ABSTRACT
In October 1910 at the Enniskillen Quarter Sessions in the north of Ireland, the proceedings were momentarily troubled by the stumbling block of translation. Solicitor John F. Wray was cross-examining a witness and asked: ‘Was it the custom for a mehel of men to come to the bog to cut turf?’. The word meitheal, or mehel, as it was spelt in the newspaper report greatly bothered County Court Judge Craig. Judge Craig asked the solicitor what he meant. The solicitor replied that it was an Irish word and that the witness would soon explain what it meant. The judge rebuked the solicitor saying: ‘Couldn’t you get an English word that would suit equally as well? We talk English in this court, and we have no interpreter here except yourself. Call it something else’. Wray proceeded to explain that meitheal was an Irish farming custom whereby farmers would contribute a day’s work to help a neighbour cut the turf quickly. At a later stage in the proceedings, Wray asked the witness what was the usual number of men in a meitheal but the judge had had enough: ‘I do not want your mehel. Talk some English. I do not know Irish. It is a very interesting language, but I have not learned it’ (Anon 1910: 9).
