The Irish standard., 1898-11-19
at least between 100000, 900 and $4,000, 900
of our present poulation.

was natural. Most or these immigrants
had brought to this country an intense
hatred of England. When the colonies
began their agitation for redress of
grievances, the Irish settlers and the
sons and grandsons of the same stock
sedulously Tanned the flame. 1t was the
same element which had much to do
with the Mecklenburg declaration.
Though New England began the war,
even there the Irish influence was felt
The record preserved by the state of
New Hampshire shows over 1000 names
OF revolutionary pensioners decidedly
Irish in their sound, and these are not
half of the whole number. John Stark,
the hero of Bennington: Sullivan and
others We're of Irish descent: and when
you came to Massachusetts. New York,
Pennsylvania and states further south
the Irish blood became greater infusion
in the continental force. The records
of the army and the after pension lists
show this conclusively. The revolution
airy roster CT the New York forces shows
over one-1hird with distinctly Irish
names. In Pennsylvania the proportion
was over one-half. Morgan's Virginia
riflemen. With a very few exceptions,
were Irish either by birth or descent.
The further south you Went the more
Irish there were in the service, especially
in Tennessee and North and South Caro-
lima.
The greatest interest to me lies i'm the
mountain settlement from New lIamp-
shire to Georgia. The traveller who
makes his way on horseback in south
westerly direction through these ridges
and valleys will be struck by the
Hibernicism of the names of the natives.
Some of these have been altered in
spelling. Thus the name of Mcmahon
will be found changed to Malone or
Mayhorn. and Mooney into Money. The
o of the O'f'arrells, O'Reillys and others
dropped. while the Macs more frequently
remain unchanged. Connolly. Donnelly
and others are frequently spelled with an
economy OF letters, but enough remain
to show their origin.
IT, nevertheless all these names were
blotted out, and their places taken by
those of English or German sound, tn"
character of the original settlement
would be known by the prevalence of
certain words and the survival of certain
customs. There are several words used
here which are evidently of pure Irish
origin. | remember once when ! was
summoned to attend professionally a
sick child of johnson Kelly on Island
creek. On my way met ono OF the
Mulinses. and not being quite certain
asked him where Kelly lived. Wall,
said Mullins you pass them three dry
branches and the furst house bcyant
standn' fcrncnt a big rock, is llclly's."
1t Is scarcely necessary to say where that
word came from. Some time after was
riding over to Jenny's creek. in company
with Hugh 'rony's brother, Overtoh, who
was on foot Suddenly he grasped my
driving rein. Hold on, Doc" he said,
until hcavc IL dornick at that fellow"
Picking up a small stone. he threw it at
Il hare. or rabbit as 1t is generally called.
that stood at IL distance. | asked him
why he called a small stone a dornick.
and he answered that it was because his
father and his grandfather and every
body around that he knew gave it that
name. That was As years since felt
assured that the word was Of Irish
origin. but had no means to verify the
fact at the time. Recently the new die
tionares give us the word as local, but
not its etymology A few weeks since
an Irish friend of mine, an eminent
architect. visited me. and while he was
there happened to remember this word.
AS my sight is DIM l asked him to take
down an Irish dictionary from the shelf
and see if he could find in it a word
spelled either dornic or dorng. lie could
not find either. but he said. Here is
dornog." Al my request he read the
definition. IA small stone that can be
grasped by the hand.'
There is another expression commonly
used as IL socked my knife into the
animal" and Il just drew back and
sockcd him" in the sense of thrusing
the knife and of nnicting IL violent push
or punch. The word soc in Irish means
a pointed instrument The word sue Il
push or punch. and the word saht hadh.
which last is sometimes pronounced as
If written saughth (sawlO. From onc or
other. if not from all three, the verb and
noun SOCK are evidently derived
III connection with sock there comes
another word commonly used in jocu-
lar sense, namely. socdolagcr. This is
applied i'll the mountains when a violent
blow from both fists in succession Is
given. The recent dictionaries, which
are raking up all the local words, have
got this in their list, but one of them
endcavors to derive it from doxolosy.
This is the most absurd bit of ctymoogy
that ever met. The first syllable is de-
rived as | have pointed out. The rest
comes from dolaimhgemb (dolugave), a
two-handeu sword. Dolamheasltl, ambi-
deXterity, Or the power to use both right
and left hand equally, is from The Same
root. Socdolager is a legitimate word,
with a we'll defined origin, and simply
means Il double blow. Mctaphorically,
it ia frnuuont1v anD1inI IN