Gàidhlig / English
Pioghaid

Pioghaid

Posted by Calum on 11th Janurary 2018
Every morning I walk through the park seeing more than seven magpies on the fields and the braes, this reminds me of a verse that I learnt from Adhàmh Ó Broin at an Argyll Gaelic weekend in Auchendrain. We’re aware of...
“One for sorrow, two for joy...” etc.

But in Gaelic it is different, here’s what he wrote in Cowal Gaelic:

“Chunnaig mi pìoghaid ’as dh’éirich leam
Chunnaig mi dhà ’s gum b’ iargan ead
Chunnaig mi trì ’as b’ aighearach mi
Ach ceithear ri m’ linn chan iarrainn ead”

(I saw a magpie and I prospered
I saw two and they (brought) sorrow
I saw three and I was joyful
But four, lifelong I'd want them not)
 
Further usages of the word: In the Western Isles a pioghaid means both Magpie and “Talkative girl” (“Gaelic Words and Expressions from South Uist and Eriskay”). In our own Corpus this piece is from Swainbost, Lewis: “Pioghaid gun nàire nach teid tàmh air a bial” (“a magpie without shame whose mouth does not rest”), meaning “te bhriathrach, chabach” (a loquacious, gossipy one [female]).
 
On the mainland in Wester Ross they have “Pitheáid” and “Pritheáid”. Allt na Pritheáid is above South Erradale, flowing from Loch Clàr and Roy Wentworth recognises in his dictionary “The specific was actually explained to me as meaning “of the parrot”, but one feels that perhaps “of the magpie” would be more likely.”
 
Continuing onwards to Strathspey, in a transaction that Seumas Grannd made in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society, a “pioghaid-mara” is said instead of “gille-brìghde” or “trìlleachan” because of their similar appearance.
 
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