Irish Blessings

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

As has become my tradition, I offer, gentle readers, a multitude of Irish blessings, prayers and quotations for your St. Patrick's Day pleasure. Erin go bragh!

"May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be toward us."

"May the good Lord take a liking to you... but not too soon!"

"May you always have a clean shirt, a clean conscience, and a guinea in your pocket!"

Deep peace of the running waves to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the smiling stars to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you.

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

~ Gaelic prayer

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door."

God bless the poor,

God bless the sick,

God bless our human race;

God bless our food,

God bless our drink

And our homes, O God, embrace.

~ St. Brigid of Kildare, 6th century Irish cleric

Calm be thy sleep as infants' slumbers!

Pure as angel thoughts thy dreams!

May every joy this bright world numbers

Shed o'er thee their mingled beams!

~ Thomas Moore, Irish songwriter (1779-1852)

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

"Bless you and yours as well as the cottage you live in. May the roof overhead be well hatched and those inside be well matched."

"May there be a generation of children on the children of your children."

Health and a long life to you.

Land without rent to you.

A child every year to you.

And if you can't go to heaven,

May you at least die in Ireland.

If ever I'm a money'd man, I mean, please God, to cast

My golden anchor in the place where youthful years were pass'd

Though heads that bow are black and brown must meanwhile gather grey

New faces rise by every hearth, and old ones drop away--

Yet dearer still that Irish hill than all the world beside;

It's home, sweet home, where'er I roam, through lands and waters wide.

And if the Lord allows me, I surely will return

To my native Ballyshannon, and the winding banks of Erne.

~ William Allingham, Irish poet (1824-1889)

I will rise and go now, for always

Night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low

Sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on

The pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

~ W.B. Yeats, Irish writer and statesman (1865-1939)

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go."

Ireland,

it's the one place on earth

that heaven has kissed

with melody, mirth,

and meadow and mist.