Denis O’Brien on cover of Forbes
BySaw this in the paper today
It’s Denis O’Brien, the man who never made good on his Late Late Show interview statement saying he would pay CGT on his €250 million payout on the sale of Esat. That’s all water under the bridge now and there’s no denying he knows how to make the green stuff.
In the Forbes article, O’Brien is quoted as saying the charge by Gavin O’Reilly that he has some sort of vendetta against Indepedent News Media’s coverage of him is “a load of shite”.
Forbes very helpfully insert (Irish Slang) after this quote, for the benefit of an American audience. Could the readers of Forbes not have deduced it was a variant of shit and not a reference to any of the following (per wikipedia).
A Shi’ite, a person who practices the Shia Islam faith
The shite, the principal character in a Japanese Noh play
Shite, the person who performs the technique in aikido
Is shite uniquely Irish though?
4 Comments
July 27th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Shite happens, not only to the Irish. I utter it frequently as the softened version of the rather unladylike shit. I wish there were a uniquely Irish connection because I’d then use shite with even more affection – but according to my research (the things you make me do, AJ, at 6.30 on a Sunday morning), including The New Shorther Oxford, it’s literally just a variant.
U
July 27th, 2008 at 9:07 am
That’s what I thought Ursula, the Forbes people obviously don’t use the term enough!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
> The shite, the principal character in a Japanese Noh play
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I’m The Shite.”
July 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Not a good thing to say boarding a plane for the states though