Generalist January

[pjwillcox]

A double alphabet offering, so need few more before can start filling the grids:
beginning with W - A pious Irish exclamation signifying "alas", now used mockingly (11)
first letter I - Mountain range in the Urals giving its name to a black mineral (5)
first letter M - Literary party giver (3,6)
Many tks

[scorpiojo]

2 Boron?

[pixie373]

Last- mad hatter

[scorpiojo]

Must read clue properly!

[emeritus]

2 Ilmen

[emeritus]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ilmenites

[emeritus]

and the mountain range

http://www.mindat.org/loc-17893.html

[weecalf]

Mad hatter

[pjwillcox]

tks all - still stuck on the W one and just found another:
beginning with C - Descending a river periodically for spawning (11)

tks v much

[bibblebub]

Wirrasthru https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/English_as_we_speak_it_in_Ireland/XIII

[pjwillcox]

tks bibblebub wirrasthru looks good but needs an extra letter to make 11 - which from my early grid plan should be at the end: an s or an e ??

[bibblebub]

sorry I miscounted but can find WIRRASTHRUE as a variant spelling e.g. http://www.scotlandbytheyard.com/irish-music-1/

[pjwillcox]

tks v much bibblebub

[slaney]

Alternative spelling for wirrasthru in Hiberno-English dictionary are wirrasthroo and wurrasthroo.

[bibblebub]

you're very welcome (haven't yet found anything for the spawning clue)

[slaney]

Sorry -didn't refresh - that variant not in my dictionary - now added.

[slaney]

The spawning one - Catadromous

[pjwillcox]

tks slaney - am still working on the grids but think wirrasthrue will fit best

[slaney]

You're welcome - I can only see last month's crossword on the Prospect website, so I presume you have a hard copy.

[pjwillcox]

slaney - yes i picked it up yesterday: i thought it strange that there hadn't been any earlier questions.