Sir, – I was greatly amused by the Irish Diary of February 24th (“Why experts believe Shakespeare may have had an ‘Oirish’ accent”). Frank McNally should know that the dialect of English spoken by William Shakespeare is alive and well in my native south Derry where we drink tay and have good raisin to curse the divil.
My mother witnessed a wartime dance where the compère stopped proceedings with the words. “Mary-Ellen hiz last a bengle. Not yin fut will flap yon fleur until the bengle has been divulged. The first yin to hurl mug or bowel will be oot the door.”
Visiting American soldiers consulted their phrase books in vain. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE NEILL,
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Fermanagh,
Co Tyrone.
