I met this bodach who lived in a sean-tigh just below the torr. The place was in smidiríní, but the old man was proud of his brógaí, which he kept well-polished. He'd never married; he did fancy a cailín one time, but she diúltaighed him. He made his own poitín, but he wouldn't say no to a dram of fuisce (uisge beatha). We had crack go leor together.

We don't usually spell words that DO come from Gaelic in Gaelic/Irish spelling. Not that I'd mind - English orthography is complex or inconsistent enough, and we spell a lot of French words in French (though we pronounce 'a la mode' as if it were English). But can you imagine writing peristroika in Cyrillic and karaoke in Japanese letters in the middle of an English sentence?

I don't know if there is any evidence for Donegal people introducing 'the crack' to Ireland. Etymologists also rely partly on guess work. The issues are not so unlike what folklorists face when trying to trace connections between versions of a song or tale.

Maybe I shouldn't complain about a pretend Gaelic origin for "good craic", as I enjoy creatively deriving word derivations. Some theories for which I have not a shread of evidence are that 1)the toilet as "loo" comes from "an seomra is lú" (Scots G - an seomar is lùtha), the smallest room. Before the loo was built indoors, we used to have the outhouse (teach beag, taigh beag, ty bach ,little house in Celtic languages); and 2) kangaroo means a sharp red head "ceann gearr rua" - sometimes all you would see of the animal peering through tall grasses.