> Andrew Gullen [mailto:andrew.gullen@xxxxxxxxxxxx] wrote:
>
> Left-footer?
http://www.allwords.com/word-left-footer.html
left-footer (noun)
(Brit)
1. derog, slang
A Roman Catholic.
Etymology: 1940s: originating in communal turf-cutting in
Ulster, where, traditionally, the Roman Catholics would
use spades with lugs to the left of the shaft, requiring
them to use the left foot to push the spade into the turf,
while Protestants used spades with lugs to the right.
http://www.louisville.edu/~tavan001/MerseytalkL.html
Left-footer. A Catholic. In Northern Ireland, the inquiry
as to which foot you dig with is really an attempt to find
out whether you are Catholic or Protestant. The belief is
that Catholics dig with the left foot, Protestants with
the right. According to Terry Eagleton, two different
kinds of spade were traditionally used in Ireland, one
in (mainly Catholic) Munster and Connacht, and the other
in (partly Protestant) Ulster. One spade was notched on
the right side for digging, the other notched on the left.
But actually the Catholic spade was notched on the right,
the Protestant one on the right. Folklore prevailed:
the Catholic "Other" had to be consigned to the left;
calling them "right" would have involved dangerous ironies.
Despite being a lapsed "left-footer" (in the religious sense
at least), and being a left-footer when it comes to football
(but not using my left foot nor my left hand for writing and
such), nothing gauche, sinister, adroit or dexterous is
intended by the above.
Cheers
Marc Lawrence
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