What Can You Say About That Then?!Let the Sayings of Ireland be your guide!
There's anger in an open laugh. Old burdens don't incite blows. Red-hot ashes are easily rekindled. No wrong to be done to seven classes of persons excited to anger- a bard, a chief, a woman, a prisoner, a drunken person, a druid, and a king in his own dominions. An inch is a great deal in a man's nose. It's not the bones that are beautiful but the flesh on the shoulders. A thong is no shorter for having been in water. Its appearances are better than its value. Handsome is as handsome does. A black hen lays white eggs. A buckle is a great addition to an old shoe. Nobility listens to art As stiff as a poker As tough as a wheel string. As mim as a dog without his tail. As black as Toal's cloak As bad as Bbarrington's blood hound to us As old as Atty Haye's goat. As wise as the women of Mungret As hard as the hob of hell As cunning as the fox As long as a wet Sunday As old as the hills As bald as a buailtin As sharp as a ciotog As bitter as thick milk As crooked as ram's horn As brown as a berry As big as a smith's meitheal As sharp as the word of a fool As sharp as the teeth of a hound As wet as dung No one can tell what he is able to do till he tries. You can't whistle and chew meal at the same time. You can't bark and run at the same time. A vessel only hods its fill Only the hound that was made fun of killed the deer. The strong man may when he wants to the weak man when he's able The gobada/n (kingfisher) cannot work both tides. Don't give cherries to pigs;don't give advice to a fool. A man is often a bad adviser to himself and a good adviser to another. The man who won't have advice will have conflict. He is bad that will not take advice, but he is a thousand times worse that takes every advice The cat is his own best adviser Crafty advice is often got from a fool A wise man takes advice A ring on her finger and not a stitch of clothes on her back. Sparing at home and lavish in the hospital Like the sun on the hill-top, but like a thistle on the hearth. Street angel, house devil. When the twig hardens, it's difficult to twist it. A man lives long in his native place. It's hard to teach an old dog to dance. As the cock crows, the young bird chirps To be old and decayed dishonors no-one In youth we have our troubles before us; in age we leave pleasure behind Young people don't know what age is; old people forget what youth was. The old man hasn't the place of the cat in the ashes. Is it not a lonesome thing to be getting old. As pretty as a May Flower As old as the Cailleach Beare As fresh as a daisy As bright as a lily As slow as a late dinner As dull as ditch water As swift as a hare As true as the gospel As deep as the sea As bashful as a girl As treacherous as an Englishman As melodious as a lark As brave as Fionn MacCumhall As yellow as a ragweed As lazy as a donkey As lazy as a piper's luidin As busy as a bee As salty as the sea As good as gold As rich as Damer As Hairy as a puck-goats head As thieving as a fox's snout Irish Beauty...a woman with two black eyes Beauty won't make the pot boil Beauty is only skin deep Beauty suffers no pain It's the jewel that can't be got that is the most beautiful The man without eyes is no judge of beauty Woe to him whose betrayer sits at his table A mouth of ivy and a heart of holy My the Lord keep you in his hand and never close his fist too tight on you May we have the grace of God and may we die in Ireland May you live and wear it May you have heath to wear it May luck be to the married couple May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be towards us My your voice be above every voice May the strength of three be in your journey May I see you gray and combing your children's hair May I see you in heaven God bless three times and three spits for luck There are two heads on all his sheep The law of borrowing is to break the borrower The borrowed horse has hard hoofs The loan of something on loan Don't exchange your horse when you are crossing the river He who is bad to give the loan is good for directing you The brave man never loses Every dog is valiant at his own door Every hound is brave on his own dung hill Every man is bold until he faces a crowd Bribe the rogue and you need have no fear of the honest man Beware of the bribed man Bribery will split a stone Hold on to the bone and the dog will follow you Loose and careless like the leg of a pot A ship is often lost because of one man By the tongues people are caught and by their horns cattle. Beware the Sassannnach No falling out with a madman A change of work is as good as a rest The new broom sweeps the house best The black countenance cannot be changed A good man is not without fault and there are two faults in any man He who is bad at giving a lodging is good at showing the road Constant begging meets only constant refusal A shut fist gets only a closed hand No good is got from waste, but a good name is got by alms giving Half given is better than complete refusal The good deed boasted of is little, the good deed not acknowledged is little better Better to do a good deed and boast about it than not to do it and not boast about it Words will not feed the friars Don't postpone the good deed It is a little thing that is not longer than your hand Charity begins at home Water for the goose and alms for the beggar The beauty of a chaste woman makes bitter words Praise the child and it will progress If they won't make you laugh they won't make you cry A wise son makes a father glad but a foolish son is a mothers sorrow Baptize your own child first Every finger has not the same length, nor every son the same disposition. What the child sees is what the child does. Every mother thinks it is on her own child the sun rises. An inch of a lad is better than a foot of a girl No man ever wore a cravat as nice as his own child's arm around his neck Your son is your son to-day but your daughter is your daughter forever If the bare part of the hill is bad, the summit is worse It can't be both curds and whey with you It's difficult to choose between tow blind goats The priest's pig gets the most porridge Although there was nobody present but the priest and the friar still I have lost all my property A dumb priest never got a parish If there is a hen or a goose its surely on the priests table it will be It is his own child the priest baptizes first Be neither intimate nor distant with the clergy A priest that's made a pet of and a pig that's made a pet of are the two wrist pets of all. The way of the nuns with the country-women -they receive a great lump and give a small return Give the priest his own side of the road. Don't be the mean and don't be generous with the clergy Talk of the devil and he will appear Tobacco after food Never reach out your hand further than you can withdraw it A look in front is better than two behind Don't see all you see and don't hear all you hear Leave well enough alone Don't show all your teeth until you can bite The first sip of broth is always the hottest kill a wren but beware of fire Be first in a wood but last in a bog. Think before you speak and look before you leap Better be sure than sorry He that doesn't tie a know will lose the first stitch When your hand is in the dog's mouth, withdraw it gently If you catch a pig catch it by the leg Don't be breaking your shin on a stool that's not in your way Never scald your lips with another man's porridge Look at the river before you cross the ferry A stitch in time saves two stitches Better to turn back from the middle of the ford than to be drowned in the flood When your neighbors house is on fire take care of your own A person often ties a know with his tongue that can't be loosed by his teeth One look before is better than three looks behind Don't put your hook in a field without being asked Never take the full of your mouth out of anybody Say little and say it well Put a mouth to a mouth, but don't put a pen to paper Least said soonest mended When the belly is full the bones like to stretch Bend with the tree that bends with you A share is sufficient A little fire that warms is better than a big fire that burns It's better to tell a good story twice There's no tax on talk Talk is cheap When you go forth to find a wife leave your eyes at home, but take both ears with you It's the last suitor that wins the maid A good horseman is the man on the ground He's a good hurler that's on the ditch The one who loses the game has the liberty of talking He would cover a rock with hay and sell it for a haycock He would skin a louse and send the hide and fat to market He would build a nest in your ear In spite of the fox's cunning his skin is often sold He'd steal the cross of an ass's back He would steal the egg from the crane and finally the crane herself Cunning is better than strength The curse does not fall on a stick or a stone A bad death to you Bad cess to you A heart burning on you A cold day on you The raven's curse on you The kittens death to you May your trouble be in your throat The curse of Cromwell on you It's a very good time if it lasts When the sky falls we'll all catch larks The man who loves danger shall perish in it No staying in dangerous roads A lion is not a safe companion for all persons A horse on a cliff or a cow in a swamp two in danger Many a day we shall rest in the clay Death is the poor man's best physician Death doesn't come without a cause There's neither herb nor cure for death To die and to lose on's life are much the same thing There'll be many a dry eye at his death There is hope from he mouth of the sea but none from the mouth of the grave A man at sea may return but not the man in the churchyard., Sleep is the brother of death One can't tell which skin will hang from the rafter first, the old sheep's or the lamb's The trace of the hand will live but not the hand that made it Death stares the old in the face and lurks behind the backs of the young Nimble as the hare is she is caught at last There is many a person with a high head today who will be lying lowly tomorrow May God spare anyone who has a hand in his own death You will never comb a gray head It is not he tree that is a long time shaking that is the first to fall Death does not take a bribe The graveyard growth is in him Death never comes too late You'll be going yet and your two feet before you Better old debts than old grudges Forgetting a debt doesn't pay it There is often a barb behind a kiss A lie looks the better for having a witness A sweet tongue is seldom without a string to its root Shallow waters make great noise Still waters run deep Show the fatted calf but not the thing that fattened him One swallow never made a summer Faraway cows have longer horns Lying in Lavender like Paddy's Pig Them that like the dung hill see no motes in it It's not as one supposes that things are Desire conquers fear It is often there has been great darkness with little rain Never bid the devil good morrow until you meet him To praise God is proper-but a wise man won't blackguard the devil Needs must when the devil rides The man of horns is active A crooked cane makes a straight back There is no achievement without discipline The horse wins or loses the reins The back of my hand and the sole of my foot to you A drink is shorter than a story There's little profit from being always drunk It's the first drop that destroyed me, there's no harm at all in he last It would make a rabbit spit at a dog He would go to mass every morning if holy water were whiskey You take your health once too often to the whiskey shop till it gets broken It's sweet to drink but bitter to pay for it Sweet is the wine but sour's the payment Wine reveals the truth Thirst after the drink and sorrow after the money Drunkenness will not protect a secret The cure of the drinking is to drink again Thirst is a shameless disease Donal drunk and his wife drinking water He would drink Lough Sheelin dry It is only folly to treat an old woman to a dram When good luck comes the drink comes A drunken woman is lost to shame Thirst begets thirst The end of drinking is more thirst Take what you can get and pay what you can Economy is good to guard against want, but don't be mean or niggardly Though I have the book I don't have the learning A man of learning understands the half-word Learning is a light burden,but often a source of confusion Every pupil as he is taught The young and the foolish are the harder to teach. Better a good run than a long standing One's best is sufficient A hook well lost to catch a salmon Often a man cast a sprat to catch a hake If you stretch out with your hand you will reach out with your feet Speak neither well nor ill of yourself There is no bone in the tongue,but it often broke a man's head Even a good horse can't keep running Don't yield to the Saxon but beat him well A cat can look at a king The beak of the goose is no longer than that of the gander Right for me, right for you The river is no wider from this side or the other In he land of the blind the man with one eye is a king A slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind Evil may spring from the tiniest thing The effects of an evil act are long felt The more you trample dung the more it spreads A small stain will smear white stockings The bad deed turns on its doer Evil begets evil The losing horse blames the saddle A bad reaper never got a good reaping hook It's a bad thing not to have some story on the tip of your tongue A burnt child fears the fire Be one's trade good or bad experience makes one a master of it The wearer knows best where the shoe pinches The proof of the pudding is in the eating On an unknown path every foot is slow Let every man praise the ford as he finds it An old bird is not caught with chaff The longest road out is the shortest road home An old cat will not burn himself Sense bought is better than two senses learned You can't put an old head on young shoulders Every hound is a pup till he hunts If I am yellow I have a fair heart Fame lasts longer than life Without money fame is dead Falling is easier than rising Greatness knows modesty To know somebody, life in the same house with him Too much of one thing is the same as nothing Familiarity breeds contempt People of the same trade are friendly Long as the day may be night comes at last He that is born to be hanged needn't fear water A book to a blind man signifies nothing. Better knowledge of the evil, than the evil without knowledge. The person with least knowledge talks most It's no joke going to law with the devil and the court held in hell. Beyond the leap, beyond the law. A good word in court is better than a pound in the purse. Neither break a law nor make one. The law does not apply to the blow that's not struck. The lying man's witness is his wife. Winter comes fast on the lazy Cold in the shoulder makes the shins speckled. Long sleep makes a bare backside. It's only a worthless hen that fails to provide for herself. The speckled shins of spring is the envious one in Autumn. Laziness is a heavy burden You'd be a good messenger to send for death. Pity the man who waits till the last day. Ye look for the ladle when the pot's in the fire The long stitch of the lazy tailor A slow messenger is the better for your going to meet him. It's a bad bird that dirties its own nest It's a bad hen that won't scratch herself. After the chieftains fall, the fight seldom continues. As great a liar as the clock of Strabane. The lie often goes further than the truth. God does not like the lying tongue. We live ass long as we're let. You will live during the year for we were just talking of you. Life is sweet. Life is precious People live in one another's shadows. Twenty years agrowing;twenty years at rest; twenty years declining; and twenty years when it doesn't matter whether you're there or not. Life is the true historian. Live in my heart and pay no rent. If you love the mother, you love her brood. They won't fall in love with the man they don't see. When the sight leaves the eye, love leaves the heart. After the settlement(the dowry), comes the love. Love is blind to blemishes and faults. Love hides ignominy and evil. Love is no impartial judge. House without hound, cat or child,house without love or affection. Love a woman or a child without their knowing it. To the raven her own chick is white. What is nearest the heart is usually nearest the lips. What is nearest the heart comes out. Love cools quickly. Love conceals ugliness, and hate sees a lot of faults. She who fills the heart, fills the eye. There's no love until there's a family. Absence makes the heart grow fond. Marry in haste and be sorry at your leisure By age or ability you're no child What you give wouldn't blind the eye of a midge As tight as tuppence in a market-woman's trash bag. If you give the loan of your britches don't cut off the buttons. `Tis strange that the man who is so quick to find fault in himself so stingy about food. To come with one hand longer than the other. Nothing comes into a closed hand. Some men are like bagpipes they can't speak till their bellies are filled. From the house of the devil to the house of the demon After misfortune the Irishman sees his profit. It is well that misfortunes come one by one and not all together. It's easy to sleep on the misfortune of others. When misfortune is greatest relief is nearest. There's worse than this in the North. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems. The old white horse is the end of all misfortune. Speak to misfortune when it comes. No heightening of the grief of a sorrowful man. He is scant of news that speaks ill of his mother. A busy mother makes a lazy daughter. A mother with a pouch is better than a father with a ploughteam. You won't get from a cat but its skin The lamb is a sheep in the long run. Its nature breaks out through the eyes of the cat. Let the tail go with the hide. It's better to be lucky than to be an early riser. A chance shot will not kill the devil The man who has luck in the morning has luck in the afternoon. There's luck in sharing It's better to be lucky than wise A meeting in the sunlight is lucky, and burying in the rain. The lucky person has only to be born. Luck seldom lasts. Without store no friends;without rearing no manners. Better good manners than good looks. The husband of the sloven is known in the field amidst a crowd. A growing moon and a flowing tide are lucky times to marry in Never make a toil of pleasure, as the man said when he dug his wife's grave only three feet deep. Marriage at the dung heap and the godparents far away. Woe to him who does not heed a good wife's counsel. It's why women marry--the creatures, God bless them, are too shy to say no. There was never an old slipper but there was an old stocking to match it. A young man is bothered till he's married, after that he's bothered entirely There's only one thing in the world better than a good wife....no wife The dowry falls over the cliff; but the protruding lip remains on the wife. A bad wife takes advice from everyone but her husband. He breaks his wofe's head and then buys a plaster for it. There are no trials till marriage. The carefree mother's daughter makes a bad wife. It's a lonesome washing that there's not a (man's) shirt in. Marry a mountainy woman and you'll marry the mountain. She's a good woman, but she didn't take off her boots yet. The day you marry your wife you marry your children The blanket is the warmer of being doubled She burnt her coal and did not warm herself He married money and got a woman with it A wild goose never laid a tame egg. What can you expect from a pig but a grunt. How could the apple be but like the apple tree. Nature is stronger than nurture. Every nursling as it is nursed, every web as it is woven Pity the man drowned in the storm. for after the rain comes the sunshine The darkest hour is nearest dawn A ship is often lost by the harbor No matter how often a pitcher goes to the water it is broken in the end No matter how long the day, night comes What kills one man gives life to another About the foot of the tree the foliage falls Fear is a fine spur, so is rage Be afraid and you'll not meet danger The man who is struck on the head, will afterwards be afraid To fight like Kilkenny cats Quarrelsome dogs get dirty coats Don't kick till your spurred Be warning but not striking A word goes to the wind but a blow goes to the bones Wine is better than blood There is often the death of a person between two words. don't go between the tree and its bark Soft words butter no parsnips The sheep could eat the grass through it The juice of the cow alive or dead is good Help is a good thing except at the table of food A man at the food and a weakling at the work First at the pot and last at the work Food is a workhorse Taste the food and you'll get a taste for it A fool and his money are easily parted A fool's word is a thorn in the mud When fools make mistakes they lay the blame on Providence. It's a trifle that makes fools laugh Give a clown his choice and he'll choose the worst Gold is light with a fool Give me that and be a fool yourself There's no fool like an old fool Often a a fool's son is a wise man The amad'n fell into the fire and the oinseach began to cry The fool has luck The oinseach sees the amada'n's faults She burnt her coal and didn't warm herself Hurry no man's cattle....get a a jackass for yourself don't take the thatch off your own house to by slates for another man's roof Folly has a fall before it There are two things that cannot b cured-death, and want of sense Forgive a horse that will cock his ears Good luck is better than early rising Fortune is a good thing but it's worth searching for The ugly are often lucky and the handsome unfortunate Often does the likely fail and the unlikely prosper It is a bad wind that doesn't blow for someone Prosperity often comes to the easygoing The lucky man awaits prosperity the unlucky man gives a blind leap Let each person judge his own luck good or bad The point of a rush would draw blood from his cheek Let every man have his own world You can take the horse to the well, but you can't make him drink No war is as bitter as a war between friends, but it doesn't last long Reverence ceases once blood is spilled Two persons never lit a fire without disagreeing If you will walk with lame men you will soon limp yourself There was never a scabby sheep i in a flock that didn't like to have a comrade The man long absent is forgotten In times of trouble friends are recognized A friend's eye is a good mirror Reckoning up is the ending of friendship The friend that can be bought is not worth buying If I like the sow I like her litter Prove your friend before you need him A little relationship is better than much friendship Take care but take no sides and on no account sacrifice your friends Pick your company before you sit down Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are A friend in court is better than a penny in one's purse Friendship is good though separation is painful Cook a little spit for me and I'll cook one for you As well whistle jigs to a milestone as tell troubles to you It's only the Lord can make a racehorse out of a jackass The devil couldn't do it unless he was drunk Tis no use talking when the harm is done It is the hope of recompense that ruins the card player. Better a son a gambler than a drinker The expectation of success is what beggars the gambler A big belly was never Generous A generous man, they say, has never gone to hell Wide is the door of the little cottage As you have burned the candle give the inch Take gifts with a sigh most men give to be paid O'Neills gift and his two eyes looking after it It is worth going to meet generosity that is slow A gentle answer quenches anger A kind word never broke anyone's mouth God's help is nearer than the door God is not as severe as he is said to be God often pays debts without money God moves slowly yet his grace comes God never closes one door but he opens another God shares the good things The person not taught by God is not taught by man The love of God guides every good Man talks but God directs God helps him that helps himself The will of God yesterday today and forever The grace of God is between the saddle and the ground God made the back to suit the burden Whatever God has allotted me I cannot sell Do good in the face of evil The good that is is better than two goods that were He has a good heart even if he is sallow The good is never late Everything good is used in little pieces A good thing is improved by increasing it Good begets good A whisper in Nora's ear is louder than a shout from the highest hill A woman told me that a woman told her that she saw a woman who saw a woman who made ale of potatoes The death of the old woman and the marriage of the Young woman Talk my the fire is the talk of idle women Sit on your heel and thank goodness for a new stool You can't examine the teeth of a gift horse Eaten bread is soon forgotten I think little of buttermilk when I'm full of it Strike a dog with a bone and he'll not growl Thank God the right side of the house is out One cannot take out of a sack more than the full of it If the cat had a churn her paw would often be in it Though honey is sweet, do not lick it off a briar The covetous man is always in want He's not covetous but he'd fain have all Don't refuse to sell your horse for the sake of a a crown Eating and complaining like the greedy hen A rag on every bush Too many irons in the fire A finger in every pie The most recent grief is the heaviest No grief at feasts From strong relationships often comes great grief Where is no cure for grief but to put it under your foot There is no happiness without an inch of sorrow through it The herb that can't be got is the one that brings relief A good laugh and a long sleep the best cures in a a doctor's book Sickness is the physician's feast The beginning of a ship is a board of a kiln a stone, of a king's reign salutation, and the beginning of health is sleep A long disease doesn't tell a lie, it kills at last Health is better than wealth Health is better than flocks A healthy man is a king The relapse is worse that the final fever Every patient is a doctor after his own cure What butter or whiskey will not cure there `s no cure for A long illness doesn't lie Friends are better than gold A constant guest is never welcome Don't show your skin to the person who won't cover it The people will meet but the hills and mountains never The coldness of a friend is better than the sweetness of an enemy He who lies with dogs rises with fleas It is better to be alone than to be in bad company Be kind with the wretched but dark and dour to your enemy When the hand ceases to scatter the mouth ceases to praise A little help is better than a deal of pity Don't put your friend in your pocket A shoulder without a kinsman is bare and woe to him who lacks a loving brother Pity the man in a county where there is none to take his part Putting the thatch of the kiln on the mill It's like looking for a hound without knowing its color To address a head without knowledge is like the barking of a dog in a green valley You Might as well talk to the wall as to him Don't waste your breath on dead embers A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse It's no use going to the goat's house to look for wool It's hard to fight with the wide ocean An empty bag won't stand Tis hard to drive a hare out of a bush he's not in You can't draw blood out of a turnip You won't make a rope from the sand of the sea Beginning with a cough and ending with a coffin A graveyard cough The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs One must pay health its tithes The physician's hope, every misfortune Patience is the cure for an old illness There is no fireside like your own fireside It's a long way from home that the plover cries When rogues disagree, honest men get their own The man that steals stacks thinks all the world thieves The millers pigs are fat but God knows whose meal they ate He is as honest as the priest A patch is better than a hole, but a hole is more honorable than a patch It's more difficult to maintain honor than to become prosperous A man may live after losing his life but not after losing his honor Honour is more precious than gold Live horse and you'll get grass Hope soothes the tired heart Hope is the physician of each misery Face the sun but turn your back on the storm There's no flood that doesn't recede Do not expect more than you deserve God never sent a mouth without something with it The dogs have not eaten up the end of the year yet Good hope is better than bad intention There are fish in the tide as good as any that has been taken There's fish in the sea better than was ever caught In the end the improvement comes The night and the day are as long as ever they were The last place is worthy of the best loved The heaviest ear of corn is the one that lowest bends its head. Good humor comes from the kitchen Crying is not far away from laughter It's a good story that fills the belly. Hunger is a good sauce The mountain is a good mustard The hungry hound thinks not of her whelps Sharp is the eye of the hungry person A blessing does not fill the stomach. Talking never brought the turf home. Don't let the grass grow under your feet Better idle than working for nothing It is better to be putting knots on a straw than to be idle A foot at rest meets nothing You have the foal's share of the harrow. No ignorance in ordinance of the law. The rod impossible to twist. Do your own job and eat your own fruits. What's rent to a lord is food to a child A king's shilling is no more than a poor man's farthing. The army that attacks will not be attacked The ebb-tide won't wait for the slow man A shut fist will not catch a hawk Strike the ball when you get it on the hop Strike while the iron is hot The man without resourcefulness is no better than a pig A spur in the head is worth two on the heel In for a penny in for a pound You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb An inch is as good as a mile An Irishman carries his heart in his hand Put an Irishman on the spit and you'll find two more to turn him. An Irishman is never at peace except when he's fighting. The Irishman is impatient Don't make little of your dish for it may be an ignorant fellow who judges it. Disputation in the heel of judgment No merriment in the seat of justice. Innocent or guilty, he'll be hanged said the judge. There is little between justice and injustice. Put justice before generosity Those who made laws should not break laws. What is got badly goes badly Kerry security: bond, pledge, oath, and keep the money. Pressure of the business weakens kindness. The old hag is the better of being warmed,but the worse of being burned. One beetle recognizes another. Blood is stronger than water. One chafer knows another. One thief knows another. One Pig knows another One liar knows another. Great minds live apart, people may meet but mountains and rocks never. A blind dog won't bark at the moon.
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