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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

melia murder! excl.

also melia murdher! melia murther! millia...!

[Irish míle murdar, lit. ‘a thousand murders’, thus ‘horror of horrors!’]

(Irish) a general excl. of surprise, horror, regret.

1832		S. Lover Legends and Stories 168: ‘Oh then millia murther!’ says Paddy, ‘what’ll become of me at all.’.
1841		‘A Letter [...] From Peter Strongbow etc.’ Dublin Comic Songster 310: Och, millia murther!
1866		Greenwood A Little Ragamuffin 211: Melia murther! but it does the heart of an Irishman good to hear that swate song.
1908		L. Doyle Ballygullion (1927) 81: Michael in the middle av thim, an’ the wimmen hanging round, pullin’ the skirts av the men’s coats, an’ cryin’ melia murdher.
1910		Ottumwa Tri-Weekly (IA) 27 Aug. 5/1: Millia murdher, the Omadhaun’s makin’ straight for the fairies’ bush.
c.1950		‘Flann O’Brien’ ‘Natotion’ in Hair of the Dogma (1989) 75: But there was sacred holy melia murder about it afterwards.