If you google "tha shein ukrosh," you'll see that this is attributed to various victims of An Gorta Mór and it is supposed to mean "indeed, it is the hunger" in Irish.

Doesn't look too Irish to me, so I'm wondering if anybody here has a clue as to what it is.

Is it Shelta? Or some Scottish Gaelic variant?

or Klingon? (Sorry, not very helpful!)

_________________

Must be Irish written in an English-like spelling by someone who doesn't know how to pronounce? (especially because of the -sh at the end... I wonder how the Irish -ch can be transcribed as -sh !)
The sentence is "tá sinn ocrach", we are hungry. But normally it's more natural to say "tá ocras orainn".

_________________
Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Could "Tá séan an ocrais (air)" ? - There's the sign of hunger on him, the sign of hunger is on him - be misheard as "tha shein ukrosh"?

Or would that be too far fetched?

Or perhaps leaving out the 'an' Tá séan ocrais (orm)?

Do you mean "seanocras"? Sean- doesn't put ocras in the genitive...
But why would one spell "sean" as "shein"? And why would one remove the "orm" -- removing it makes the sentence wrong.

_________________
Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

No I didn't mean 'seanocras' I meant the word 'séan' meaning sign or omen.
'A sign of hunger' would put it in the genitive I imagine. Séan ocrais???
So one might spell 'séan' as "shein" for the same reason that one might spell 'ocras/ocrais' as "ukrosh" or one might leave out the 'orm'; because one had very little or no Irish at all. .

I was just having a bit of fun trying to guess the possible origin of the phrase.

Hmmm...I see what you're getting at (though "séan" is closer to "characteristic" than "sign/omen").

Redwolf

"Tá séan ocrais" sounds strange, at least one should add "ann" at the end.

_________________
Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

That's what I was thinking too. The use of "séan" seems odd here too, unless it's a regional expression..."cuma" sounds more natural to my ear. But "séan" makes sense given what the phonetic rendering seems to be indicating.

Redwolf