Top 50 Irish proverbs and sayings you should know for St. Patrick’s Day (2024)

Here it is: your one-stop shop for St. Patrick’s Day.

Every Irish proverb or saying you could possibly need to know.

Enjoy.

1. If you’re enough lucky to be Irish… You’re lucky enough!

2. Here’s health to your enemies’ enemies!

3. May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

4. May the wind always be at your back.

5. May you be at the gates of heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead!

6. Here’s to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold pint and another one!

7. Every man is sociable until a cow invades his garden.

8. May neighbours respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and Heaven accept you.

9. It’s easy to halve the potato where there’s love.

10. I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

MUST READ:Ten things the Irish have done for us (excluding green beer)

11. May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.

12. May the enemies of Ireland never meet a friend.

13. You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your father was.

14. May you live to be 100 years, with one extra year to repent.

15. May the roof above you never fall in and those gathered beneath it never fall out.

Article content

16. Tis better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money!

17. May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

18. A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.

19. Forgetting a debt doesn’t mean it’s paid.

20. A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures.

21. Here’s to eyes in your heads and none in your spuds.

22. A little fire that warms is better than a big fire that burns.

23. There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.

24. Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege.

25. If it’s drowning you’re after, don’t torment yourself with shallow water.

26. There’s no need to fear the wind if your haystacks are tied down.

27. Don’t be breaking your shin on a stool that’s not in your way.

28. May the enemies of Ireland never eat bread nor drink whisky, but be tormented with itching without benefit of scratching.

29. May the most you wish for be the least you get.

30. Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.

31. The man who has luck in the morning has luck in the afternoon.

Article content

32. Men are like bagpipes – no sound comes from them until they are full.

33. A family of Irish birth will argue and fight, but let a shout come from without, and see them all unite.

34. In every land, hardness is in the north of it, softness in the south, industry in the east, and fire and inspiration in the west.

35. May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never catch up.

36. The older the fiddle the sweeter the tune.

37. May the grass grow long on the road to Hell for want of use.

38. Always remember that hindsight is the best insight to foresight.

39. Lie down with dogs and you’ll rise with fleas.

40. May your heart be light and happy, may your smile be big and wide, and may your pockets always have a coin or two inside!

41. It is often that a person’s mouth broke his nose.

42. What butter and whiskey won’t cure, there is no cure for.

43. There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

44. Here’s to Hell! May the stay there be as fun as the way there!

45. Never scald your lips with another man’s porridge.

46. May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty!

47. Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

48. May you get all your wishes but one, so that you will always have something to strive for!

49. May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.

50. You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

ALSO:What to know about St. Patrick’s Day events in Ottawa

Article content