boreen

plural boreens · alternative bohereen · alternative bohireen

1. IrelandA narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland, often characterised by a ridge of grass growing in the middle.

   Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen \ And she smiled as she passed me by.

   c. 1900, “Star of the County Down (traditional folk song)”

   1 more example

   A boy in a disguise nobody believed in, an actor playing a part he didn't understand, he would trudge every rocky field and quaking bog, every pot-holed road and tortuous boreen, each of the thirteen villages on his father's estate, speaking the Irish he had learned from his father's servants.

   2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 63