Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous."Īs is usually the case with Irish folk history, the sources of these expressions are cloudy and vague. "He beats Banaghan an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories.
'That beats Banaghan' is earlier still and is found in Captain Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785: "That beats Banagher," as we Irishmen say. There certainly has been an expression 'that beats Banagher' in use it Ireland since at least the 1830s, as in this example from the Philadelphia newspaper The National Gazette, May 1823: The expression is often said to be of Irish origin, referring either to Banagher, a pretty town on the River Shannon, or Banaghan, an Irish story teller. There are a few candidate theories and it's worth checking them out to see if they make sense. I have to say at the outset that no one is sure about the origin of this phrase, which is known in its present form since the 1890s. What's the origin of the phrase 'To beat the band'? Someone would have to be very loud and noticeable to 'beat the band' by drowning it out or drawing attention away from it. To beat the band is to do something to surpass all others and draw attention to yourself, either by being louder, more vigorous or more expert than others. To beat the band What's the meaning of the phrase 'To beat the band'?