Word: poteen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Ireland. In the 1880s, when William Butler Yeats first twanged his lyre, the world was understandably startled; it was almost like finding a Goethe in a peat croft. But for the next 50 years Ireland kept passing out literary surprises, for first-rate writers came along as fast as poteen at a christening: Russell, Synge, Gogarty, O'Casey, Joyce, O'Flaherty. O'Connor, McLaverty. In Part I of 1000 Years of Irish Prose (Part II, covering the first 930 years, will be published next year), Editors Mercier and Greene have made selections that lead like steppingstones through...
Despite its Irishness, Three Wishes is raspberry syrup without a drop of poteen. John Raitt sings handsomely, but Ralph Blane's tunes seldom seem hummablel without also seeming familiar. There are nice George Jenkins sets and Miles White costumes, and there is at least one thoroughly gay dance number. If wishes were horses, the show might go at a fast enough clip to be fun; as it is, it just ambles from one mild scene to another...
...19th Century observer reported Inishmurray poteen flowing "extensively over the whole seaboard from Sligo to Bundoran and even to a considerable distance inland." In 1893, a detachment of Royal Irish constabulary was quartered there for revenue duty, but in later years, news of police visits usually reached King Michael in time for the great stone jugs of poteen to be hidden in the island's shallow lake. Once sentenced to pay a ?50 fine or spend six months in jail for poteen-making, King Michael said: "I would have paid ?10, but they would not make...
When barley and potato prices rose during and after World War II, the poteen industry languished. In 1948, Waters and some 60 remaining inhabitants of Inishmurray petitioned the Irish government for new land, were moved to Sligo. There King Michael, a huge figure in homespun tweeds, with a sweeping mustache, continued to hold court among those of his subjects who revisited the island every summer, ostensibly to graze cattle, but actually, it was said, to engage in their traditional industry. In Sligo last week, at the age of 80, Michael Waters died. His eldest son Michael, known to the islanders...
Unless a new dynasty of mighty poteen-makers is established, no more kings will rule on Inishmurray...