'Tis a Fine Broth of Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: blarney

I started this quiz with the definition of blarney (which can mean to cajole or beguile), as I thought I might just use my Irish charm and some blarney and get this quiz through quickly. It is said that blarney differs from malarkey in that blarney implies wheedling with humor and is more acceptable than malarkey, except for when malarkey is used in conjunction with wooing a lass.

Answer: shoe

We humans wear brogans (two shoes). The leprechaun is usually depicted working as a "leith brogan" (one-shoe maker). Perhaps the leprechaun is not always mischievous but sometimes wise in the sense of "one foot at a time"?

Answer: wail loudly

If one has ever heard an Irish peasant woman keen it is an unforgettable experience of participating in a woman's sorrow. My first experience of this is when my Irish Grandmother stood at the coffin of her son. Her expression of anguish in keening made an indelible impression on a teenage granddaughter.

Answer: misleading

Hopefully this quiz maker is not full of malarkey and has been careful to be clear and factual not full of tricks and obfuscation as those "full of malarkey" might be.

Answer: fairy

I do not know exactly what constitutes an "old family" in Ireland, but it is said that the banshee (fairy) follows these old families, and when the banshee wails it is a portent that a member of the family will soon die.

Memo: avoid banshees.

Answer: health

My first experience of a toastmaster using slainte as he raised his whisky
glass was perplexing. What could "s'lahnje" mean? Seeing my confusion,
my friends explained that slainte was the word for health in Gaelic.
I comfortably next time raised my glass and said slainte. Imagine my surprise when the dictionary gave this as its pronunciation guide, /ˈslɑːntʃə.

Answer: son of

Now I am very familiar with the definition of "Mc" (son of) as it is part of my maiden name. So my father might have been "son of Guinness". Actually there was an Arthur McGuinness who began the Guinness Brewery in the 18th century and to this day this beer has stayed as popular as it was then. Imagine I, as a "McGinniss", could really be the son of a famous brewer. I shall have to investigate this new fact in my genealogy research.

Answer: whiskey

Although of Irish heritage, I have never had a drop of poteen which is now legal in Ireland and for exportation also.
This no moonshine variety of poteen is reputed to be a good representation of the true poteen moonshine but does not have the smoky taste of making it over a fire. I shall never know.

Answer: padraic

Would that there were MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) on the slum streets of New York and Boston when the impoverished Irish immigrants of the early 20th century, many with the name Padraic (nickname Paddy), would revel on those streets! In their drunkenness the police came to pick them up in their wagons, giving rise to the nickname "paddy wagon". Perhaps also the expression about Irish drinking, "the curse of the Irish", would not have come into existence.

Answer: cudgel

The name for this cudgel comes from an oak forest, Tomnafinnoge Oak Wood. This forest is between the towns of Tinahely and Shillelagh, hence the name. The oak from the forest was used to make a "bata" (fighting stick) or now commonly called a shillelagh and with humor it is sometimes called "Irish Boxing Glove." Regardless of its name, I think I would like to avoid experiencing a shillelagh.