Memorial prints
Beannacht Dé lena anam
God rest his soul.
The plainest of the prayers, in the form for a man. What Irish speakers actually write. The form for a woman, and the graveside prayers, stand ready behind “Change phrase”.
The phrases this page offers
The same set the composer’s “Change phrase” link lists. Each wording quoted from a cited source, each with the reason it fits.
- Beannacht Dé lena anamGod rest his soul.Recommended: God rest his soul: the plainest of the prayers, in the form for a man. Choose it when in doubt; it is what Irish speakers actually write in sympathy.Dictionary-sourced
- Beannacht Dé lena hanamGod rest her soul.The same blessing in the form for a woman, recorded in the Folklore Collection. Said there of the writers’ own mothers. Irish marks that difference, and getting it right is the whole kindness.Dictionary-sourced
- Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anamMay he rest at God’s right hand.The best-known graveside prayer, asking that the soul be at God’s right hand. The form for a man. Choose it when the familiar wording matters most; its page states the one open scholarly question honestly.Dictionary-sourced
- Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanamMay she rest at God’s right hand.At God’s right hand: the form for a woman. Choose it over the plainer blessing when the piece should carry the wording said at the graveside.Dictionary-sourced
- Go ndéana Dia trócaire orthuMay God have mercy on them.May God have mercy on them: said of the dead collectively. Choose it when more than one person is remembered; it is the plural the other prayers lack.Dictionary-sourced
- Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a hanamMay God have mercy on her soul.The mercy prayer for a woman, set down in a Donegal school copybook in the 1930s by a boy praying for his own mother. Choose it when the piece remembers a mother or grandmother. That is exactly how the manuscripts use it.Dictionary-sourced
- Níl cara ag cumha ach cuimhneMemory is the only friend that grief has.Grief has no friend but memory. Choose it over the prayers when the register should be human rather than religious. It consoles less and is remembered longer.Dictionary-sourced
- Ní bheidh a leithéid arís annWe shall not see his like again.We shall not see his like again. The great eulogy line, the highest compliment Irish grief pays. Choose it for someone genuinely singular; the wording changes with who is mourned, so check the record before anything is made.Dictionary-sourced
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