The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60309 Message #964912
Posted By: Big Tim
10-Jun-03 - 02:57 AM
Thread Name: Pogues Slang: Dilly, Tuinol?
Subject: RE: Pogues Slang: Dilly, Tuinol?
The dilly is definitely Piccadilly Circus in London: an area with a bad reputation for drugs and prostitution.
This on "Billy in the bowl" from a book called "Naming Names: Who, What, Where in Irish Nomenclature" by Bernard Sharpe, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2001.
"Billy in the bowl [nickname] C19 Dub.[lin] street character. 1913 James Collins 'Life in Old Dublin' - this character used to ply his calling between the quiet streets of Stoneybatter and the Green Lanes of Grangegorman. He was nicknamed 'Billy in the Bowl', having been introduced into the world with only a head, body and arms. When he grew up he conveyed himself along in a large bowl fortified by iron, in which he was embedded".