Roche and others

Posted by Shae on March 07, 2003

In Reply to: Put your foot in your mouth posted by ESC on March 06, 2003

: I bought a new-to-me magazine today and it's full of phrases. Imagine my surprise. Here's one that we've mulled over before:

: PUT YOUR FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH - "Irish Parliamentarian Sir Boyle Roche was sort of the 18th century equivalent to (former U.S. Vice President) Dan Quayle. Roche once said, 'Half the lies our opponents tell about me are not true!' Someone with a much firmer grasp of the English language remarked of Roche, 'Every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it,' and a phrase was born." From "Mental_Floss" magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 2 (Mental Floss, LLC, Mt. Morris, Il., 2003).

: Does anyone have another origin, or do we have a winner?

There's a nice collection of verbal blunders made by Roche and others at:

indigo.ie/~kfinlay/lefanu70/lefanuXVI.htm

Here's a few from more recent times:

'That mail used to be handled by hand. Now it's handled manually.'
Chief Executive of An Post (Irish Post Office).

'The referendum went as most people hoped it would.'
Irish Times displaying acute understanding of the democratic process.

'The idea is well and good in theory, but tell me this, who is going to feed them?'
Wicklow Councillor objecting to a proposal to boost tourism by putting gondolas on Blessington Lake.

'We are not prepared to stand idly by and be murdered in our beds.'
Rev. Ian Paisley

'And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce the man who put boots on the footless children of Ireland!'
Limerick politician introducing Presidential candidate De Valera