Piper's invitation; 'He came on the piper's invitation,' i.e. uninvited. (Cork.) A translation of { 302} Irish _cuireadh-píobaire_ [curra-peebara]. Pipers sometimes visited the houses of well-to-do people and played--to the great delight of the boys and girls--and they were sure to be well treated. But that custom is long since dead and gone.
Pishminnaan´ [the _aa_ long as _a_ in _car_]; common wild peas. (Munster.) They are much smaller--both plant and peas--than the cultivated pea, whence the above anglicised name, which has the same sound as the Irish _pise-mionnáin_, 'kid's peas.'
Pishoge, pisheroge, pishthroge; a charm, a spell, witchcraft:--'It is reported that someone took Mrs. O'Brien's butter from her by _pishoges_.'
Place; very generally used for house, home, homestead:--'If ever you come to Tipperary I shall be very glad to see you at _my place_.' This is a usage of the Irish language; for the word _baile_ [bally], which is now used for _home_, means also, and in an old sense, a place, a spot, without any reference to home.
Plaikeen; an old shawl, an old cloak, any old covering or wrap worn round the shoulders. (South.)
Plantation; a colony from England or Scotland settled down or _planted_ in former times in a district in Ireland from which the rightful old Irish owners were expelled, 7, 169, 170.
Plaumause [to rhyme with _sauce_]; soft talk, plausible speech, flattery--conveying the idea of insincerity. (South.) Irish _plámás_, same sound and meaning.
Plauzy; full of soft, flattering, _plausible_ talk. Hence { 303} the noun _pláusoge_ [plauss-oge], a person who is plauzy. (South.)
Plerauca; great fun and noisy revelry. Irish _pléaráca_, same sound and meaning.
Pluddogh; dirty water. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irish _plod_ [pludh], a pool of dirty water, with the termination _ach_.
Pluvaun; a kind of soft weed that grows excessively on tilled moory lands and chokes the crop. (Moran: Carlow.)
Poll-talk; backbiting: from the _poll_ of the head: the idea being the same as in _back_biting.
Polthogue; a blow; a blow with the fist. Irish _palltóg_, same sound and meaning.
Pooka; a sort of fairy: a mischievous and often malignant goblin that generally appears in the form of a horse, but sometimes as a bull, a buck-goat, &c. The great ambition of the pooka horse is to get some unfortunate wight on his back; and then he gallops furiously through bogs, marshes, and woods, over rocks, glens, and precipices; till at last when the poor wretch on his back is nearly dead with terror and fatigue, the pooka pitches him into some quagmire or pool or briar-brake, leaving him to extricate himself as best he can. But the goblin does not do worse: he does not kill people. Irish _púca_. Shakespeare has immortalised him as Puck, the goblin of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream.'