Irish Proverbs

A drink precedes a story.

A friend's eye is a good mirror.

A hen is heavy when carried far.

A hound's food is in its legs.

A lock is better than suspicion.

A silent mouth is melodious.

A trade not properly learned is an enemy.

Age is honorable and youth is noble.

As the big hound is, so will the pup be.

Be neither intimate nor distant with the clergy.

Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die.

Even a small thorn causes festering.

Good as drink is, it ends in thirst.

He who comes with a story to you brings two away from you.

He who gets a name for early rising can stay in bed until midday.

If you do not sow in the spring you will not reap in the autumn.

If you want to be criticized, marry.

Instinct is stronger than upbringing.

It is a bad hen that does not scratch herself.

It is a long road that has no turning.

It is better to exist unknown to the law.

It is not a secret if it is known by three people.

It is sweet to drink but bitter to pay for.

It is the good horse that draws its own cart.

It is the quiet pigs that eat the meal.

It takes time to build castles. Rome wan not built in a day.

It's not a matter of upper and lower class but of being up a while and down a while.

Lack of resource has hanged many a person.

Listen to the sound of the river and you will get a trout.

May you have a bright future - as the chimney sweep said to his son.

Mere words do not feed the friars.

Nature breaks through the eyes of the cat.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Necessity knows no law.

More can be found here! Irish Culture and Customs!

Need teaches a plan.

Patience is poultice for all wounds.

People live in each other's shelter.

Put silk on a goat, and it's still a goat.

Quiet people are well able to look after themselves.

The day will come when the cow will have use for her tail.

The hole is more honorable than the patch.

The light heart lives long.

The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot.

The mills of God grind slowly but they grind finely.

The raggy colt often made a powerful horse.

The smallest thing outlives the human being.

The wearer best knows where the shoe pinches.

The well fed does not understand the lean.

The work praises the man.

The world would not make a racehorse of a donkey.

There is hope from the sea, but none from the grave.

There is no fireside like your own fireside.

There is no luck except where there is discipline.

There is no need like the lack of a friend.

There is no strength without unity.

Thirst is the end of drinking and sorrow is the end of drunkenness.

Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst.

Time is a great story teller.

Two shorten the road.

Two thirds of the work is the semblance.

Walk straight, my son - as the old crab said to the young crab.

When a twig grows hard it is difficult to twist it. Every beginning is weak.

When fire is applied to a stone it cracks.

When the apple is ripe it will fall.

When the drop (drink) is inside, the sense is outside.

When the liquor was gone the fun was gone.

Wine divulges truth.

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

You must live with a person to know a person. If you want to know me come and live with me.

Youth does not mind where it sets its foot.

Youth sheds many a skin. The steed (horse) does not retain its speed forever.

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

From at least the first century BC the Brehon Laws, named for the wandering jurists in Ireland, were passed on orally until the seventh century.  The Irish language was beginning to be developed as a written language, and these are some of the peculiar laws that were in use until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the Brehons, the poets and the ancient laws were banned and English common law was substituted.

"If you see a horse straying near a river in the dark, or a pit, and do nothing to save it, you must make restitution."

"The lender of a horse must give notice of the horse's kicking habits."

"If your neighbor does not repay the debt he owes you, you may prevent him from going about his daily business.  A withe-tie [a strip of flexible willow], for all to see, goes on the blacksmith's anvil, the carpenter's axe or the tree-feller's hatchet.  He is on his honor to do no work until he has righted the wrong."

"A layman may drink six pints of ale with his dinner, but a monk may drink only three pints.  This is so he will not be intoxicated when prayer-time arrives."

"If the head of the blacksmith's hammer flies off the handle and injures a customer, neither the smith nor the striker of the hammer is liable--unless they knew the head was loose."

"Whoever comes to your door, you must feed him or care for him, with no questions asked."  Now this is Irish hospitality!!!

"For the best arable land the price is twenty-four cows.   The price for dry, coarse land is twelve dry cows."

"The time allotted to each Brehon for pleading his case is long or short according to his dignity.  In determining the length of the speech he is allowed, count eighteen breathings to the minute."

"February first is the day on which husband or wife may decide to walk away from the marriage."

"If the poet or the physician is in debt, immobilize his horse-whip, for both ride their circuits on the backs of horses."

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