P.L.G.—Poor Law Guardian; a welfare official.
cocks him up—(slang) encourages an inflated self-image.
a sup taken—had a drink of alcohol.
bowsy—(slang) rogue.
tinker—(Chiefly Irish and Scottish) gypsy.
shoneens—(Irish) Irish who imitate English customs and behavior.
hunker-sliding—(slang) shirking.
German monarch—Edward VII (1841–1910); the king of Great Britain and Ireland (1901–10), son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, both of whom were of German descent.
Nationalist—the Irish Parliamentary Party, which stood for Irish independence.
spondulics—(slang) money.
musha—(Irish-English) indeed.
’usha—(Irish-English) the contraction of musha.
shoeboy—a boot licker or insincere flatterer.
moya!—(Irish) as it were!
had a tricky little black bottle up in a corner—(slang) sold liquor illegally.
a decent skin—(Irish slang) a good person underneath it all.
fenian—a member of a secret revolutionary movement formed in New York and Ireland to free Ireland from English rule. The movement was mostly active in the 1860s and continued until World War I.
Castle hacks—informers. The British ruled Ireland from Dublin Castle, in central Dublin just south of the River Liffey.
Major Sirr—Henry Charles Sirr (1764–1841); an Irish-born officer in the British army who put down rebellions in 1798 and 1803.
knock it out—get along financially.
goster—(Irish-English) gossip.
yerra—(Irish) really.
hop-o’-my-thumb—a short person.
the Mansion House—the official residence of Dublin’s Lord Mayor.
vermin—malapropism for ermine.
Wisha!—(Irish-English) variant of musha.
a loan of—influence on.
Did the cow calve?—(slang) Is there a reason to celebrate?
Conservatives—the party in favor of maintaining union with England.
big rate-payer—a property owner.
Here’s this chap comes to the throne after his old mother keeping him out of it till the man was grey—Because Queen Victoria ruled England and Ireland for over six decades, her son Edward VII did not inherit the throne until he was sixty years old.
The old one never went to see these wild Irish—Queen Victoria never visited Ireland (not, in fact, the case).
the Chief—a nickname for Parnell.
