Irish Toasts
I admit I am captivated by the
Irish and their ways - not only their
language, which is
unpronounceable (or least
unreadable), or their
religion which is so
pervasive and
restrictive, or their
climate which is too
damp and often
chilly. It's often been said that the Irish have an
weakness for
drink, but a drap of
poteen is required by the language for an authentic
accent, by their religion to cope with
sexual frustrations and by their climate to keep out the
cold. Too, the Irish have a treasury of
toasts that keep the
elbow bent those long evenings. Here are a few of them:
- May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies, quick to make friends. But rich or poor, quick or slow, may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.
- May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be toward us.
- May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
- May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.
- May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas.
- St. Patrick was a gentleman who through strategy and stealth drove all the snakes from Ireland. Here's a toasting to his health. But not too many toastings lest you loose yourself and then forget the good St. Patrick and see all those snakes again.
- Here's to you and yours and to mine and ours and if mine and ours ever come across you and yours I hope you and yours will do as much for mine and ours as mine and ours have done for you and yours.
- 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.
- Here's that we may always have a clean shirt a clean conscience and a guinea in our pocket.
- Here's a health to your enemies' enemies.
- Here's health and prosperity to you and all your posterity and them that doesn't drink with sincerity that they may be damned for all eternity.
- Rye bread will do you good. Barley bread will do you no harm. Wheaten bread will sweeten your blood. Oaten bread will strengthen your arm.
- May you live to be a hundred years with one extra year to repent.
- Health and long life to you, the woman of your choice to you, a child every year to you, land without rent to you and may you die in Ireland.
- May the grass grow long on the road to hell for want of use.
- May the lord keep you in his hand and never close his fist too tight on you.