The Book of Irish Bull: Better Than All the Udders [Paperback]

Des MacHale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1992

Irish bull is an expression containing a contradiction in terms, or implying a ludicrous inconsistency in speech frequently unperceived by the speaker:

"Mike was not a great traveler. As he said himself, he only went to London once and then he only got as far as Dublin". Here is some of the best of Irish humor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Irish Amer Book Co (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0853428220
• ISBN-13: 978-0853428220
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,528,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF THE HISTORY OF IRISH WIT WHICH ENGENDERED WILDE AND JOYCE AND BECKETT, December 13, 2006

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C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Irish Bull: Better Than All the Udders (Paperback)

Ever wonder from what bare granite peak Wilde's dry paradoxes were born? From what murky night Joyce's jocoserious subtle near invisible laughter emerges? How did Sam Beckett's tragicomic, straightfaced as a brick wall, utterly ironic humor rebound?

Try this book, and you will see.

THe prolific Des MacHAle gathers here a brilliant and valuable collection of the paradoxical, yin and yang, Zen-riddlish ancient wit of the Irish, struggling to preserve the laughing singing all-seeing genius of the Irish heart in the straitjacket of penaly imposed English.

You will not be disappointed by this book. Strewn with some abstruse sayings indeed, which will give you reason to pause and reflect, there is also much to immediately burst out laughing about, and then pause to wonder what was so funny about that.

One word of caution: Do not bring this book with you into choir or other liturgical functions. Do not carry it to court when they charge you with criminal offenses or jury duty. Traffic violations may be okay.

An example chosen at random:
The rainbow is not an optical illusion - it only looks like one.

What seems to be spoken in ignorance actually reflects a deeper wisdom which gives Joyce birth and the ability to enthrall generations of scholars and philosophers. That apophthegme alone deserves ten pages of commentary on the nature of reality, on the "ineluctable modality of the visible", on the nature of our perceptions and interpretations of reality, and on the science of optics, etc., as well.

You may find you carry this precious book with you at all times. It is quite portable and very rich. As powerfully distilled as a wee pony of Jameson's. But do not carry it to class, to court or to choir.

Have a break. Get a life. Have a laugh. Get this book for those you love.

But be sure to cover the unsightly cover.