Irish English: What is cat melodeon?

Cat (a): dreadful, no good, awful, very bad. Or for a more emphatic version, Cat melodeon (Sounds like 'melojen')

The Cat Melodeon players

Bernard Share’s Slanguage quotes Victoria White in the Irish Times calling cat melodeon “the greatest expression in Hiberno-English.” Not sure about that but it is fun to hear and use.

Where does Cat Melodeon come from?

In his book on Irish traditional music Ciaran Carson suggests it derives from the tendency of the piano-accordion players (who often refer to their instruments as melodeons) to play two notes at once. Source

How is it used?
I have most often heard it as a yelp of protest: That film was cat/melodeon!/Cat altogether!'

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Comments

Why is English not the official language of England?

58 countries list English as an official language - but not the UK. The world's lingua franca or second language is not, technically, the 'official' language of its birthplace. The de factoofficial language of the United Kingdom is English,[3][4] which is spoken by approximately 59.8 million residents, or 98% of the population, over the age of three.[1][2][10][11][12] An estimated 700,000 people speak Welsh in the UK,[13] an official language in Wales,

Why does the USA not have an official language?

58 countries have English as an official language - but not the USA.

Which countries do not have an official language?

According Henry Hitchings Language Wars (2011) these nations do not currently have an official primary language: UK see hereUSAthough 20 states now have an official language — see hereAustralia 80% speak English but not officialPakistan Urdu became official language in 2015 but only spoken by 8% of population.EthiopiaAmharic is official language but most spoken is OromoSomaliaEritrea Costa Rica Why these countries?Read extended transcript on Medium

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