My family has a term we use, that came from my great-grandmother (from the part of the family that lived in Derreen, Pontoon, Co. Mayo). I have not been able to find it in any Irish dictionary nor have any of my Irish friends heard of it. The way it is used, it means something like "crybaby", a pejorative term for someone who whines and moans too much when they are sick or injured. I don't know how I should spell it, but is sounds a bit like "Bath-ah-GOO-sheen". Any idea of the actual word, or what it really means?

Hmmm...tough one! My first thought is that "guais" (which would be pronounced something like "gooish") means "danger" or "peril" and adding a diminutive suffix to it would make it "guaisín" (gooish-een): "little/small danger." That's just a stab in the dark, though. Hopefully someone else here can get you closer!

Redwolf

THANK YOU! That is the first bit of info I've gotten in TEN YEARS of actively trying to figure it out!

I'm wondering if it's not peata guaisín "pet gosling" (literally "a pet of a gosling").

A peata is a "pet, spoilt child".

If you have ever kept baby birds of any species, you may know that they never stop trying to get their mammy's attention. Guaisín "a gosling" would be an example of a larger household species (with a tenacious character, no less).

That's just conjecture, mind you. I've not found the expression in any of my dictionaries either. However, peata guaisín _would_ sound very similar to "Bath-ah-GOO-sheen".

There's also another expression peata caillí "'an old woman's pet', pampered child, no-good person" listed under peata in Ó Dónaill, but it doesn't sound much like "Bath-ah-GOO-sheen".

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Thank you! I can't believe I'm finally getting leads on this!

I think there is little doubt that "Bath-ah" is "peata".
But the rest of it I don't know.

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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Thank you, and thanks to everyone who is posting in this thread. You have no idea how much your help means to me.

Someone on another site suggested the second part could be "gasún".

Could be, though that usually gets Anglicized as "gossoon" (it means little boy/child). Possibly, though, it's morphed in your family over the years. "Pet of a child/spoiled child."

Redwolf

The phrase has been passed down from my mother's mother's mother all the way to me, so it is likely that it has been jumbled up a bit, like in the kid's game "Telephone". Particularly because although my mom learned a bit of Irish as a young girl, she does not remember any of it.