Hibernicus, I hope you don't mind if I make your link clickable--this is really interesting! Note: to make a link clickable, in front of the address put [  ] with url inside the brackets; and at the end, put [  ] with /url inside them. Same for colors, italics, and bold: put the word or letter (click on "you may use markup in your posts", above) inside these brackets in front, and a /   preceding the word or letter in the brackets following. Say I want to make the phrase "you may use markup in your posts" blue. I would then put [  ]you may use markup in your posts[  ], with blue inside the first set of brackets, and /blue inside the second set. Okay:

http://www.sluggerotoole.com/home/archives/001985.asp
Practically the first thing I saw was what to me was a garden-path sentence: Actually, I was interviewed by Radio Foyle and Starrett carried the interview in the Newsletter !

He says: Given it remains in use in southern Scotland, northern England and parts of the Low Countries, and was in use in southern England too (in Spenser's poetry, for example), there is no reason to suspect any Celtic connection at all (and no reason to spell it 'craic').

One of the responders has: Talking of Skeat, he has the following for crack:

Crack (English) Anglo-Saxon "cearcian", to crack, gnash noisily. Cognate:
Dutch "kraken", to crack, creak; Greek "krachen"; Gaelic "crac", a fissure,
"cnac", a crack, to crack. Imitative, like crake, creat, croak, crash,
gnash, knock. Aryan root, "gark".
Is Skeat a dictionary?