Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dear joy n.

an Irishman; also attrib.

c.1687		‘Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda’ Bog Witticisms LIV 50: Whereupon one of the Dear Joys [...] drew his sword.
[1688		ballad title in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 73: The Irish Lasse’s letter, or, her earnest request to Teague, her dear Joy].
a.1689		Fingallian Travesty (2013) 186: Teigelands Jests, or Dear Joys Witticisms.
1689		‘A Cruel & Bloody declaration’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng in 18C Ireland (1998) 40: O tu dulce decus! More sugar sweet than a Dear Joy!
1690		‘The Protestant Commander’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 305: An Army we have of true Protestant Boys, / Who Fears not the French nor the Irish Dear Joys.
1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 15: ’Tis well none of our swaggering Dear Joys in Covent-Garden hear you talk so.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 77: A bonny Scotch Loon, and an Irish dear Joy.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1731		Prisoners Opera 9: Young Ladies beware, if you’re buxom and free, / How you wed a Dear-Joy.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1760		B. Weatherby Great News from Hell 15: I know the Country as well as yourselves, Joys.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1798		Sporting Mag. Sept. XII 321/2: It chanc’d on a time, that an Irish dear honey, / Who’d lately receiv’d a small sum of money [etc].
1801		Sporting Mag. Mar. XVII 312/2: [as cit. 1798].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

In derivatives

Dear-Joy-Land (n.)

Ireland.

1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 22: One of Dear-Joy-Land had a Son that served a Gentleman.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 55: Accented and pronounced in the Tone of Dear-Joy-Land, intermixed with a World of O hones! hoo! hoo! poo’s! and the like.