racy of the soil

English

Alternative forms

• racy of one's soil

Etymology

See racy senses 2 and 3. Popularised in Ireland in the slogan of The Nation (1842–1900) — "To create and foster public opinion in Ireland, and to make it racy of the soil" — adapted from a remark c.1837 by Stephen Woulfe.

Adjective

racy of the soil (comparative more racy of the soil, superlative most racy of the soil)

1. (usually Ireland, dated) Deeply connected to a place, especially Ireland; indigenous.
   • 1884 December 24, Thomas Croke, “To Mr Michael Cusack, Honorary Secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association”, in The Freeman’s Journal:

     We have got such foreign and fantastic field sports as lawn-tennis, polo, croquet, cricket, and the like—very excellent, I believe, and health-giving exercises in their way, still not racy of the soil, but rather alien, on the contrary, to it, as are, indeed, for the most part the men and women who first imported and still continue to patronise them.

   • 2014 April 19, Seán Moran, “Five-ish things the GAA can learn from the Sky television deal”, in The Irish Times:

     RTÉ pundit Joe Brolly echoed this concern from his racy-of-the soil redoubt in the weekend’s Mail on Sunday.

2. (dated) Deeply connected to the land; rural or rustic; earthy.
   • 1924 Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not (Parade's End, Part 1) VI:

     In the hedge: ... purple loose-strife. (That our young maid's long purples call and literal shepherds give a grosser name. So racy of the soil!)

   • 2003 January 7, Fintan O'Toole, “Farm demo is simply anti-change”, in The Irish Times:

     Like the Church, the farmers exerted an unquestionable influence for the first 50 years of the State's existence. ... Just as to be truly Irish you had to be Catholic, you also had to be racy of the soil.

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:racy of the soil.

Usage notes

• Modern use in Ireland is often ironic and implicitly critical of the outlook of nationalists who originally used the phrase in approbation.