shamus* - a police officer; a private detective James
joky - jocular
getatable - approachable, accessible
pretend - to put forward as an assertion or statement, to allege; now esp. to allege or declare falsely or with intent to deceive.
aboriginally - from the very beginning, in the earliest times or conditions known to the history or science.
stemming - originating from (the action of the verb stem - to derive or take origin from).
outlet* - issue; lex (l) - law; outlaw - one put outside the law and deprived of its benefits and protection; exlex (l) - lawless.
Ragnar Lodbrok ("shaggy breeches")* - viking, saga hero who, tradition says, died in Ireland.
Bluebeard* - a personage of popular mythology, so called from the colour of his beard. References are frequent in literature to the locked turret-chamber, in which hung the bodies of his murdered wives; blau (ger) - blue.
Harald Fair Hair (Haarfager) (850-933)* - first king of Norway, annexed Scottish isles.
inlaw - a relative by marriage
honest to goodness - real, true, genuine
black and white - simple and direct; in black and white - in writing or in print.
shot - a single photographic exposure, snapshot
get up - general composition or structure, outfit, costume
adze - a carpenter's or cooper's
tool, like an axe with the blade set at right angles to the handle and curving inwards
towards it;
Adzehead - St Patrick was so called by the Irish, probably because of the shape of his tonsure. The Druids had
prophesied: "Adzehead will come and build cities." Patrick did come and build Armagh.
gull; Tailcenn (talken) (gael) - Adze-head (name for St. Patrick, from tonsure or miter).
the whole of* = all
to have up one's sleeve* - to have in reserve, at one's disposal
uncrown - to deprive of a crown, dethrone; to uncover, to display one crown Uncrowned king of Ireland - Parnell.
mock - sham, counterfeit, pretended
trio - a group of three
barbel (OF) - 'little beard'
not a leg to stand on* - no support whatever
handful - a quantity that fills the hand; a small quantity or amount. (Usually depreciative.)
loose - not rigidly or securely attached or fixed in place; freed from an engagement, obligation, etc.; at liberty (obs.)
fifth - one of five equal parts into which a quantity may be divided.
116; gleet - sticky or greasy filth; steen - an earthenware container for liquids or foods.
avoirdupois* - weight, degree of heaviness; the standard system of weights used, in Great Britain, for all goods except the precious metals, precious stones, and medicines.
manroot - an herpaceous california vine with an enormous root
salmonet* - a young salmon
debouch - to issue from a narrow or confined place, as a defile or a wood, into open country; hence gen. to issue or emerge from a narrower into a wider place or space.
protohistory - time that just antedate the beginning of recorded history
thistlebird* - goldfinch (bird); thistle - čičak.
nursery - a place for young animals
pilling - plundering, robbing; removal of the skin, bark, etc.; pill - trans. To dose with pills. feeling