Either way its an Anglo-Irish expression that has found its way into the Ulster-Scots vocabulary. In the context in which I have heard it used I would tend to favour the former county as the source.
This aul sayin is used when something beats or surpasses everything else.
That baits Banagher
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| Waterfalls at Banagher Glen, near Dungiven, Co L/Derry |
D'ye hae ony notion o hoo come the oul fowk used tae caa Ballyfrenis 'Balbriggan'? A know there's a Balbriggan near Dublin, but that's a brave bit fae hame.
ReplyDeleteThats a guid yin. An I ca gie ye a sort o an answer but I cannae tak credit fur it. Fur I cum by tha answer in Wilbert MaGill's beuk o poetry 'Aboot tha Airds" On page seiventie ye'll fin a poem aboot Ballyfrenis caaed, 'Tha freenleist place o' a'.
ReplyDeleteWilbert tells us that Ballyfrenis wus caaed Balbriggan an Ballduldry ferby. An that thees names whur gien tae the toonland in tha sixteen hunners by tha scotch settlers. How-an-niver Jist after tha rebellion o 1790 tha postal service cudnae cope an tha heid yins caaed it Ballyfrenis.
A scholarly cretter yinst tould me it ment 'townland of the ash trees' in Latin.