say ah someone's an awful don't isn't he a lovely don't and we've used that as a noun we also use it as an adjective he's don't he or she's don't he and she's don't he and that's again that's our own we've taken that the British are the English don't usually use that in that way or gallivanting is that that's gallivant I love that yeah because I think I heard it so much as a teenager would you go out haven't you had enough gallivant in there for one week that's great what run in the yard anyway okay let's let's do a little exercise here because in in in your book the way you do it is um on each page there's a there's a word or a phrase and then a little uh sort of below it how would you describe what's below it a kind of a little tongue in cheek definition I suppose uh just below it and then I give sort of examples of how it's used a bit of an explanation and then some examples of how they're used absolutely on the right hand absolutely great yeah okay so I'm going to give you the um the the little definition and I want I know you've written the book but there's a lot of a lot of words in here so is this is this a test this is a test this is a test now I'm going to give you the definition and I want to see can you give me the the word okay so um what about a thingamajig sorry you say that again thingamajig thingamajig that's yoke is not a great word yoke not that yoke the other yoke it's a great that's a great word and it covers everything and not just things for people oh he's a mad yoker she's a mad yoke as well we use the we're we're so sort of versatile in how we use language yeah we do use it in different ways yeah a lot of times I'm taking a gamble chance in your arm I'd say is actually that's a great story and I love that one so that's actually and it's got a literal meaning a literal kind of origin which is fantastic and it's from the 1400s and the the butlers and the Fitzgeralds were at kind of at loggerheads and it all came to uh you know it all came to uh uh what's that word it yeah it all came to an end when the two the two families were facing off at St Patrick's Cathedral and Gerald Fitzgerald literally had a whole cut in the door put his arm through to offer his hand in friendship to offer a handshake he literally chanced his arm so that was the first time that someone chanced their arm and sure the Irish have been chanced their arm ever since absolutely they live to tell the tale did he he did yes it works chance in your arm yeah yeah for sure all right oh you pass that one flying colors what about having notions having notions I would say far from that you were raised which is a great that's a great phrase and it's like the Irish we do have a bit of a bit of a reputation for begrudgery you know it's far from that you're raised and especially nowadays with the oud you know the old milk lattes and the frappa frappuccinos and all that sort of stuff just far from that she was raised it's great far far from that you're rare it would say around here yes and how about it runs in the family it runs in the family I'd say is he didn't lick it off a stone which again is a fantastic phrase or sometimes here we say it didn't lick that off the back wall off the back wall I love it that's brilliant yeah it's a bit more graphic as well isn't it I think you can actually see someone licking something out the back wall and absolutely jammers absolutely jammers I would say you wouldn't turn a sweet in your mouth is it yes which is which is a as a gas phrase I think I hadn't come across that one we didn't use that one certainly where we grew up I didn't I hadn't seen it either until the book yeah it's a great one isn't it literally there was it was so packed but you didn't have the room to turn a sweet in your own mouth yeah that's mad and isn't just what about lucky if you're if you're lucky well we used to always say jammy where I grew up I grew I'm a drama girl we always say jammy but I think in cork they use the word haunted again yeah I hadn't heard that one myself but I understand it's a it's a cork we got cork thing and and finally connect one of the good ones you would be what oh gosh there's probably a few because the Irish have a they've Irish have a whole rake of stuff it could be dead on sound sound as a sound is what I was looking for all of those ones yeah yeah or dead on they're both in the one page here yeah yeah we've got lots of words for people when we you know when we like them when we think they're you know they're a good person I hope you don't mind me saying but it'll be a great bathroom book it's it do you know what I won't run away from the phrase toilet read john if that's what people want to hurt we'll then go for it yeah okay well it's out now a brown press it's called a hundred words for grand gonna check out the hundred or flick through it at at your leisure it's out now the little book of Irish chat kunak thank you very much thank you john bye bye now Susie's eyes are green heavy and wise with all the things she's seen so tell me how does it go so young get caught by the devil's tongue and joey's eyes are blue