Family prints

Ná déan nós agus ná bris nós

Neither make nor break a custom.

Wry counsel for the traditionalist in your life. Or the reformer who needs warning.

Ná déan nósagus ná brisnós Neither make nor break a custom. THE BRENNAN FAMILY · EST. 1994 Ná déan nós agus ná bris nósSeanfhocal · Irish proverbSay it: naw JAYN nohs AH-gus naw BRISH nohsÓ Dónaill 1977 · seanfhocail.ie

The wording is quoted exactly from the record and its cited source; personalisation touches only your own names and date, never the Irish.

About this saying

Attested twice over, a century apart in register: Ó Dónaill prints it as the dictionary proverb (neither make nor break a custom) and a Kerry schoolteacher of the 1930s recorded the Munster form in the Schools’ Collection, in passing, as the reason local weddings never happened until Lent was over. The dictionary preserves the wording; the manuscript catches the proverb actually governing behaviour, which is the rarer thing to see.