Irish Blessings

Irish Blessings posts cover the short rhymed prayers and well-wishes drawn from Catholic Ireland and the older Gaelic tradition. Articles look at the most familiar piece beginning May the road rise to meet you, the Saint Patrick’s Breastplate with its Christ before me and Christ behind me lines, the wedding blessings used at modern Catholic ceremonies, the funeral and graveside prayers, and the very short table grace before meals. There are also notes on the original Irish-language sources for many of the rhymes and on which ones are genuinely traditional versus written for the souvenir trade in the twentieth century.