Brave; often used as an intensive:--'This is a brave fine day'; 'that's a brave big dog': (Ulster.) Also fine or admirable 'a brave stack of hay': { 224} tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in fighting):--'I have as brave a set of sons as you'd find in a day's walk.' 'How is your sick boy doing?' 'Oh bravely, thank you.'
Braw; fine, handsome: Ir. _breagh_, same sound and meanings. (Ulster.)
Break. You _break_ a grass field when you plough or dig it up for tillage. 'I'm going to break the kiln field.' ('Knocknagow.') Used all over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray's Elegy:--'Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe _has bróke_.'
Break; to dismiss from employment: 'Poor William O'Donnell was _broke_ last week.' This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:--'_Cid nod m-bris in fer-so a bo-airechus?_' 'What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) this man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position as _bo-aire_ or chief)?' My car-driver asked me one time:--'Can an inspector of National Schools be broke, sir?' By which he meant could he be dismissed at any time without any cause.
Breedoge [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _bathe_]; a figure dressed up to represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve of the saint's festival), to collect small money contributions. With this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next day, 1st Feb. 'Breedoge' means 'little _Brighid_ or _Brighit_,' _Breed_ (or rather _Breedh_) representing the sound of Brighid, with _óg_ the old diminutive feminine termination.
{ 225} Brecham, the straw collar put on a horse's or an ass's neck: sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.)
Brehon Law; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was called a 'brehon.'
Brew; a margin, a brink: 'that lake is too shallow to fish from the brews': from the Irish _bru_, same sound and meaning. See Broo.
Brief; prevalent: 'fever is very brief.' Used all over the southern half of Ireland. Perhaps a mistake for _rife_.
Brillauns or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in a peasant's cottage. Dick O'Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married as soon as they can gather up the few _brill-yauns_ of furniture. (South-east of Ireland.)