Dar fír ar cubais!

(by * truth * of our * conscience)

Upon our conscience! By what we deem right!

The first thing that Fergus exclaims upon hearing Medb’s plan to wipe out a company of her own allies at the beginning of the Táin, before going on to tell her “Over my dead body!” (“Ní dingnea bás dóib-siút acht intí dogéna bás dam-sa!”) Keating uses the expression “Dar mo chubhas” in an Early Modern Irish poem, and the modern version of the same is “Dar mo chúis!” For another example of the Early Irish use of the potent word “fír” (truth), see “For fír th’ainich ocus t’anama!”

Topics: The Characters Speak Exclamations Oaths