Sir, – Further to Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary (“Prefixes and postscripts – Frank McNally on American superlatives, souperism, and St Patrick’s Week hangovers”, March 18th), growing up on a farm in Co Kerry in the 1950s, the word “super” often referred to a very heavy hessian sack containing super-phosphate artificial fertiliser.
The empty sack was the superior bag for wrapping the knees (cricket batsman-style) for the job of thinning drills of turnips, mangolds or sugar beet.
It was also very handy as an improvised weather winter cape, when transporting a “beart” of hay to some outlying fields for a bunch of “perishing calves”! – Yours, etc,
SEAN SAVAGE,
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Kinsale,
Co Cork.
A chara, – Growing up in a pub in Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, on the few occasions that I “helped out” behind the bar, my heart would sink when a “pint of Special” was called for. My mother would despair as I never knew which came first, the Guinness or the Smithwicks.
Slobber and waste of beer all round, as the glass overflowed.
Super-annoying! – Yours, etc,
NUALA GALLAGHER,
Ballyglass,
Kiltimagh,
Co Mayo.
