A recent overheard conversation in a west of Ireland pub was revealing in how our language is changing in rural Ireland. An older man was regaling his friend about a complete misunderstanding during a chat with a young GAA player; that reminded me of linguistic misinterpretations on holidays.

The man jokingly asked the young fella if he was “doing a line with anybody”. After being met with a look of abject horror from the teenager, the questioner realised the youngster hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. Worse still, he had given the phrase an altogether more modern meaning, thinking he was referring to substances of a narcotic nature. Understandably, the man was aghast that this innocuous phrase, asking whether he had a girlfriend or was seeing anybody, was no longer used in modern parlance.

While amusing, it underlines how life and language are very much a continuum, and you cannot take for granted that some of our best-known farming sayings or just everyday phrases from the countryside will survive the modern age. If that is so, it’s certainly important that they are recorded because they reveal so much about us as people, our heritage and rural life.

And that’s just what Rural Action, a group in Cookstown in Co Tyrone, is doing in a new fundraising rural sayings book. I’ve been entertained over the past week or so by its social media videos with some great contributions. “She’s as a nosey as a cow over a hedge” or “you’d not rear ducks in a thunderstorm” tickled my funny bone. “You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your head” is another good one that I hadn’t heard before.

Each piece of wisdom makes for colourful conversation, gives us a bit of a laugh and offers advice all in one. You can hear your gran or dad or neighbour saying them, but what happens when they are gone and we can’t remember those nuggets of wisdom and humour? That’s why this group’s project is so important because all of these pieces of folklore, weather wisdom and colourful farming phrases are disappearing.

Each piece of wisdom makes for colourful conversation, gives us a bit of a laugh and offers advice all in one. You can hear your gran or dad or neighbour saying them, but what happens when they are gone and we can’t remember those nuggets of wisdom and humour?

A man I know, when asked if there is any news, always answers, “not a haypurt”. Little did I know till recently that ‘haypurt’ or ‘haypert’, as some say, is believed to refer to a halfpenny’s worth. I thought it was a bird!

A few others that come to mind include “a wet and windy May fills the corn with hay” or a new one to my repertoire is “any man can lose his hat in a fairy wind”. Who can forget someone older chiding you for wearing a t-shirt in May sunshine by saying, “don’t cast a clout till May is out”. In other words, keep your layers on until later in the summer. Send me your favourites to dverney@farmersjournal.ie, I’d love to hear them.

Before I go, anyone with an interest in hospitality, food or rural living should make a date with the second episode of the This is Country Living podcast this weekend with Paul and Máire Flynn from The Tannery Restaurant in Co Waterford. It’s a great listen.