Article Summary
What this article covers: Irish blessings organised by the occasion they are used for, covering funerals and memorial cards, farewells and emigration, retirement, travel and everyday parting, each with the Irish original where one exists.
Who this is for: Anyone looking for the right words for a mass card, a graveside, a retirement speech or a going-away card, and readers who want the Irish alongside the English rather than instead of it.
Key takeaway: The Irish word is beannacht. A blessing asks something for a person, which is what separates it from a proverb that states something and a toast that celebrates something. Most of the ones people search for are used at funerals.
Expert insight:
The one I hear most is slán abhaile, and almost never from anyone trying to be traditional about it. It gets said at petrol stations and on doorsteps in Donegal without a thought. That is what keeps a blessing alive, people using it because it is the ordinary thing to say.
Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove
Quick facts:
- Beannacht is the Irish for a blessing, from the same root as the Latin benedictio
- Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam is the standard Irish blessing for the dead, used at almost every Irish funeral
- There is no traditional Irish retirement blessing. The road blessing is what gets used instead
Table of Contents
Most people arrive at Irish blessings needing one thing quickly. A line for a mass card. Something to say at a graveside. A few words for a leaving card that are not the same words everyone else uses.
So this guide to Irish blessings is organised by occasion rather than by how old each one is. Where an Irish original exists, it is given with a pronunciation guide. Where the blessing is an English composition dressed up as ancient tradition, that is said plainly. A good deal of what circulates online as traditional Irish blessings was written for greeting cards in the last century.
The death and funeral section comes first. That is what most people are looking for, and ConnollyCove would rather put it at the top than make anybody scroll past retirement toasts to reach it.
What Is an Irish Blessing?
Irish blessings are spoken wishes for another person’s protection, health or safe passage, usually invoking God. The Irish word is beannacht, and it shares a root with the Latin benedictio, which tells you how much of the tradition arrived with Christianity.
The distinction that matters in practice is between three things people mix up constantly.
Blessing, proverb or toast
A blessing asks for something on someone’s behalf: may the road rise, may his soul be at God’s right hand. A proverb states something about how the world works. A toast raises a glass. They overlap, and sláinte does duty as all three depending on the room, but the difference tells you which one you need.
If you want the second category rather than this one, our guide to Irish proverbs and seanfhocail sets them out with the Irish and the translation side by side.
Why Ireland produced so many
Two things. The oral culture of the seanchaí treated the spoken word as something that did work in the world rather than merely describing it. That tradition is covered in our look at the craft of Irish storytelling. And emigration made parting permanent.
For most of the nineteenth century, leaving Ireland meant leaving for good. Families held what became known as American Wakes, gatherings run like funerals because the person departing was, in every practical sense, gone. Our account of Irish history covers the Famine decades that made this routine. Irish blessings carry that weight because they were built for goodbyes that were final.
Irish Blessings for Death and Funerals
This is the largest group of Irish blessings and the most used. They ask God’s mercy for the person who has died and comfort for those left behind. You will find them on mass cards, memorial booklets, headstones and death notices.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam Translation: May his soul be at God’s right hand. Pronunciation: er HYESH day guh rev uh AH-num For a woman: Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.
This is the one. If you need a single line in Irish for a card, a notice or a headstone, use this. God’s right hand is the position of honour, and the phrase is said aloud at Irish graveside services so routinely that nobody explains it.
Two shorter ones that get used in conversation rather than ceremony:
Go ndéana Dia trócaire air May God have mercy on him. Uirthi for her. Pronunciation: guh NAY-nuh DEE-uh TROH-kir-uh er
Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam Eternal peace to his soul. More formal, more common in written tributes. Pronunciation: SOO-iv-nyas SHEER-ee daw AH-num
The Eternal Rest prayer
Alongside the Irish-language blessings sits the Catholic prayer for the faithful departed, which is what you will actually hear at most Irish funeral masses:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
It is liturgical rather than specifically Irish, but it is so embedded in Irish funeral practice that leaving it out of any list of Irish blessings would be misleading.
Short Irish blessings for a mass card or memorial
Card wording is its own problem, because the space is small and the longer blessings do not fit. These work:
- Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Six words in Irish, and the most appropriate thing you can write.
- Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam. Slightly more formal.
- May his memory be a blessing to all who knew him.
- Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand. The closing line of the road blessing, which works alone.
One that circulates everywhere and is worth knowing about: May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. Saint Patrick, behold you. It reads as traditional and it is not. No early source has been established for it and the phrasing is modern. Use it if you like it, but do not describe it as ancient.
Irish sayings about death
These sit beside the blessings as a separate tradition, shorter and more aphoristic, used for comfort at wakes.
Níl na mairbh marbh ach beo i gcroí na ndaoine a ghráigh iad The dead are not dead but alive in the hearts of those who loved them.
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. The most searched-for of all of them, and the one printed on memorial cards worldwide. Its origins are unclear. It is called an old Irish proverb almost everywhere it appears and no early Irish-language source has been found for it, so treat it as part of the tradition rather than an ancient part of it.
The wake itself is where most of this language lives, and our guide to the Irish wake covers the three days and what happens across them.
For music, the two most requested at Irish memorials are Danny Boy and the story behind it and Amazing Grace.
ConnollyCove has a full history of the Amazing Grace hymn if you are choosing between them.
Irish Farewell Blessings
Irish farewell blessings ask for protection on a journey rather than mercy for a soul, and they are shorter and less formal than the funeral group. Two of them do most of the work.
May the road rise to meet you
May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
The best known of all Irish blessings, and the one used at retirement speeches, emigration send-offs and formal farewells. A note on its Irish, because this gets misrepresented. Go n-éirí an bóthar leat (guh NYE-ree un BOH-her lyat) means “may the road rise with you”, and it corresponds to the first line only. The full four-line version is an English composition. There is no traditional Irish-language original of the whole thing.
People sometimes query “wind at your back” on the grounds that a following wind means you are walking away. In the tradition it simply means the journey should be easy, the wind working for you rather than against.
Slán abhaile
Slán abhaile Safe home. Pronunciation: slawn uh-WAL-yeh
Not a goodbye. A wish that the person reaches their own door safely, and the single most used blessing in Ireland today. If someone says it to you, the reply is go raibh maith agat (thank you) or agus tú féin (and yourself).
Ways to say goodbye in Irish
Irish encodes who is leaving and who is staying, which English does not, and it is the detail learners most often get wrong.
| Phrase | Pronunciation | Meaning | Who says it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slán | slawn | Goodbye, literally safe | Anyone, everyday |
| Slán go fóill | slawn guh FOHL | Goodbye for now | Anyone, when you will meet again |
| Slán agat | slawn AH-gut | Safety with you | Said by the person leaving |
| Slán leat | slawn lyat | Safety with you | Said by the person staying |
| Slán abhaile | slawn uh-WAL-yeh | Safe home | To someone travelling home |
| Slán agus beannacht | slawn AH-gus BAN-ukht | Goodbye and blessing | Formal, traditional |
| Slán mo chara | slawn muh KHAH-rah | Goodbye, my friend | Warm, informal |
Our guide to saying goodbye in Irish goes further into the grammar behind agat and leat.
ConnollyCove’s account of how the Irish language developed explains why the distinction exists at all.
Irish Blessings for Retirement, Travel and Other Occasions
Worth saying plainly, because a lot of sites pretend otherwise: there are no traditional Irish blessings for retirement, graduation or travel as such. Those occasions are modern, and what people actually use is the road blessing adapted to fit. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling a printed card.
Retirement and leaving work
The road blessing is the standard choice, and the last line carries a whole speech on its own. For something shorter:
- Slán agus beannacht. Goodbye and a blessing. Three words, and genuinely traditional.
- Nár laga Dia do lámh (nawr LAG-uh DEE-uh duh lawv). May God not weaken your hand. An encouragement rather than a farewell, and a good line for someone finishing a working life.
Travel and safe journey
Go n-éirí an bóthar leat is the closest thing to a traditional Irish travel blessing, and slán abhaile covers the everyday version. Bail ó Dhia ort (bal oh YEE-uh ort), the blessing of God on you, works for a departure of any kind.
New Year, health and toasts
For New Year specifically, ConnollyCove keeps a separate collection of Irish New Year blessings, since the wording and the occasion are different enough to deserve their own page.
For health, sláinte (SLAWN-cha) is the toast, and sláinte mhaith (SLAWN-cha wah) is good health. Neither is strictly one of the Irish blessings, but both get asked about. The best known Irish toast of all has a blessing’s shape and a joke’s content: may you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead. That pairing of warmth and dark humour runs through the whole tradition, and our coverage of Irish traditions has more of it.
Irish Blessings in Gaelic with Pronunciation
A note on the word first, because it changes what you are searching for. Gaelic on its own usually means Scottish Gaelic. The language spoken in Ireland is Irish, or Gaeilge. Most people searching for Irish blessings in Gaelic mean Irish, so the main Irish blessings are gathered here for reference.
| Irish | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Beannacht Dé leat | BAN-ukht day lyat | The blessing of God with you |
| Bail ó Dhia ort | bal oh YEE-uh ort | The blessing of God on you |
| Go n-éirí an bóthar leat | guh NYE-ree un BOH-her lyat | May the road rise with you |
| Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam | er HYESH day guh rev uh AH-num | May his soul be at God’s right hand |
| Go ndéana Dia trócaire air | guh NAY-nuh DEE-uh TROH-kir-uh er | May God have mercy on him |
| Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam | SOO-iv-nyas SHEER-ee daw AH-num | Eternal peace to his soul |
| Nár laga Dia do lámh | nawr LAG-uh DEE-uh duh lawv | May God not weaken your hand |
| Slán abhaile | slawn uh-WAL-yeh | Safe home |
Pronunciation varies by dialect. Munster, Connacht and Ulster Irish differ enough that a Donegal speaker and a Kerry speaker will not say ar dheis Dé identically. The guides above lean towards Connacht, which is the most widely taught. For recorded examples of blessings and prayers as they were actually spoken, the National Folklore Collection has thousands of pages of them at dúchas.ie.
Where You Will Hear Irish Blessings in Ireland
You do not have to look for Irish blessings in Ireland. They find you, usually in the least ceremonial settings, which is something ConnollyCove notices more the further west you go.
In the Gaeltacht. Irish-speaking areas in Connemara, the Aran Islands, Donegal and Kerry use slán and slán abhaile as ordinary conversation. Hearing them in a shop rather than a classroom changes how they land.
At funerals and wakes. This is where Irish blessings do their real work. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam gets said aloud at the graveside and nobody translates it. If you are in Ireland long enough to attend one, this is where the language is doing its actual job.
On doorsteps. Slán abhaile is what you get leaving a house at night anywhere in Ireland, in English-speaking areas as much as Irish-speaking ones.
At sessions and ceilis. Toasts and parting blessings cluster around the end of the night, a rhythm our guide to the ceilidh tradition sets out in more detail.
The habit itself predates Christianity. Pre-Christian Irish belief already treated departure and threshold-crossing as moments needing protection, a subject ConnollyCove covers in its guide to Celtic mythology creatures. The Christian blessing was built on something already in place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Irish blessing for someone who has died?
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam, meaning may his soul be at God’s right hand. Use a hanam for a woman. It is said at the graveside, printed on memorial cards and used in death notices across Ireland.
What is a good Irish blessing for a funeral card?
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam is the standard choice and fits the space. In English, the closing line of the road blessing works alone: until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
What is the most famous Irish blessing?
May the road rise to meet you. It is used at retirement speeches, emigration send-offs and formal farewells worldwide. Only its first line has a traditional Irish original, Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.
What does slán abhaile mean?
Safe home. It is a blessing of protection rather than a goodbye, wishing the person a safe journey until they are inside their own door. Pronounced slawn uh-WAL-yeh.
What is an Irish blessing in Gaelic?
The most used Irish blessings are Beannacht Dé leat (the blessing of God with you) and Bail ó Dhia ort (the blessing of God on you). For the dead, Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Note that Gaelic usually means Scottish Gaelic; the Irish language is Gaeilge.
Is there a traditional Irish retirement blessing?
No. Retirement is a modern occasion and no traditional Irish blessing exists for it. The road blessing is what gets used, and Slán agus beannacht works for something shorter.
What is a short Irish farewell blessing?
Slán agus beannacht, meaning goodbye and a blessing. Three words, genuinely traditional, and suitable for a card or spoken aloud.
Where does the word for blessing come from in Irish?
Beannacht, which shares a root with the Latin benedictio. The shared root reflects how much of the surviving Irish blessing tradition arrived with Christianity, layered over older beliefs about protection and departure.
Are Irish blessings religious?
Most invoke God directly, so yes in origin. That said, slán abhaile and the road blessing are used constantly by people who are not religious at all. The wish for someone’s safe passage survives the theology it came wrapped in.
Irish blessings last because people keep using them. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam survives because it is said at every funeral, and slán abhaile survives because it is said on every doorstep. The greeting-card verses do not last, whatever they claim about their age.
If you need one line and nothing else, those two Irish blessings will carry you. For more of the language they belong to, see ConnollyCove’s guide to Irish proverbs and sayings, or watch the ConnollyCove YouTube channel for filmed guides to Irish traditions.
Do you have, or is there a list of farewell music appropriate for my fathers memorial?
Hi Jackie, sorry to hear about your loss. This article is very popular on our website – https://www.connollycove.com/danny-boy-song-lyrics-history/ and we like this list of remembrance songs and poems – hopefully of some help:
“Danny Boy” – Perhaps one of the most famous Irish ballads, traditionally sung to the tune of “Londonderry Air.” Its themes of departure and longing make it a poignant choice for farewells.
“The Parting Glass” – An Irish traditional song often sung at the end of gatherings as a goodbye. Its lyrics speak of parting with good grace, making it a fitting tribute.
“The Fields of Athenry” – A folk ballad about the Great Irish Famine, this song, while reflective of historical hardship, is also a testament to endurance and the Irish spirit, suitable for remembering a life well-lived.
“Carrickfergus” – A beautiful, melancholy song longing for the Irish homeland. Its themes of longing and reflection can resonate deeply during a memorial service.
“She Moved Through the Fair” – This hauntingly beautiful song tells a story of love and loss, with its ethereal melody fitting for a farewell.
“Raglan Road” – Written by the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh and set to music, this song speaks of unrequited love and loss, making it a deeply emotional choice.
“The Wild Rover” – Often considered a lively drinking song, its inclusion can serve as a nod to a life lived with joy and spiritedness, celebrating the deceased’s life rather than focusing solely on mourning.
“Down by the Sally Gardens” – Based on a poem by W.B. Yeats and set to music, this song’s gentle melody and reflective lyrics make it suitable for moments of remembrance.
“Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?” (Wild Mountain Thyme) – A song of longing and the beauty of the Irish landscape, its uplifting melody can bring a sense of peace and comfort.
“Farewell to Ireland” – An instrumental piece that can evoke deep emotions and nostalgia, suitable for reflection on one’s heritage and life journey.
“Spancil Hill” – A traditional Irish ballad that tells the story of dreaming of returning to one’s homeland, filled with personal reflections and memories.
“Mo Ghile Mear” – A traditional Irish song that means “My Gallant Darling,” expressing longing and admiration, it can serve as a touching farewell.
Each of these songs carries its own unique sentiment and historical depth, offering a way to connect to Irish heritage while commemorating a loved one’s passing.