IRISH WISDOM, WISDOM, BLESSINGS

IRISH WISDOM, WISDOM, BLESSINGS - Quotes from the papers of Tom "Grandpa" Glennon

“Health and life to you,
Land without rent to you,
A woman of you choice to you,
A child every year to you,
A wet beak [i.e., may you not lack for a drink],
And may you die in Ireland!”

THE GALWAY SONG
“May the blessing of God be upon you
The blessing of the father and the son
And may the spirit of peace
The spirit of love
Be with you all your days . . . . . . . . .”

TOP O’ THE MORNIN’
“O Ireland, isn’t it grand you look -
Like a bride in her rich adornin’?
With all the pent-up love in my heart
I bid you top o’ the mornin’!  --John Locke

“… it is clear that for a stranger the Irish ways are the pleasantest, for here he is at once made happy and at home.”  --William Makepeace Thackeray - about 1837

“… nowhere are friendship and kindness lavished more freely on the stranger.  The thought of these people will warm us for all our years.  Even the memory of ‘that soft Irish weather.’” 
--Jill & Leon Uris--from their book “IRELAND-A Terrible Beauty--1975

“Now and in time to be
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”  --William Butle Yeats “Easter 1916”

“The late Louis Briscoe, popular mayor of Dublin, was once called upon to welcome a visiting foreign dignitary.  ‘Your Excellency,’ declared Mayor Briscoe, brining broadly, ‘we welcome you to Ireland in the nave of our 28 million inhabitants, 23 million of whom are in the United States…’”

“100,000 welcomes = cead mil failte cawd meel fawltya”

“Would God above send down the dove with wings as sharp as razors.  And cut the throats of the English dogs who shoot our Irish leaders.” 
--Liam O’Flaherty “Shake Hands with the Devil”

“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.”

“The Irish, like the presence of God, are to be found everywhere.”  --Pope Pius XI

“You are our hop, St. Patrick, great Patriarch of Ireland.” 
--start of hymn of praise to St. Patrick

“If you’re lucky enough to be Irish you’re lucky enough.”

“May the roof of your house never fall in and may the people inside - never fall out.”