59 seanfhocail, each in the Irish it is said in, with a pronunciation and what it really means — which is often not what the tidy English version suggests.
A proverb in Irish is literally an old word, and they are used the way a hammer is used: to end an argument, to excuse a decision, to say the unsayable politely. Most are short enough to be a single breath, and many rhyme or alliterate in Irish in a way no translation carries — tús maith leath na hoibre has a swing that “a good start is half the work” simply does not.
The motto at the foot of this site.
Perhaps the truest sentence in the language, and the one most quoted in hard years — it was everywhere in Ireland during the pandemic.
It takes one to know one.
Binn is the word used for music and for birdsong. The proverb is not telling you to shut up; it is saying that silence, done well, is a kind of music.
The arithmetic of a small place.
Sách is full, seang is slender or hungry. Said of anyone comfortable explaining hardship to somebody in it.
You will run into anyone, eventually. The hills stay where they are put.
Like father, like son — but cleas is a trick or a knack rather than a likeness, so the Irish is about what is learned by watching.
Do not judge the young by how they look now. Under capall in Ó Dónaill.
Ó Dónaill, under farraige: 'the sea will have its own, its share of tragedies'.
Time will tell.
The plainest possible statement of cause and effect, from a people for whom getting it wrong meant hunger.
The companion to tús maith leath na hoibre: a good start is half the work, and every start is feeble anyway. Both are true.
Attributed to Pearse, and the rallying cry of the language revival.
The Irish for 'there's no place like home' — and note that home is the fire, not the house.
The kindest thing you can say to a learner, and the reason many people keep going.
What goes around comes around.
The Irish for the grass being greener — and a sharper image, because in Ireland the hills genuinely are green, and genuinely do look better from far off.
Usually finished, in English, as 'and twelve versions of a song'.
Retreat, sensibly done, beats a stand you are going to lose. A country that lost a great many stands came by this one honestly.
Impossible to translate tidily — both verbs are impersonal, so the Irish says something more like 'it is not as it is thought to be'.
Glas is a lock, not the colour. Ó Dónaill, under glas: 'better be sure than sorry'.
Táinte are cattle — wealth, in a country that counted riches in cows. The rhyme is the point.
Out of sight, out of mind — with a colder edge.
Kindness costs nothing. It appears in English collections attached to the wrong Irish original often enough that it is worth setting down properly.
Ó Dónaill, under Dia: 'God never shuts out opportunity'.
Said when things look bad. Ó Dónaill, under Dia: 'a powerful ally in distress'.
Ó Dónaill, under bail: 'better enough than too much'.
Said to anybody being promised something that will arrive too late to help. Under capall in Ó Dónaill.
Ó Dónaill, under capall, gives the English equivalent: 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'.
Nobody spares what is not theirs. Ó Dónaill, under cos: 'borrowing leads to abuse'.
Gold gets spent; a skill does not. Ó Dónaill, under ceird.
The Irish for 'still waters run deep', which is how Ó Dónaill glosses it under ciúin.
Ó Dónaill, under cos: 'one must seek out opportunities'.
Ó Dónaill, under cos: 'the lowly is sure to be oppressed'.
Súil here is expectation: somebody at sea may yet come home. Ó Dónaill, under súil: 'all may return but the dead'.
Ó Dónaill, under focal, gives the English: 'a friend in court is better than a penny in the purse'.
The same proverb as the English, word for word. Under gaoth in Ó Dónaill.
Said after a defeat: there will be another chance. An Paorach is a man of the Power family. Under lá in Ó Dónaill.
Ó Dónaill, under madra: 'love me, love my dog'.
Ó Dónaill, under madra: 'a cock is bold on his own dunghill'.
Ó Dónaill, under mol: 'panegyrics are for the dead'. Anybody who has been to an Irish wake will recognise it.
Under saol in Ó Dónaill.
Ó Dónaill, under tosach: 'sleep is the first sign of recovery'.
Under trócaire in Ó Dónaill.
Better a quarrelsome house than an empty one. Ó Dónaill, under uaigneas: 'strife is better than loneliness'.
Under éist in Ó Dónaill.
Not proverbs — just the Irish you would need to get through a morning.
Spellings follow the modern standard, so they may differ from older printed collections. Pronunciations give the commonest Irish-English form; the dialects differ. Sources: Wikipedia — List of English words of Irish origin, Online Etymology Dictionary, Foclóir — the New English-Irish Dictionary, Teanglann — Irish dictionary and pronunciation, Dúchas — the Schools' Folklore Collection. Know one we are missing? Send it to us →
Irish blessings · Words English took from Irish · How to pronounce Irish · St Patrick's Day