An Irishman's Diary

I WAS speculating earlier in the week (Irishman’s Diary, May 25th) about the origins of the word “mullocker”. As in: “They’re only a bunch of mullockers”, a phrase heard from a Leinster-supporting Kerryman in Cardiff last weekend, to disparage the skill levels of the Northampton opposition. One possible suspect in the case, I thought, was Welshman Richard Mullock, a colourfully incompetent

figure from rugby’s founding days.

Well, it appears we can rule that Mr Mullock out of our inquiries, at least if reader Cathal McCarthy is to be believed. The place we should look to for the word’s origins, he says, is the city where later today, Munster will host the new European champions. In Cathal’s words: “As with most interesting terminology [in Irish rugby], the mildly abusive term ‘mullocker’ comes from Limerick.” I’ll let him explain: “The firm of stevedores Mullock and Sons have been present on the docks there for aeons and their casual employees – recruited as business warranted – were known for their ability to hump, drag and manhandle huge amounts of cargo by hand. Limerick people still use ‘mullock’ as a verb in precisely this fashion, ‘pulling and mullocking’, to denote unskilled physical labour.”

Cathal adds: “Your Kerry pal’s familiarity with the phrase might arise from the fact that Mullocks had branch offices in Tarbert and Foynes and so, in this fashion, the term spread from Limerick into Kerry in the same way as did soap and the use of knives and forks.” A slightly controversial note to end with there, Cathal. But we’ll leave the question of how soap and cutlery reached Kerry to social anthropologists, if you don’t mind: it’s only words we’re concerned with here.

And sure enough, no sooner had that e-mail arrived than it was followed by one from the MD of Mullock Sons, a Mr John Dundon. He referred me to the company website. Which not only details the firm’s long history in Limerick, where it was founded by John Mullock in 1778, but also has a short section devoted to “mullocking”.

Claiming the term with pride, Mullock Sons take pains to suggest that it may not always be an insult, even a mild one. Certainly, its application in a rugby or GAA context is rarely flattering. Even so, the company insists it can used to praise a good worker, who may even be deemed a "mullocker non-pareil"by his grateful boss.

ALL OF WHICHseems to secure Limerick's authorship of the term, just as surely as the city's other famous gift to rugby-speak: "Garryowen". But wait. Curious to know if that great guardian of the English language, the OED, had recognised the word's ownership, I delved into the vast depths of its online edition. Where, as often happens, the situation rapidly became murky.

Yes, "mullocker" is there. And yes – if not to Limerick, exactly – the word is credited to Ireland, as well as to Australia and New Zealand. But of the meanings attributed – "A person who clears away refuse in a mine. Also, depreciative, any manual labourer; a careless or inept labourer", only the second half of the definition fits the reputed Limerick origin.

The plot thickens with the verb "to mullock", which the dictionary insists is of English ancestry, meaning "to be in the way, to idle, to loiter or trail around aimlessly". Going back to the mines, the OEDalso mentions an Australian variant meaning "to make (a thing dirty), to block up or litter (a place), especially with mining refuse".

And staying in Australia, it mentions a third sense: ie to do something roughly or carelessly, especially sheep-shearing. Here, the dictionary quotes an example from the Melbourne Age newspaper: "No man could shear 321 sheep in eight hours, although I will admit he might . . . what we shearers call 'mullock over' that number." In short, the OEDappears to suggest that the Irish "mullocker" derives from the English "mullock". It even cites a "mullock" from this newspaper, in 2001, as one of the English verb's character references. And if we think Mullock Sons' Limerick history is impressively long, the OEDcan hit us with a "mullok" from Chaucer, circa 1390.

By the way, and unusually for a word ending with "ck", none of the meanings attributed to "mullock" have sexual undertones. But "mollock" is given by the OEDas one of mullock's variant spellings. And further to confuse the picture, "mollock" is listed in the separate Oxford Dictionary of Slang as an intransitive verb meaning "to copulate".

The upshot of all this is that I’m now not sure whether “mullocker” is a pure Limerick invention, or an older English word that, in this country, became entangled with a shipping company, just as another branch of the word emigrated to Australia and got involved in mining. I await further enlightenment, pending which, the issue could go either way. A bit like today’s match.

I hope it’s a good game, anyway. No doubt Munster will roll out the red carpet for the heroes of Cardiff (and while it’s still in roll form, beat them up with it); so at least it should be a great occasion. A slight concern, as always in Limerick, is the weather. Let’s hope it’s not “mullocky”, to use an adjective I’ve just learned.

This, according to the OED, means "dirty, untidy, rotten". It comes from the English midlands. And among the places you're most likely to hear it, apparently, is Northamptonshire.