I was thinking that same thing myself.

Or perhaps Franc's idea was to find a similar sentiment expressed in an Irish saying. A saying about resilience when the s*** hits the fan? Outside of my expertise, but interesting idea.

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Ah yes that would be a different idea, I thought he was wanting that one phrase translated.

I'm going to try and see if this works -

It's the way with the women, you never know how strong they are until they have been put to the test.

Is é an nós lena mná, ní bhíonn a fhios agat riamh cé chomh láidir atá iad go triail a chur orthu.

The other saying that I found, which doesn't have quite the same meaning, is -

Men are like potatoes - they do not know how soon they may be in hot water.

As far as I can see, there isn't really a direct equivalent of 'how soon' in Irish so I've used the word 'nuair' instead. Here's my attempt at it -

Is iad na fir cosúil lena prátaí - níl a fhios acu nuair go mbeidís in uisce an-te.

a thúisce would translate 'how soon'.

Is cosmhail le prátaí atá na fir,/Is ionann agus prátaí na fir (etc.), níl a fhios acu/ní heol dóibh a thúisce a bheidh siad i n-uisce te.
Something along those lines ?

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(SL)(GM)

Here's another one - obviously as I said earlier, the idea isn't necessarily to translate it word for word, but to come up with something that could be an equivalent Irish expression if that would seem to be more natural -

"It is impossible to enjoy idling unless there is plenty of work to do." - Jerome K. Jerome

Ní féidir sult a bhaint as bheith díomhaoin mura bhfuil a lán oibre le déanamh.

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(SL)(GM)

Go raibh maith agat.

1. Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.
2 O'Tool's Commentry on Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist.