The Book of Irish Limericks

by Myler Magrath

An old lady from near Fermanagh / Whose thoughts were exceptionally narrow / At the end of her paths / She built two bird baths / To prevent mortal sin among sparrows!. A young Dublin couple of taste / were beautiful down to the waist / so they limited love / to the regions above / and thus remained perfectly chaste

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1985

Reviews

[Denise みか Hutchins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rhymes were great (and had me thinking in that bouncy rhythm for some time after finishing the book) but some of the subject matter was uncomfortable, if not downright horrifying. The majority of the poems seemed to be about sex, bodily functions, and appearance, stuff that's typical of much comedy universally. It was the several poems that dealt with rape and domestic violence/homicide that really disturbed me. I understand that this book was first published around 30 years ago, that the poems it contains are probably even older, and that the limerick in general is often dirty-funny in nature, but it doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't recommend this particular collection to anyone without reservations (and to the people who aren't disturbed by the light-hearted treatment of rape and spousal murder, I wouldn't recommend at all because I would hate to encourage the idea that these things are funny). At least the book, despite its cartoonish cover done up in bright primary colors, warns on the first page what the reader is about to get into:

The Limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.