Pat Kenny hosted John Banville as guest on his DOB-funded Newstalk fm show yesterday.
P and J discussed constructions from the architectural legacy of Dublin to the linguistic construction of Hiberno-English, that sorta thingy. About both topics P and J were in such accord as to be virtually welded into the one entity: PJ.
PK: We can look at it now and see it – as we are a bit more mature now – as the Imperial Legacy, I mean, all those fine buildings, the College of Science, which became Government Buildings, the GPO which was destroyed in 1916 but, of course, rebuilt. Then, we have those fine buildings, the Four Courts, the Custom House, all of those things which remain to us now , you’d wonder (the laugh, nervous ) what we would have built if we had been left to our own devices !
JB: Probably better not to speculate on that. How lucky we were to get these magnificent buildings. And some of them are spectacularly beautiful still. We got that, we got the English language. We lost a lot. We lost a great deal, I mean, the death of the Irish Language. You know, as a popular, as the Native Tongue. That was a disaster for us. We got the English language instead, and look what we did with it.
PK: Yaw, Hiberno-English, quite unique. And all the constructions that we have: I’m after coming home, ( the giggle, nervous ) I’m after having a pint.
JB: Yes, they all come from Irish. No, Irish-English is a wonderful language. And especially if you’re a writer, it’s such a rich language, because it’s full of ambiguities, strange usages. It’s an archaic language.
(-Through the chair:
-Go ahead, and make is S-H-O-R-T !
– Point of Architectural Information. Who carried the hod for the god of English Enlightenment? Was it not Pad the Hod Carrier ? And if not, perhaps it was the,erm, elephants on loan from the Zoological Gardens?
-Cheap Shot ! Cheap Shot ! Cheap Shot ! Cheap Shot !)
TOP CATS and BASE DOGS
Oh, whenever dat misht dat do be on de bogs
I do be feeling d’urge to do de dance of d’ clogs
Hark, hark, hark, hark
To dat Hiberno E -bark
The spaniel face of these base, fawning dogs.
One bad Limerick deserves another worser Luimneach.
BEAN PHAIDIN , BEAN BHILL
Is ionann matalang agus cat mara
Glacann an cat leis féin mar chara
Déanann sé crónán
Aithrisíonn sé Onan
Méao, mé féin, bejabers, begorra.
Perkin, I am disappointed Pat, rather than you, forgot to mention his one time home up in the Park, he and all the other cheeky monkey’s still behave in similar way, must be the ‘learned behaviour’ on the monkey’s part!
Mark, a chara, you Darwin some, lose some.
Beir bua !