Are you the same John Cordina who tried in a most miserable fashion, to defend Konrad Mizzi following the devastatingly clear reply by Ing. Chris Ciantar, former Perm Sec?

Following Ing. Ciantar’s exposition. Konrad Mizzi just disappeared from the scene.

[Daphne – I hate to take issue with a real or pretend Irishman, but it’s actually English and commonly in use in the 18th century. Whether or not the Irish took it up when they concomitantly began speaking English a century later, and continued to use it after the English stopped, is by the by.]

Start from scratch John and read ‘Treasure island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883 who incidentally was Scottish not Irish.

There you will find ‘Top of the morning’ widely used. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the book. I did; I read it when I was eleven years old.

Americans of Irish descent are notorious for being stupidly stubborn and nasty drunks and with a nasty disposition in general that they try hide with their gift of gab.

I met plenty of them in my life and that’s enough.

JPO Smith is very much like an American of Irish descent.

If you do not think my English is better than some English people then you have not seen any David Williams and Matt Lucas or Catherine Tate for that matter … come on keep up will you?

[Daphne – Dear God. Set your bar high, will you. I trust you mean the characters they play, rather than they themselves. It would be outrageous of you to suggest the latter.]

As for the American side of the Irish clearly you have not met any north American Irish. Please observe I never actually specified American. I know of quite a number that have not even accepted Canadian citizenship simply because they refuse to swear allegiance to the Queen.

No true I do not have time to waste dedicating my time to your blog. I skim through it to get gossip and I am ashamed to say much like a goldfish brain laps up the enquirer. What can you do, we all have some weakness.

Your method of answering comments betrays your age. May I dare say it is very clumsy of you to nitpick?

[Daphne – I have always spoken the same way, John. If you don’t believe me, perhaps you would care to look up the columns I wrote in my early 20s. The way I speak and write do not betray my age. They betray my background and education. My sons are in their 20s and speak and write in the exact same way. The devil is in the detail: that does not constitute nitpicking. Careless writing reflects careless thought. Disorganised writing reflects disorganised reasoning. You come across as somebody who couldn’t shop to a list and who has some serious Maltese male ego problems besides, chippiness that is generally the result of feelings of inadequacy for which I cannot possibly be held responsible as I did not raise you.]

Please do observe I merely listed the two gross claims you made as simply a base for my comment otherwise I feel I have amply demonstrated that I am polite enough to show I am actually capable of posting back by first digesting your replies.

[Daphne – Replying only after reading is not politeness, John, but normal behaviour. The politeness lies in the tone of the reply and not in the content.]

That act unfortunately has a number of side effects one which I cannot continue to bear.

I do not stomach Lara Boffa and even less JPO and this post may start to sound like I’m defending their use of this greeting. So please lets leave it here where it lies and maybe pick up main-gauche and rapier over something more meaty?

[Daphne – I’d rather not. I disapprove of combat with unarmed opponents, and have long done arguing with teenagers anyway. I suggest you invite a nice girl out on a date and try impressing her instead. I’m long past all that ‘let’s bicker with a woman to get her attention’ nonsense.]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/top_of_the_morning

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/51427/what-is-the-origin-of-the-phrase-top-of-the-morning-to-you

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=top%20o%27%20the%20mornin%27%20to%20ya

and themost sensible

http://dialectblog.com/2011/06/27/top-o-the-morning-myth-and-reality/

who actually places the greeting at the Irish yank’s feet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_of_the_Morning

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/16zbdt/til_that_the_correct_response_to_top_o_the/

[Daphne – If you were a dedicated reader of this website, you would know by now what I think of people who try to set me straight using on-line dictionaries and Wikipedia entries which are written by other internet users just like them. That is not where I get my information.]

“I do speak and write English better than most Maltese,” – yes agreed but it is not a fact.

[Daphne – Yes, John, it is a fact. I don’t quibble with facts and have absolutely no problem saying that I can’t speak or write Italian as well as most Maltese. That too is a fact.]

“I also speak and write English better than most English people.” agreed as so do I but I do not claim that it is a fact but an experiential based summation of my many years working with those very natives.

[Daphne – That very sentence illustrates another fact, John: that not only do you not speak and write English better than most English people, but that you speak and write it as a foreign language. ‘Experiential based summation’? I don’t think so.]

Please note that a fact is when you squirt ketchup all over yourself and you take a selfie or better still you make a proposal or sum up a conclusion and you support it with empirical evidence or at the very least list references that confirm your claim.

[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I don’t quite understand what you mean as the construction of that sentence is unclear.]

I used to think you could come up with better than this considering your mastery of the English language but it seems all greats have a weak heel and substantiating claims is not your strength.

Your simple and dare I say stupid mistake is that you have not identified which part of Ireland actually used English. Wait … hold on .. breaking news … millions of Irish moved to the US where apparently its mostly used … oh just a minute … what that corner up north a remnant of what once was even as early as the 17th century?

[Daphne – Some Irish people also moved to Malta, John. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been born.]

Maybe your English history lessons need some brushing up?

What I can say from personal experience is that north american Irish immigrants especially first and second generation it is a common tongue in cheek greeting but if I said more I would be giving too much away ;)

[Daphne – American people of some Irish descent, John, are not Irish. They are American. I am of Irish descent, but I don’t say ‘top of the morning’ and I am quite clear as to the fact that I am Maltese.]

You do have to smile!