Green’s Dictionary of Slang

derry n.1

[abbr. SE refrain derry down, i.e. down (up)on under down adv.2 ]

(orig. UK Und., later use Aus./N.Z.) an aversion towards; a feud with; usu. as have a derry on

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[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 43: He knew a squatter in Queensland he could pass him on to; [...] they’d keep him there for a year [...] and when the ‘derry’ was off he’d take him over himself.
[Aus]Argus 19 Mar. 5/9: ‘Have you any particular “derry” upon this Wendouree?’ ‘No; not at all.’.

In phrases

have a derry on (v.) (also get a derry on, take a derry on)

(orig. UK Und., later use Aus./N.Z.) to be prejudiced against.

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[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 12/1: Doctor having a ‘derry’ on him, on account of his previous intimacy with his ‘moll’ accepted the challenge, and they prepared for the fight.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘A Derry on a Cove’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 173: It’s orful when the p’leece has got a derry on a chap.
[Aus]‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 163: He has a roaring derry on disobedience.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Horse-and-Cart Ferry’ in Roderick (1967–9 II) 298: And the Law, so it seemed, got a derry / On Brown.
[Aus]L. Stone Jonah 2: I remember old Joe Riley goin’ inter the stable one day to a brown mare as ’ad a derry on ’im, ’cause ’e flogged ’er crool.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 25 May 11/3: For to take a derry on him, / He might lose his right to drive.
[Aus]K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 51: Anybody got a derry on you?
[US]Dly News (NY) 30 May 10/3: If an Australian has a ‘derry’ on you, he does not like you.
[US]J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 90: ‘To have a derry on,’ derry being a substitute for down, apparently from the association of the two words in the refrain ‘derry down’: ‘to have a derry on blowflies’ is to have a strong dislike of them.
[Aus]D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 117: What can you do when these educated blokes get a derry on you?
[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 139: Melbourne hates Sydney, too — just jealous [...] Melbourne’s always had a silly derry on us.
[Aus]D. Niland Big Smoke 12: Here’s Peter putting you on to something and all you can do is look as if you had a derry on the world.
[Aus]S. Gore Holy Smoke 46: The Chaldeans, who had a derry on the Christians [...] put their pot on with Neb.
without dip or derry (adv.) [note dial. deray, an uproar, ult. Fr. derroi, confusion]

(UK Und.) without any problems.

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[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 20/2: All being ready, off we started for Dover, and arrived all safe, without ‘dip or derry’.