heads or harps

alternative head or harp

1. Irelanduncountableheads or tails

   JIMMY. Heads or harps? TONY. Heads. JIMMY. (Tosses the coin onto the back of his hand.) Hard luck. Ha ha ha.

   1988, Billy Roche, “A Handful of Stars; Act 1; Scene 1”, in The Wexford Trilogy, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   A quarrel happened between two shoeblacks, who were playing at what in England is called pitch farthing, or heads and tails, and in Ireland, head or harp.

   1802, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Maria Edgeworth, “The Dublin Shoeblack”, in Essay on Irish Bulls, London: J. Johnson, page 128

   ...he took out his purse, and, extracting half-a-crown, threw it up to the ceiling, saying, “Well, Dot—head or harp? If you’re right, you have them.” “Harp,” cried Dot. They both examined the coin. “They’re yours,” said Frank, with much solemnity...

   1848, Anthony Trollope, “XVI Brien Boru”, in The Kellys and the O'Kellys, volume II, London: Henry Colburne, page 55

   There was a family of peasants who never could make up their minds; they decided everything by a toss-up. The head of the family had settled the amount of dowry he got with his wife by ‘heads or harps,’ and when he died he left his land to be tossed for by his two sons.

   John P. Frayne, editor (1970), Uncollected prose by W. B. Yeats, volume 1, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 28

   He dearly loves to smoke cigarettes and many of them, and he has an insurmountable weakness for the recondite mysteries of "Pitch and Toss," and when he has mastered the intricacies of the game, can foretell by repeatedly turning a copper in his hand while the stakes are revolving in the air whether they will settle on the ground heads or harps up.

   1905 August 17, “The News-Vendor”, in The Weekly Irish Times, Dublin, page 6

   He looked up as they came nearer. ‘Hey, lads. Lookin’ for a game?’ ‘A game?’ Victor said. ‘Pitch an’ toss.’ He spun the ha’penny, watched it fall between two broken pieces of brick and cocked his foxy head at the two boys. ‘Heads or harps?’ ‘Harps,’ Victor said. ‘You win,’ Denis Doyle said.

   1972, Brian Cleeve, Cry of morning, London: Corgi, →ISBN, page 210