From an tOileánach:

"is aicme iad na mná nách fearrde duine a bhíonn leo".

Many thanks!!

Women are a class that do not improve the person who has dealings with them.

a bhíonn leo in this case meaning not merely "being with them" but interacting.

aicme is a class of people in the sense of a defined group

I came across the following expression:

"idir Doire agus Cúil Raithin,"

and I am wondering if the expression has some metaphorical implication other than the literal reference to a location.

Context, please?

I'm not aware of any metaphor. Derry and Coleraine are two towns in Northern Ireland.

I am not 100% sure, but I have a vague feeling, quite probably wrong, that both are flashpoint towns.

Derry has long had a Nationalist majority, but was gerrymandered so that the local authority was Unionist dominated. I don't know much about Coleraine, other than that it recently became a University town.

Aonghus, Derry city was a "flashpoint" town during the Troubles. Coleraine about 60Km to the north east of Derry was not considered to be so,simply because of the population mix at that time.
Until the change from counties to districts - there are now 26 districts in N.Ireland - Coleraine once in the county of Londonderry is now in the district of Coleraine. When I was growing up in the 40's/50's, Coleraine would have been considered to be a small market town.

A Chairde,

The context in which I encountered the expression, "between Derry and Coleraine" was in a dictionary -- specifically a definition of idir. The expression was given as an example of the use of idir. My curiosity had to do with the choice of those two locales as opposed to any other such as "between Dublin and Donegal" or whatever. I just thought there might be an interesting anecdote connected with the two towns.

Or with our ancestral proclivity for creative story telling, someone may supply one.

(Message edited by pádraig on November 26, 2004)

GRMA, a Aonghuis.