Dá n-ó pill fort!

(two * ears * of horse * on you)

Two horse’s ears on you! May you be a laughing-stock!

This expression of disparagement is found in “Sanas Cormaic” as “da n-ó bill fort” (where the ‘b’ could be an unusually explicit representation of the eclipsis of ‘p’ after the neuter noun “ó”). It is also found much later in Keating’s “Forsas Feasa ar Éirinn”, in the tale of Labhraidh Loingseach. Labhraidh, like King Midas before him, had ears that looked just like a horse’s ears. He had his hair cut just once a year, and had his barber, who was chosen by lot, killed immediately thereafter in order to protect his shameful secret. But one year he spared a young barber, the only son of a widow, in respose to the pleas of the boy’s mother. The boy promised to keep the secret, but finally he couldn’t stand to keep it bottled up entirely, so he whispered it to a big willow tree. Shortly thereafter, Craiftine the harper broke his harp. He cut the makings of a new harp from the same willow tree. When it was completed and he played on it, everyone who heard its music thought it was saying “dá ó phill for Labhraidh Lorc .i. dá chluais chapaill ar Labhraidh Lorc”.

Topics: Curses & Insults