Irish Blessings

One thing I loved growing up in a huge Irish family was the blessings they would make. Imagine being in a house with my dad’s eight brothers and sisters, their significant others, and each of them with 3-4 kids each. It is chaos. The weird thing is that it never felt crazy to us, it felt normal. I loved getting together with all of my cousins and just run around outside. It is funny that is normal to me, but this Saturday we were talking about having four families over with their kids, and I was thinking there is no way we could handle all of those kids. I guess that is just not normal so it feels weird.

Throughout all of these crazy, very loud family parties, I always had one favorite part. That was the blessings they would say before dinner. They were always silly Irish blessings that all of the adults would know, but none of the kids would. I don’t even recall any of them, but I remember them saying them like they were yesterday. One person would begin the blessing, and the rest of my aunts and uncles would all chime in word for word. They all had some silly ending to them. I didn’t understand it when I was younger, but I miss it now that I am older. I don’t get to see this side of the family much anymore, so the times we do, I cherish these Irish blessings.

Here is an example of one:

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! I hope you have a drink or three in this nice weather!