Gardai is generally pronounced ‘gar-dee’, and is the plural form of ‘Garda’. ‘An Garda Síochána’ (na hÉireann) are the Irish Police, or ‘the polis’ in vernacular. It translates as ‘The Guardians of the Peace (of Ireland). And Erin is the Anglicised spelling often found for Éireann – Ireland. Now, there’s some mixed geography in this, for the Garry-boys are really Limerick. And here’s a word or two I offered for DANNY THE DANCER, for DANNY’s not far from the tune of the Garryowen, and this piece talks of the Garry-bhoys:

The Garryowen is an old Irish quickstep going back to the 1680s. In time it became the official Gallop of the Seventh Cavalry under Custer, and to this day it’s the Official Tune of the First Cavalry. The name’s not quite what it may seem. It’s a compound of ‘garrai’ – the Irish for ‘garden’, and eoian – the Irish form of John, and pronounced O-in or Oh-en. In fact, you’ll find King John’s Gardens at the bottom of the hill in Limerick town. And there’s many a madness the young folk used to get up to there. The local lads would tear the knockers from doors, and wring the necks of geese. Soon the fame of the ‘Garryowen boys’ spread far and wide.

But in time the ‘Garry-bhoys’ (for in Scotland and Ireland both, ‘bhoy’ is closer to a young tough or thug than it is the simpler ‘boy’) got to more than a broken door knocker or three, and mayhap there’s more dead than a goose or so to their name. For Limerick was once (and still may be for all my knowing) called Switch-City, for the knives even its children carried of a Saturday night. But what city there is here (Sraid Uí Chonaill is O’Connell Street, and Stephen’s Green is Faiche Stiabhna, the Georgian Square city centre public park) is Dublin. And the uilleann are the Irish bag-pipes all Ireland over, but you say it as ɪlən, or ‘i’ (as in ‘sit’) l (as in ‘love’) a (as in ‘ago’) n – so ‘ilan’. And, for those who may not know,  the Liffy is a river that runs through Dublin, and Guiness (the real kind, and not the kind they let the English have) is supposed to be made with the pure Liffy water. So ‘the Liffy’ is the black stuff, and it’s no’ Oil that means :-).

Oh – and a half-crown? That was once two shillings and sixpence in English money. And the Irish often took the English coin – for there’s little else they thought na Sasanaigh had worth having, unless it was their heart’s blood running in the street for some. And the rights of that, or the wrongs either, is not mine to say.

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