Dear Aoife,
I am from city of Lublin in east of Poland. I like very much to read the helping advice you write. I learn English now for four years. I am wondering if you have any words of Polish. 
Thad O.
Drodzy Tad,
Twój pisemne Angielski jest dość dobry, Thad.
Dziękuję bardzo za komplement! Mam nadzieję, że ci nadal czytać moje kolumny.
I hope my Polish is as good as your English. Maybe one of my readers will let me know?

Dear Aoife,
Who or what is ‘Maggie Ryan’?
Curious
Dear Curious,
‘Maggie Ryan’ is Dublin slang for margarine.

Dear Aoife,
What’s with all these people who just have to have their mobile on when they’re shopping for groceries?
They get their oh-so-important phone call then pull-up bang in the middle of the store aisle, like some class of human traffic cone, blabbing away, and rerouting all the other shoppers who have to squeeze past with their carts.
They do the same in the bank queues too.
You’ll be standing there behind them and suddenly some ear-shattering ringtone starts wailing out of someone’s trouser pocket and scaring the life out of you.
And there’s forever some eejit in the waiting room at the doctors’ surgery, or at the next table in the restaurant where you’re trying to enjoy a quiet dinner, snapping up the calls left, right, and centre.
People give out to smokers if they light up a fag in public places.
Why shouldn’t someone tell off this rude lot too?
Mrs. C.
Dear Mrs. C.,
The kind of behaviours you refer to are indeed exasperating. Mobile phones have evolved into a sort of micromanagement tool through which we attempt to exert the greatest possible control over our lives and indeed the lives of others.
In my opinion, it’s all down to the great fear and unease which have crept into our consciousness over the past decade and the substitution of an impersonal form of communication for normal family life.
If someone’s mobile chitchat is causing a problem, have a quiet word with the offender warning him or her that their mobile signal disrupts your cardiac pacemaker much as it does with an airplane’s communications and you are sure they would not want your death on their hands at all.
Then wait for the ringtone.

Dear Aoife,
What is the meaning of the word ‘sham’?
Loretta
Dear Loretta,
I presume you are not referring to that meaning of the word as it might be applied to the Government or the Lisbon Treaty.
‘Sham’ is Cork slang for a person of either sex, i.e. ‘What are you about, sham?’
It most likely comes from the traveller term for ‘boy’ (sam).

Dear Aoife,
Have any suggestions for a good read over the summer?
T.H.
Dear T.H.,
I don’t know about you, but I will be re-reading ‘Vipers’ Tangle’ by Francois Mauriac. Superb analysis of a man’s ruination by insane jealousy and insatiable greed.