Marbh le Léinte T agus marbh gan iad

You would think that Galway City Council was telling you not to enter Fallers Sweater Shop. Maybe they thought it was a Sweat Shop and they were doing their bit for the international labour movement.

In any event it is a very interesting shop. Among other Oirish paraphanalia it has a witty selection of T shirts, some of which are shown below.

This one nicely sets off the royal black and cream of the pint against the green envy of other beers: do Carlsberg and Heineken spring to mind?

It also has resonances of blasphemous beers of green beloved by Irish- and pseudo Irish- Americans alike. Not to mention the short lived arrogance of a ten pin bowling set.

Seeing as how we mentioned Carlsberg you might like to consider this take off. The claim is qualified by "probably" which, if you follow the rationale of the beer ad, means "I think I am but the regulator won't let me say so". Shadows of a repressed youth? The claim is also qualified by being limited to "Ireland", though it is not clear whether this is the State or the island. A cross-border marathon might be required to settle that one.

And, finally, when it all goes wrong, you have to blame the other fella and dip into the dark recesses of hiberno English (or "Béarla Éigeantach" as it is known in some post-famine millieux).

There are few terms in any language that can give you the same satisfaction as the word "gobshite". It is an affectionate way of insulting someone absolutely - calling him the absolute dregs (and it is a "him", the word is not applied to women). Mind you,the addition of "fecking" far from making it worse actually mollifies it a bit. I suppose you can't have it every way.

And, finally, finally, the multipurpose "eejit", gender neutral, insulting and affectionate, and seldom on its own. An eejit is usually a f**king eejit, even where the first term is completely silent. Sometimes the final "t" can be silent, as though the deliverer had expended so much force on the first two syllables that he collapses from exhaustion before reaching the final consonant.

So, all in all, a mighty collection of witty indigenous T shirts (the "r" is definitely pronounced here).