1 “Little Britain” (Ptolemy)
2 Scotia Major & Minor
3 John Bull’s Other Island
4 Saint Fechin (“the little raven”)
Small Potatoes – Frank McNally on A History of Ireland in 100 diminutives
(Southern) Cross Country – Frank McNally on Argentina’s 150-year-old Irish newspaper
Funny Peculiar – Frank McNally on the unhilarious St Hilary and the legal term named after him
Comrades – John Mulqueen on the price of a divided left
5 A Modest Proposal
6 Lilliput
7 Little Ireland (Manchester)
8 Little Ireland (New York)
9 Little Dublin (Montreal)
10 Poitín
11 Scailtín
12 Shebeen
13 The Pro-Cathedral
14 Latchiko (origin obscure but possibly from leath-tiochóg, meaning “half of a small bag”, ie scrotum).
15 Leath-bhuachail (literally “half a boy” but also implying a 50 per cent deficiency in wit).
16 Little Musgrave
17 Little Christmas
18 The Little People
19 Little Ian
20 The Little Sugar Loaf
21 A Little Cloud (James Joyce)
22 An Craoibhín Aoibhinn (Douglas Hyde)
23 Myles na gCopaleen
24 Cruiskeen Lawn
25 Gawshkogue (copyright Myles, precise meaning unknown to anyone else)
26 “As lively as twenty leprechauns doing a jig on top of a tombstone” (Flann O’Brien on molecules)
27 The wee north
28 Our wee country
29 The Six
30 The twenty-six
31 The South
32 Mexico
33 Staters
34 The narcissism of small differences
35 Short Strand
36 The half bap
37 Cross
38 Ballybeg
39 Littleton
40 Goleen
41 Gráinneog (literally “little hatred” but also a hedgehog)
42 A wee slip of a thing
43 The wee county
44 The county of the Little Hills
45 Banty
46 The short grass county
47 Colleen
48 Maneen
49 Priesteen
50 Padraigin
51 Shoneen
52 Sleeveen
53 Jackeen
54 Gombeen
55 An Spailpín Fánach
56 Tadhgeen (“Little Timothy”, from St Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, advising him to drink a small amount of wine for his stomach ailment.)
57 Deoirín
58 Dropeen
59 Glasheen
60 Naggin
61 A Baby Power’s
62 Baby Guinness
63 Dreoilín
64 Divil a hait
65 A pint and a small one
66 Carrigeen
67 Crubeen
68 (Scaoil amach an) Bobailín
69 Cúpla focal
70 Drisheen (stuffed small intestines of sheep, considered food in Cork)
71 Abhairín
72 Aguisín
73 Alanna
74 Baitín
75 Banbh
76 Boreen
77 Beddeen
78 Báidín Fheilimí
79 Bawneen jacket
80 Cipín
81 Smithereen
82 Thrawneen
83 Come back again to me Mavourneen
84 “You’re sitting by the fireside with your dudeen in your gob”
85 Soccer (from the ‘soc’ in “Association Football”)
86 Small-ball game
87 Back-door All-Ireland
88 Covid All-Ireland
89 The minor match
90 The evil of two lesser
91 The Junior Cert
92 Mamailíneach (Kerry Irish for a small person with short legs, but also implying inveterate laziness)
93 A mhic
94 Naíonán
95 Ogie Moran
96 M’Asal Beag Dubh
97 Guinness Light
98 Croppy’s Acre (it’s 4.4 acres actually, or about 1.8 hectares)
99 The Fifteen Acres (it’s more like 400 acres now)
100 “Former TD, now running for the Senate”