Irish proverbs and blessings, properly sourced
Seanfhocail (literally “old words”) are the proverbs and blessings that Irish carried orally for centuries. This is a collection of them in Irish and English, built for people who need the words to be right: on a wedding card, in a speech, on a headstone.
Every saying here shows its source: nothing invented. Most are cited to dictionaries, folklore archives and historical collections; where a genuinely beloved wording’s earliest attestation is unsettled, its page says so plainly and cites the best published use we have, instead of pretending or leaving it out. A great deal of the Irish circulating online has no source behind it at all, and some of it is not Irish but a translation back out of English. There are currently 92 sayings published, and each one shows you exactly where it came from, and how settled the scholarship is.
Looking for the right blessing for an occasion? Start from the chooser. Or read how we source and check things. Worth two minutes if you are about to have Irish printed or carved.
A few to start with
- Ní neart go cur le chéileThere is strength in unity.
- Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoineWe live in one another's shelter.
- Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féinThere is no place like home.
- Go maire sibh bhur saol nuaMay you enjoy your new life together.
- Is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinteHealth is better than wealth.
- Sláinte!Cheers.
From the articles
- “May the road rise to meet you”: the surprising history of Ireland’s most famous blessingThe best-known Irish blessing in the world is half real. The dictionaries print a road blessing: just not the one on the tea towels.
- How to choose an Irish blessing for a weddingA card, a speech and an engraving want three different kinds of Irish. How to tell which is which, using sayings you can actually check.
- Irish blessings for a funeral or memorialThe words Irish actually uses when someone dies (prayers, and proverbs that do not pretend to console) and how to get them exactly right.
- What the fada doesIt looks like a decoration and behaves like a letter. What the little acute actually does, and why we treat a missing one as a broken word.
- “We live in each other’s shelter”: one proverb’s long lifeOne word means both shadow and shelter, and the whole proverb lives inside that double meaning. The line modern Ireland reaches for first.
- Why everything here is citedA dictionary abbreviates its own headwords. A government page misspells a proverb. Copying carefully is harder than it sounds, a tour of the traps.
By occasion
- Irish Wedding Blessings8 sayings
- Irish Blessings for the Dead15 sayings
- Irish Toasts7 sayings
- Irish Blessing for a New Home8 sayings
- Irish Baby Blessings7 sayings
- Irish Farewell Blessings10 sayings
- St Patrick's Day Blessings6 sayings
By theme
- Irish Proverbs About Family12 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Friendship12 sayings
- Irish Sayings About Luck14 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Love5 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Wisdom36 sayings
- Irish Sayings About Health7 sayings
- Irish Sayings About Home7 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Work8 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Words and Talk5 sayings
- Irish Sayings About Food and Drink4 sayings
- Irish Proverbs About Patience7 sayings
As a print
The voices are coming, and they will be real ones
Pronunciation audio is planned for every saying here, recorded by human speakers of Irish and credited by name, the way a citation names a book. We will never use a synthetic or cloned voice on this site. Not as a stopgap, not ever. A language survives in mouths, not in models, and a site built on getting the words right is not going to fake the sound of them.
Everything
Browse all 92 sourced sayings → Or test yourself against the collection.