Description

The style might vary. Master of thequick retort, the droll commentatoron everyone's else's business, the slowand the sly, the hot or the dry. But everycommunity seemed to have its local wit.The story of their witticisms grew in thetelling as they were passed around frommouth to mouth and, in some cases,from generation to generation, untilthey grew polished and smooth like pebblesfrom a riverbed.One such person was Belfast's HarryMacTavish. Mary Ross re-told his story— and many of his stories — during the1993 Island Lecture Series. Excerptsfrom that lecture are adapted below.