The proverb “Good fences make good neighbours” in Ireland

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Telephone call, 23 April 2003. This collection is preserved in the Archive of the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, Ireland. The word “mearing” was used in state documents since English first replaced Latin as the language of these documents in the early seventeenth century. It is allied to the Latin word murus (email from Thomas McErlean, spring 2002; Lane , under mearing). The word has been obsolete in England for some time (Wright , under mearing; The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary 1971). In the Institute of Texan Cultures, The University of Texas at San Antonio, all of the groups of people in Texas are portrayed in displays. Part of the depiction, visited in 1993, of Irish people in Texas consists of proverbs. Each proverb is shown on a panel and the panels are suspended around the top of the exhibit. The proverbs are from Champion's “British Isles: Irish” (1938, 46–63). Irish people are the only ones represented by proverbs. As stressed by Ruairí Ó Bléine and Niclas L. Walker, the terms “claidhe tórann,” “fál,” and “tórann,” in the case of Gaelic, have overlapping meanings, while the Welsh “claw(dd)” is primarily related to digging and can mean “dyke” that is, a “raised boundary,” “hedge,” or, less specifically, “boundary,” according to region (email coms. spring 2003)

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Champion · Depiction · Folklore · Irish · Linguistics · Media studies · Sociology · Visual arts · Welsh · Wright · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Irish and British Studies · Philippine History and Culture

• Good Fences Make Good Neighbours

  Wolfgang Mieder•Folklore•2003

  Add to list

• Racial Proverbs

  B J Whiting, Selwyn Gurney Champion•Journal of American Folklore•1953

  Add to list