For years, I'd had the phrase "What brand of a feckin' eejit are ye?" rattling around in my head. I heard it from a Cavan girl I shared a house with in London half a lifetime ago. It was something her dad, or uncle used to say - and he pronounced 'eejit' as 'ee-get'. Very Cavan. I love the Cavan accent, having spent several years in boarding school, and much of my childhood on my grandparents' farm up there, so the phrase stayed with me.
In any case, I thought that if it were taken as an actual question, rather than a rhetorical insult, it could make for a funny quiz. After a few hours of effort, during which I managed to make myself laugh out loud many times - always a good sign when you're writing comedy - I had the thing done.
I put it up onto Facebook, obsessed over it for a few days, then forgot all about it. A few weeks later I remembered it and when I checked, it had over three thousand 'Likes.' Checking now, the figure is at 3,984. So it must have a made a few other people laugh too.
I decided, before it goes missing on Facebook, I'd preserve it here.
The questions and possible answers are first, followed by the possible results, and the picture associated with each:
What brand of a feckin' eejit are ye?
Find out what sort of a gobshite you'd be if you grew up in Ireland - or what class of a shitehawk you should be if you actually did!
1. How do you pronounce 'idiot'?
- Eeejish
- Ee-jut
- Eeee-jitt
- Langer!
- Eejit
- Eee-get
2. Do you support a British soccer team?
- Soccer? G'way to feck! If it doesnt involve swinging a big lump of a tree around like a homicidal corn-reaper, I'm not interested.
- I'm too busy organising marches and pogroms to bother with that sorta shite!
- I do in me arse!
- Feckin' girl's game! GAA all the way! Yahoo!
- I'm more into Rugby, actually, like.
- Yeah, and I regularly have heated arguments in the pub with supporters of other teams.
- In traffic trying to get home from shopping in Dublin.
- I dunno. The Seychelles this year, maybe.
- Behind the curtains, in fear for me life!
- How much would I have to spend?
- At home, like.
- In the local, if it were open.
4. What's a 'Wheel?'
- Something my Skyline has four of and my Evo X also has four of.
- Something my Ford has four of.
- Something my Honda Civic has four of.
- Something my Massey Ferguson has four of.
- A stupid gobshite.
- Something my SUV has four of.
- I'm not sure; but I bet it was invented by someone from my home county.
- An utterly pointless addition to my Nissan Micra's engine.
- A yoke on the back of the jacks.
- A very useful addition to the twin-turbos on my Jap import.
- Jaysus, I dunno. Something they put on a beer tap?
- I'm not sure, but I think my 4x4 has one.
- It depends on whether there's an English person within earshot or not.
- I do in me hole! Hate the feckers - although that's only because I've been told I should hate them.
- They're not to be trusted.
- I couldn't care less. They're inferior to us in every way, anyway.
- Sure, I mean like, yeah - why not?
- Fluffy Saxon bastards! It pains my breast to think of Eire's fertile sloping mantle being trodden underfoot for 800 years.
- An important social distinction by which you measure yourself against your peers.
- Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
- Something you forego to go into town and hang around Grafton Street.
- I wouldn't have a clue.
- Cristiano Ronaldo.
- Anything that's feckin' brilliant!
- It's a vegetarian meat-substitute.
- Jaysus, I haven't a clue. Is it something you spread on the land?
- No idea. Some bog-trotter code word for something?
- 'Very' - as in "You're quar'n tick!' (You are a person of low intelligence.)
- Something we say when we're copying the Wicklow accent.
- It's a feckin' stupid expression, the likes of which we'd never use around here.
- A bend in the road.
- Something you serve soup in.
- A stroll around your property.
- A bend in the beautiful river that flows through my county town.
- A nasty shock.
- A song by the band 'Travis.'
10. Cad is ainm duit?
- Wha? Feck off with yer Irish, ya spa!
- Leath-uair tar éis a deich.
- No - only red diesel.
- Sorry - I don't speak bog.
- What's that there, now?
- ... Ó Murchu is ainm dom!
And that was it. Ten questions scientifically designed to tell you which part of the country you were from - or should be from. These were the answers:
You're A Feckin' Wicklow Goatsucker
You're A Feckin' 'Cute' Cork Hoo'er
Yer From Wee Northern Ireland
You're A Fockin' D4 Head
You're A Mean Feckin' Cavan Basthard.
You're A Feckin' Wexford Yellowbelly!