Óóó...tá sé sin go hálainn ar fad! Maith thú!

Redwolf

Naw - don't like it at all. Where's the word for 'brave'?

Ok, only joking - a lovely translation indeed.

Braoin, sounds like we have a winner. Ach go raibh maith agaibh uiligh for the help here.

An interesting insight into adjective/nouns like "na cróga" -- something like "na boicht" would surely be seen written, so it does make sense that "na cróga" would follow the same format.

Finally, going with:

Uaigneach í an bhearna bhaoil. = Lonely are the brave.
(Although for anyone reading this later, it's more trans-literated [if that's the word], rather than being a direct literal translation).

Not transliterated...that's what you get when you write something in the alphabet of another language (for example, if Russian or Arabic or Japanese were written using Roman letters, but otherwise untranslated).

I'd call it a concept translation or a poetic translation. If I recall correctly, your friend is Irish, so he'll probably recognize "Bearna Bhaoil," but if this were for an American I think I'd go into some explanation about "standing [alone] in the gap."

Redwolf

(Replying late, sorry for the bump).

Ah, poetic translation sounds right then.

Actually, he's neither American nor Irish, so I've explained to him a bit about the background of the phrase. Thanks for the help, go raibh maith agat