"limerick"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The quote refers to the unutterably trite works of the character "Jem Casey" in Flann O'Brien's _At Swim-Two-Birds_ (1939).  Since none of them are true limericks, the intended sense seems to be "any banal, strongly rhythmic verse; a doggerel."
 
1984 Maureen Waters _The Comic Irishman_ (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press) 127: While the People affect a cultivated regard for literature, they secretly prefer the limericks of Jem Casey, who eulogizes a "pint of plain" as the only friend of the working man.
 
At the time of writing, Dr. Waters was Assistant Professor of English at Queens College, CUNY.
 
JL




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