Bon Appétit's 10 Best Irish Toasts for St. Patrick's Day
For the secular amongst us not entirely familiar with Ireland's patron saint, Patrick, or what he may or may not have done with a slew of serpents in the 5th century, St. Paddy's Day is an excuse to wear clover-colored clothing and get royally crocked. I could do without the obligatory 4 a.m. stupefied whooping and viridian vomit, however, this holiday is a good time to celebrate Irish culture.
Just after Bono and the Blarney Stone, Ireland is known for the convivial wit of its toasts. Here are ten great ones to which you may clink your pints of stout.
1/ Lend me ten dollars and I'll buy you a drink.
2/ Here's to absent friends and here's twice to absent enemies.
3/ May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead.
4/ Morning is the time to pity the sober; it's the best they'll feel all day.
5/ Here's to a wet night and a dry morning.
6/ Never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
7/ Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain
With grammar and nonsense and learning;
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain
Give genius a better discerning
8/ Saint Patrick was a gentlemen
Who, through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland--
Here's a bumper to his health,
But not too many bumpers,
Less we lose ourselves and then
Forget the good St. Patrick
And see the snakes again!
9/ Within this goblet, rich and deep, I cradle all my woes to sleep.
10/ Beimedh a gole! (Let us be drinking!)
Sources:
Na Gael, Shane.Irish Toasts. New York: Dodge Publshing Co, 1908. Print.
Roberts, Jason S., ed.Irish Blessings, Toasts, & Traditions. Dublin: Mercier, 1993. Print.
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