Talk:Slattery's Mounted Foot
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One of the phrases in Slattery's Mounted Foot seems to have veered away from the original Percy French lyrics. Halfway through the song, the line << 'Tis merely throwing life away to face that raging drain; >> occurs. The traditional rendering of this line (which I have known since childhood in the 1940.s) is 'Tis merely throwin' life away to face that mearin' drain;'. Simply, the word "mearing" (meaning boundary in Hibernian English) has been replaced with "raging". SOURCES. A relevant reference is A Dictionary of Hibernian English, ed. Terence Patrick Nolan, published by Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, Ireland. In fact, on page 172, the dictionary editor uses this very line from Slattery's Mounted Foot as documentary proof of usage. To cite: "Mearing n. the boundary DITCH or fence between two farms < ME mere, boundary. Percy French, 'Slattery's Mounted Foot' : "'Tis merely throwin' life away to face that mearin dhrain;'." Note the dropping of the final g in 'throwing' and 'meaning' and also the spelling "dhrain". These are all examples of the phonetic spelling used by the songwriter. The Wikipedia version seems to be a "dressed up" version in conventional English. Thanks for the opportunity to participate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikihillsbarton (talk • contribs) 23:15, 1 June 2016 (UTC)