Irish or not, as the saying goes “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day“.
You may decide to skip the corned beef and cabbage, and hopefully any desire to dress like a Leprechaun. Instead, give that special someone a shamrock for good luck, and opt to celebrate with a Guinness, or a pint of green beer at your favorite pub.
However you choose to celebrate, grab your best green outfit and responsibly enjoy the day.
St. Patrick’s Day Quotes, Blessings & Toasts:
Irish Blessings & Toasts:
May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows your dead.
May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.
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!
Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.
May you always have a clean shirt, a clear conscience, and enough coins in your pocket to buy a pint!
May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be towards us.
May neighbours respect you,
Trouble neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And heaven accept you.
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.
May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.
May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never catch up.
May you have food and raiment, a soft pillow for your head. May you be forty years in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead.
May your mornings bring joy
and your evenings bring peace…
May your troubles grow less
as your blessings increase!
Sayings:
Saint 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 lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.
‘Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!’
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
No wonder that those Irish lads
Should be so gay and frisky,
For sure St. Pat he taught them that,
As well as making whiskey.
So success attend St. Patrick’s fist,
For he’s a saint so clever;
O, he gave the snakes and toads a twist
And bothered them forever!
– HENRY BENNETT, Irish author and performer. In Famous Single and Fugitive
Poems
St. Patrick’s day no more we’ll keep
his color can’t be seen,
For there’s a bloody law agin’
the wearin’ of the green.
– ANONYMOUS, “Wearin’ of the Green.”
The Shamrock is said to be worn by the Irish upon the anniversary of this Saint, for the following reason. When the Saint preached the Gospel to the Pagan Irish, he illustrated the doctrine of the Trinity by showing them a tre-foil, or three-leave grass with one stalk, which operating to their conviction, the Shamrock, which is a bundle of this grass, was ever afterwards worn up-on this Saint’s anniversary, to commemorate the event.
– JOHN BRAND (1744–1806), English antiquarian.
But wherefore lament o’er those glories departed?
Her star will yet shine with as vivid a ray!
For ne’er had she children more brave or true-hearted
Than those she sees on St. Patrick’s Day.
– M. J. BARRY (d. 1889), Irish poet.
The Irish people would be willing to give up a good many things before
they would give up their celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
– J. WALKER MCSPADDEN (1874–1960), U.S. author and editor. The Book of Holi-
days (1917).
Craving the good saint’s forgiveness, I ask you to rise and drink, in
uncharitable ice water, to the immortal memory of Saint Patrick.
– JOSEPH B. ROGERS, U.S. jurist.
It’s a great day for the Shamrock
for the flags in full array.
And as we go a-swinging,
ev’ry Irish heart is singing:
It’s a great, great day.
– ROGER EDENS (1905–1970), U.S. composer
The observance of St. Patrick’s Day is almost as old in America as the
Irish themselves. And some say they arrived in the sixth century.
– JOHN F. KENNEDY (1917–1963), U.S. president.
Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche
and warming and transforming Irish imagination—making it more humane
and more noble while keeping it Irish.
– THOMAS CAHILL (b. 1940), U.S. author and historian. How the Irish Saved
Civilization (1995).
Outside Ireland there is a compulsion to “show the flag” and be seen to
be celebrating on Saint Patrick’s Day which does not exist at home. At home,
ironically, it still feels like a new Bank Holiday, held at an awkward time of
year, on which, unless you intend to get well and truly plastered, or stay
slumped in front of the television absorbing the relentlessly Irish flavour
which dominates the day’s programming, it is difficult to think of anything
much to do.
– ALANNAH HOPKIN (b. 1949), Irish journalist and author. The Living Legend of
St. Patrick (1989).
The St. Patrick’s Day parade, once a defiant show of strength against
Protestant power, gradually declined into a pointless annual march of aging
suburbanites and drunken collegians staggering along in funny hats.
JOHN LEO, U.S. journalist and commentator. “Of Famine and Green Beer,”
Irish Proverbs:
Life:
There is no luck except where there is discipline.
It takes time to build castles.
There are no unmixed blessings in life.
God’s help is nearer than the door.
Live, horse, and you will get grass.
Patience is a poultice for all wounds.
The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot.
Drinking and Alcohol
It is sweet to drink but bitter to pay for.
When the drop is inside the sense is outside.
What butter or whiskey does not cure cannot be cured.
A drink precedes a story.
Good as drink is, it ends in thirst.
Children, Marriage and Women:
Your son is your son until he marries, but your daughter is your daughter until you die.
Empty and cold is the house without a woman.
The only cure for love is marriage.
Two shorten the road.
Money and Wealth:
A little, often, leaves wrinkles in the purse.
The well-fed does not understand the lean.
A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle.
A tune is more lasting than the song of the birds,
And a word more lasting than the wealth of the world.
May you get all your wishes but one,
so that you will always have something to strive for.
