From this Irish poem/song:
on line three there is a word: bouchal.
What does it mean? Googling and using on-line dictionaries yields no useful definitions.
The spelling I have for that word is “bhuachaill” and it apparently means “boy” or “lad”.
Apropos of further Googling, if you like, the “anonymous” author is John Keegan “Leo” Casey (1846-70).
ETA: And now I have that song totally stuck in my head.
excellent…thanks:)
Just to let you know that in Ireland, the language this word is in is most commonly referred to as Irish rather than Gaelic. IAN Irish but I’ve lived there a good while and I think many Irish people feel it is imporant to call it that, because it make the point that this, rather than English, is the country’s language.
Gaelic usually refers to the related but separate Celtic language spoken in Scotland.
I stumbled across his grave of late in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin. It is oddly place, with no direct access anymore but the gravestone has these elaborate scenes carved on it, they can be seen at the bottom of this page. It is one of the more interesting gravestones in that cemetery imho.