Does Blue = Black = Yellow = Orange?
 Blackboy Road, Limerick - An Bealach Buí ( The Yellow Way) |  Boherbue, Co. Cork - An Bóthar Buí (The Yellow Road) |
“When I'm born I'm black, when I grow up I'm black, when I'm in the sun I'm black, when I'm sick I'm black, when I die I'm black, and you... when you're born you're pink, when you grow up you're white, when you're cold you're blue, when you're sick you're blue, when you die you're green and you dare call me colored"― Oglala Lakota”
| Blue = Black I remember learning last year in my conversational Irish class that ‘Fear Dubh’ which literally translates as ‘Black Man’ is actually the ‘devil’ whereas a man with black coloured skin is ‘fear gorm’ which translates as ‘blue man’. The Black Man bar in Dublin Pike outside Cork City uses ‘Fear Dubh’ as opposed to ‘Fear Gorm’ so maybe they sell a devil of a pint. One in my Irish class commented that in the distant past, it was probable that the ‘devil’ was more likely to be encountered than a ‘black man’. Black = Yellow It may be similar to Lover’s Walk and Leopardstown where the name in English appears to come from the sound in Irish. ‘Bealach ‘ is pronounced as ‘Bal-ack’ which might be interpreted or heard as ‘Black’. ´Buí’ is pronounced as ‘Bwe’ which in certain accents may be heard as ‘Boy’. This is my best explantion why ‘The Yellow Way’ is actually the ‘Blackboy Road’. Yellow = Orange When checking my understanding as to the colours in the online dictionaries, I then learnt that a members of the Orange Order, known as Orangemen, are, in Irish, ‘Fir Bhuí’ which literally translate as ‘Yellow Men’. My conversational Irish is definitely improving but the more one learns, the more anomalies like these colours that I come across. Imagine the additional sentences that Oglala Lakota could have written with a little knowledge of Irish.    Leper's Walk ‘The name-title of the townland of Ballinamoughtderives from the Gaelic compound – Baile na mBocht. In translation, it means the town of the poor. The prefix ‘Baile’ as with many place names in Ireland denotes ‘town’ or ‘land’, whilst the reference to poor (na mBocht) in this name place is not an explanatory remark on the fertile terrain of the area but rather the inhabitants at that time. It is evident from local oral traditions that Baile na mBocht was once a leper colony. With regards to the colony, it is said to have been located somewhere near the Village during the middle ages. The leprosy was a light type resembling a skin rash. The McCarthy family in Blarney Castle were the patrons of this settlement. |  “Black “Black “an t-aon duine gorm the only black person “diúltaigh »  “buachaill masculine noun “buí adjective “bealach masculine noun “bóthar masculine noun “flannbhuí adjective “gorm adjective |
UPDATE 2015.02.14
Many thanks to EC who emailed with link to Bitesize Irish who have even more observations on the multiple use of colour in Irish.
UPDATE 2015.02.15
There are further twists on this colourful adventure in translation – thanks to sharp-eyed SOB (fear leis an súil ghéar).
A ‘walk’ (noun) in Irish is ‘siúlóid’ whereas ‘to walk’ (verb) is ‘siúil’.
‘Ar Siúl’ means ‘In Progress’ or ‘In Motion’.
I don’t think I will be able to travel that road again without thinking of ‘Lovers in Progress’ or ‘Lepers in Motion’.
A ‘walk’ (noun) in Irish is ‘siúlóid’ whereas ‘to walk’ (verb) is ‘siúil’.
‘Ar Siúl’ means ‘In Progress’ or ‘In Motion’.
I don’t think I will be able to travel that road again without thinking of ‘Lovers in Progress’ or ‘Lepers in Motion’.
