1. Yes. The pronunciation is correct, apart from the final 's', which should be a /z/. 2. Yes, it is widely used and universally understood among Br.E speakers.

1) I'm a US native speaker. A good illustration of the fact that British and US English are not really very far apart is that US English speakers are reasonably familiar with the words ha'penny, shilling, pounds, etc. These are preserved in nursery rhymes, folk songs, and so forth. Thus, many US natives know the little song, Christmas is a'-comin' and the goose is getting fat, Please to put a penny in the old man's hat; If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you! The audio file you posted is exactly the way I pronounce "ha'penny." (We also know a song that begins "I've got sixpence, jolly jolly sixpence, I've got sixpence to last me all my life, I've got sixpence to spend And sixpence to lend And sixpence to take home to my wife! (Poor wife!) And brides are supposed to wear "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and sixpence in her shoe.") 2) "To be hard up" is familiar and used in the United States.

Oh, I see; that's sad indeed... But then again, these are, as Tony Crowley says in his "Wars of Words", scars that "embody a history of injury and healing, reminding us of past pain _and the possibilities of recovery_". So, not really helpful for foreign learners but still... (Hm, I would've never guessed the meaning of the proverb without the internet - and I managed to translate it correctly. A nice one, by the way)

You didn't take into account that you can't trust all the Irish you read on the internet. Unfortunately a lot of it is very bad Irish, like the Wikipedia article on Rí Artúr (I had a look at it and it's full of mistakes). That should be Rí na Breataine, but even then the sentence doesn't really make sense. As for curst cows, don't despair: as a ceann a bhlitear an bhó.

Oh yes, apart from everything! I'm really sorry, I bet you're extremely tired of explaining this particular grammar point over and over again - and I _read_ your explanations about possessives in the answers section and still was too stupid not to figure it out here! I can only say that a) I'm not particularly gifted when it comes to foreign languages (God sends a curst cow short horns I suppose) and b) I read the Wikipedia article about King Arthur a few days ago, and there was this line: "Dá bhrí sin, d'éiligh sé an teideal agus tháinig an Rí na Breataine"  ...and I decided that maybe we should use the definite article with "Rí" no matter what. Yes, see reason a) Anyway, a thousand thank you's for lending a helping hand! You're a saint.