Page 4.7

Kilkenny cats (kil-KEN-ee kats) noun

People who fight relentlessly till their end.
[From a pair of proverbial cats in Kilkenny, Ireland, who fought till only their tails were left.]
According to a story, some people in the town of Kilkenny in Ireland enjoyed tying the tails of two cats and watching them fight till only their tale was left behind. Most likely the story is a parable of a contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, two municipalities which fought about their boundaries till little more than their tails were left. Here is a popular limerick (another word that takes its origins from the name of an Irish town) about the cats:

"There wanst was two cats of Kilkenny

Each thought there was one cat too many

So they fought and they fit

And they scratched and they bit

'Til instead of two cats there weren't any."