Madam, – With regard to Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary (March 30th), may I reassure him that the word “hash” has not died out and is alive and well in south Carlow. It is used to describe a day of bitterly cold east or north wind and therefore does mean “harsh”.
Interestingly, Flann O'Brien's The Hard Lifewas published in 1961 at a time when he was writing a column entitled "Bones of Contention/George Knowall's Peepshow" for the Carlow local newspaper The Nationalist and Leinster Times. This column ran from 1960 to 1966 and a selection from this was published by Granada in 1985 under the title "Myles away from Dublin". Perhaps his knowledge of the word stemmed from that time! – Yours, etc,