Craic

"Craic" or "crack" is a term for fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland.^[1][2] It is often used with the definite article – the craic.^[1] The word has an unusual history; the form craic was borrowed into Irish from the English crack in the mid-20th century, and the Irish spelling was then reborrowed into English.^[1] Under either spelling, the craic has great cultural currency and significance in Ireland.

History

An older, related, more widespread, sense of crack is "joke", as in crack a joke or wise-crack.^[3] Another sense of crack, found in the north of England, is "news, gossip",^[4] which influences the common Irish expression "What's the crack?" or "How's the crack?", meaning "how are you?", "how have you been?", or "have you any news?" The context involving 'news' and 'gossip' originated in Northern English^[5] and the Scots language.^[6] This sense entered into Hiberno-English from the Ulster Scots dialect in Northern Ireland, some time in the mid-20th century.^[1] Early Irish citations from the Irish Independent relate to rural Ulster: from 1950, "There was much good 'crack'... in the edition of Country Magazine which covered Northern Ireland";^[7] or from 1955, "the Duke pulled the bolt on the door of the piggery, and let Coogan's old sow out...The Duke had been sitting on top of Kelly's gate watching the crack."^[8] It can frequently be found in the work of twentieth century Ulster writers such as Brian Friel (1980): You never saw such crack in your life, boys^[9] and Jennifer Johnston (1977): I'm sorry if I muscled in on Saturday. Did I spoil your crack?.^[10]

Like many other words over the centuries, 'crack' was borrowed into the Irish language with the Gaelicized spelling craic.^[1] It was in use as early as the 1960s,^[11] and was popularized in the catchphrase 'Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn' ('We'll have music, chat and craic'), used by Seán Bán Breathnach for his Irish-language chatshow SBB ina Shuí, broadcast on RTÉ from 1976 to 1982.^[1][12][13] The Irish spelling was soon reborrowed into English, and is attested in publications from the 1970s and '80s.^[1] Craic has also been used in Scottish Gaelic since at least the 1990s, though it is unknown if it was borrowed directly from Irish or from English.^[1]

At first the craic form was uncommon outside of Irish, even in an Irish context. Barney Rush's 1960s song "The Crack Was Ninety in the Isle of Man" does not use the Irish-language spelling, neither is it used in Christy Moore's 1978 version.^[14] However, The Dubliners' 2006 version adopts the Irish spelling.^[15] The title of Four to the Bar's 1994 concert album, Craic on the Road, uses the Irish-language spelling as an English-language pun.^[16]

Now, 'craic' is interpreted as a specifically and quintessentially Irish form of fun. The adoption of the Gaelic spelling has reinforced the sense that this is an independent word (homophone) rather than a separate sense of the original word (polysemy). Frank McNally of The Irish Times has said of the word, "[m]ost Irish people now have no idea it's foreign."^[17]

Alternatively, Edward Dwelly, in his Gaelic-English Dictionary, shows a possible evolution of the word from the Gaelic words cracaire and cnacair, n., meaning 'a boaster, a jester, a talker' (Dwelly, 216, 217, 259.) ^[18]

Criticism of the spelling craic

The spelling craic has attracted some criticism. English language specialist Diarmaid Ó Muirithe wrote in his Irish Times column "The Words We Use" that "the constant Gaelicisation of the good old English-Scottish dialect word crack as craic sets my teeth on edge."^[19] In his Companion to Irish Traditional Music, Fintan Vallely suggests that use of craic in English is largely an exercise on the part of Irish pubs to make money through the commercialisation of traditional Irish music.^[20]

Sociology

The craic has become a vital part of Irish culture. In a 2001 review of the modern Irish information economy, information sciences professor Eileen M. Trauth notes craic as an intrinsic part of the culture of sociability that distinguished the Irish workplace from those of other countries.^[21] Trauth found that even as Ireland transitions away from an economy and society dominated by agriculture, the traditional importance of atmosphere and the art of conversation – craic – remains, and that the social life is a fundamental part of workers' judgment of quality of life.^[22]

Critics have accused the Irish tourism industry and the promoters of Irish theme pubs of marketing 'commodified craic' as a kind of stereotypical Irishness.^[23]

See also

• The Craic (1999 Australian movie)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Craic". Oxford English Dictionary. December 2008. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/20002585?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=craic&first=1&max_to_show=10. Retrieved September 18, 2009. 
2. ^ "Crack, n. (I.5.c.)". Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50052976?query_type=word&queryword=crack&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=2&search_id=5LzH-BcbSlQ-4937&hilite=50052976. Retrieved September 18, 2009. 
3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary "crack (noun)" sense I.5.b
4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary "crack (noun)" sense I.5.a
5. ^ "Crack, Craic" from Hiberno-English dictionary
6. ^ "Crak" from the Dictionary of the Scots Language
7. ^ Sweeney, Maxwell (1950-12-02). "Radio review". Irish Independent: p. 5. 
8. ^ "Francis" (1955-08-13). "Over the Fields: Life, Day by Day on an Ulster Farm". Irish Independent: p. 7. 
9. ^ Brian Friel: Translations
10. ^ Jennifer Johnston: Shadows on Our Skin
11. ^ See, for example, this newspaper advertisement: "TEACH FURBO: AG OSCAILT ANOCHT: CEOL AGUS CRAIC" (in Irish). Connacht Sentinel: p. 5. 1968-07-30. 
12. ^ Boylan, Philip (October 23, 1977). "The Week Ahead". Sunday Independent: p. 2. "Friday, RTE, 5.30: 'SBB na Shui' [sic] is a new half-hour series with the star of Radio na Gaeltachta, Sean Ban Breathnach, in the chair presenting music, serious discussion and yarns, i.e., ceol, caint agus craic." 
13. ^ Moore, Richard (July 11, 1981). "Television topics". Meath Chronicle: p. 20. ""Ceoil, caint agus craic" is how Mr. Breathnach introduces the programme." 
14. ^ "lyrics: Crack Was Ninety In The Isle of Man". Christy Moore, offiical website. http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_tabs_detail.php?id=16. Retrieved 2008-10-18. ^{[dead link]}
15. ^ (2006) Album notes for Too Late to Stop Now: The Very Best of the Dubliners by The Dubliners. DMG TV.
16. ^ Four to the Bar: Craic on the Road
17. ^ McNally, Frank (2005). Xenophobe's Guide to the Irish. London: Oval. p. 19. ISBN 1-902825-33-0. 
18. ^ Cassidy, D: "How the Irish invented Slang", page 121, CounterPunch Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-904859604
19. ^ Ó Muirithe, Diarmaid (1992-12-05). "The Words We Use". The Irish Times: p. 27. ; reprinted in Ó Muirithe, Diarmaid (October 2006). The Words We Use. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. pp. 154–5. ISBN 9780717140800. 
20. ^ Vallely, Fintan (1999). Companion to Irish Traditional Music. New York: New York University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0814788025. 
21. ^ Trauth, p. 147.
22. ^ Trauth, pp. 149–150.
23. ^ McGovern, p. 91

References

• Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. http://dictionary.oed.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/. 
• The New Comprehensive Dictionary of The English Language (c. 1920). Newnes (London) and Chambers (Edinburgh).
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927) Focloir Gaedhilge agus Bearla. Dublin: Irish Texts Society.
• McGovern, Mark (2003). Michael Cronin and Barbara O'Connor. ed. "'The Cracked Pint Glass of the Servant': the Irish Pub, Irish Identity, and the Tourist Eye". Irish Tourism: Image, Culture and Identity (Clevedon: Channel View). ISBN 1-873150-54-7. 
• Trauth, Eileen M. (2001). The Culture of an Information Economy. Springer. ISBN 140200396X. http://books.google.com/?id=oqfJ4AxI9sMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=. Retrieved April 6, 2010. 

Further reading

• McGovern, Mark (2002). "The 'Craic' Market: Irish Theme Bars and the Commodification of Irishness in Contemporary Britain". Irish Journal of Sociology 11.2: 77–98. 

External links

• The Craic on the National Museum of Australia website