NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Roots > Special Irish sayings and blessings this Christmas season

Special Irish sayings and blessings this Christmas season

Love, drink and wisdom all contained in Irish phrases

PATRICK O'BRIEN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, December 19, 2011, 7:22 AM

Updated Monday, December 19, 2011, 10:21 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

17 Comments

Guinness' very own Irish Santa

Photo by Saturday Evening Post

The Irish have a way with words as we all know. The following is a sample of sayings and proverbs that have lasted for generations.

They are taken from a book called Timeless Wisdom available at www.ucdpress.ie.

The Demon Drink

If Holy Water was beer he'd be at mass every morning

Whiskey when you're sick makes you well, whiskey when you're well makes you sick

Wine drowns more men than water

You've never seen a collection for a needy publican

The drunk will soon have daylight in through the rafters

A man in need of a drink thinks of great schemes to get it

Drink is a curse-- it makes you shoot at your landlord --and miss him

Before you call for one for the road be sure you know the road

----------------

Elderly priest refuses to leave parochial house after abuse allegations

Irish and Catholic groups protest nomination of cartoonist into Hall of Fame

----------------
Love

A widow and her money are soon courted

A young man is bothered till he's married after that he's bothered all the time

If a man is in love he is no judge of beauty but when love wears off he'll tell a woman about her warts

Marriage changes a man and makes the woman who changed him complain about him not being the same man she married

Sweet is the voice for a woman of a man who has wealth

If you love her in rags your love will last

A silent mouth is the sweetest sound
Empty and cold is a house without a woman

Health to the men but may the women live forever

Wisdom

There is hope from the sea but none from the graveyard

A poor man's tale is rarely heard

Better to go to bed supperless than to rise in debt

Contentment is greater than a kingdom

The three strongest forces, fire, water and hatred

Three sharpest eyes, a blacksmith on a nail, a priest on his parish, a young girl on a boy

Hope is the cure for all misery

Everyone is an expert until they speak

----------------

Elderly priest refuses to leave parochial house after abuse allegations

Irish and Catholic groups protest nomination of cartoonist into Hall of Fame

----------------

Nster.com

E-mail

17 Comments

See all comments

IrelandNorth | Dec 21, 2011, 08:04 AM EST

Check out Tyrone comedian, Kevin MacAleer, the man who put dead back into deadpan, for delicious cultural self-deprecatory humour. An old Irish greeting: "I'm not a bitter man, but may you drop dead in a snowdrift." "May ya be in heaven half an hour before the divil knows yer dead!"

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 20, 2011, 03:19 PM EST

You suggested I check it out so I did and guess what!? You were wrong! I live my culture and heritage every day as I work for Bord Failte AND live in Ireland! I dont have to read about it or hear fairy tales from my dead link to Ireland like yourself. There are kids born here to Polish and Nigerians every day and they're more Irish than you will ever be or hope to be! You talk about heritage, it was also very much part of Irish culture therefore, heritage to send pregnant unmarried women to the laundries. Should I be proud of this also or is it just certain types of Paddy Whackery that I should fondly hold onto? Theres no 'h' in ''Nollaig'' by the way and theres also no such word as 'Jackette''. You really are a fool!

Report abuse

waltergmccarthy | Dec 19, 2011, 08:51 PM EST

Shame, Ciara, that you had to go to all the trouble researching all that. None of that really matters anyway, what matters, as everyone who sees this will agree, is that a cheeky punk got on this forum and referred to our wonderful heritage and old sayings as "rubbish" and "crap". Your lack of knowledge about our old ways is one thing, but to treat them with such disrespect and crassness only speaks to your ignorance. While you are doing your research, you should check out all those "crap" old sayings and you will find every one of them. Most have been translated from Gaelic. Of course, since you're a "Dub" or a "Jackette", you probably haven't heard of that either. "Go raibh gach solas an Nollaigh seo ort"

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 06:46 PM EST

Garner’s Modern American Usage (2003) RAISE and REAR: The old rule, still sometimes observed, is that crops and livestock are ‘raised’ and children are ‘reared.’ But today the phrase ‘born and raised’ is about eight times as common in print as ‘born and reared.’ And ‘raise’ in now standard as a synonym for rear. Indeed, ‘born and reared’ is likely to sound affected in American English. Quote: <1986 “We parents so often blow the business of RAISING kids, but not because we violate any philosophy of child ‘raising.’”—‘Fatherhood’ by Bill Cosby, page 20> <1997 “He earlier had worked in the candy-making business in Pittsburg, where he was born and RAISED.”—‘Washington Post,’ 8 August, page B4> <2000 “My mother RAISED me to be polite.”—‘The Grammar Lady,’ Mary Newton Brudner, page 57> The old rule Walter. Americans say ''reared'' for people. The rest of the world says ''raised''

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 06:37 PM EST

Are you that upset Walter that an actual real irish person doesnt fit your model of a cultural stereotype with all your twee sayings that Irish people under the age of 70 have never heard?? Maybe you and your lovely German name should sign up to German central.com? Oxford English Dictionary RAISE: 10) a. To foster, rear, bring up (a person). Now chiefly U.S., and commonly in passages with specification of place. b. To rear or bring up (animals). c. To cause or promote the growth of (plants), to grow (fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc.). REAR: 9) a. To bring (animals) to maturity or to a certain stage of growth by giving proper nourishment and attention; especially. to attend to the breeding and growth of (cattle, etc.) as an occupation. = raise. b. To bring up (a person), to foster, nourish, educate.= raise. c. To attend to, promote, or cause the growth of (plants); to grow (grain, etc.). = raise.

Report abuse

waltergmccarthy | Dec 19, 2011, 06:20 PM EST

Sounds like you got your education on a farm alright. Children are "reared", animals are "raised". Check it out! You say you were "raised" in Dublin, so maybe you're right and that would be appropriate for you.

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 05:07 PM EST

Is the moderator of this page deleting my posts? Walter, the heritage that I am proud of has nothing whatsoever got to do with twee sayings from the era of Peig Sayers. By the way, you ''rear'' cattle, not families or children, They are ''raised''. My uncle who is a dairy farmer taught me that when I was 6.

Report abuse

hybernia | Dec 19, 2011, 02:17 PM EST

A farmer living near me used to say of his wife--"She's one tit short of an udder". :-)

Report abuse

waltergmccarthy | Dec 19, 2011, 02:03 PM EST

It's reared, by the way, not "raised", as animals are.

Report abuse

waltergmccarthy | Dec 19, 2011, 02:01 PM EST

The fact that you refer to your heritage as "crap" explains everything.

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 01:53 PM EST

Yep, born in Dublin and raised by a Dad from Monaghan and a mam from Louth, family in Cork, Tipp and Galway and Ive never heard this crap before. None of the family have either but Im sure they may have had they been alive 200 years ago.

Report abuse

waltergmccarthy | Dec 19, 2011, 01:28 PM EST

Your "wan" born and "raised" in Dublin never heard any of these!!! Wow, Surprise, surprise!!!

Report abuse

ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 12:44 PM EST

Im 35, born and raised in Dublin and i have NEVER heard any of these sayings. what a load of rubbish! Stereotype much?

Report abuse

Murph46 | Dec 19, 2011, 11:14 AM EST

I love the Santa picture. Would like to have a big one.

Report abuse

gaeilgesdamhsa | Dec 19, 2011, 11:02 AM EST

FRANK MC COURT would disagree with this one. . . "A poor man's tale is rarely heard." Time to get rid of that one along with some of those stereotype sayings AND the santa picture.

Report abuse