Hi again all.
In need of your help once again.
My wife's mothers headstone is ready to be engraved and would like the "REST IN PEACE " In Gaeilge.
My wife is from BALLINTOY Co ANTRIM and that's where her mother is buried and lived all her life.
Her Father is still alive and one day will join her in the same plot.
So the "REST IN PEACE " Would neither be male or female if that's the correct way of saying it.
Because of them being from Antrim I'm thinking of Ulster Irish.
Please could you help us out as the headstone is ready to be errected very soon ( 2nd anniversary is the first week of Febuary but engraving is meant to be finalised on Monday 21st of this month) Thank you and hope to hear from some of you soon.
All the best, Eamon

The usual translation is Suaimhneas síoraí dá hanam
lit. "eternal rest to her soul"


But "dá hanam" (to her soul) can be used only for a female person.
(dá anam for males, dá n-anam for more than one person).

So I'd recommend to leave out the "dá hanam" part
(You could add "dá n-anam" later when her husband is dead, too).

Thanks Labhrás for the fast reply.
My sister in law has the following ready for proofing but not sure it is right for a headstone that will eventually be for a male and female.
Would like REST IN PEACE so wouldn't have to worry about using PLURAL OR MALE OR FEMALE if that makes sense.
Thank you

Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam (hanam, n-anam)
lit. "At the right hand/side of God shall be his soul"

Dé (God) upper case

Same problem here:
a anam = his soul
a hanam = her soul
a n-anam = their soul

But here you can't leave anything out.

Thanks again.
Looks like there is no option for just REST IN PEACE?

The sister in law also got the following for REST IN PEACE from the man making the headstone

An chuid éile i síocháin.....
I did a bit of digging about that one and it seemed An Chuid would mean "rest" as in the REST of the people not rest as in sleep.
Thank you so much for your help so far.
It's looking like they may have to leave it off the headstone untill there Father is reunited with their mother.

I had already recommended
Suaimhneas síoraí

suaimhneas: peace, tranquillity; quietness, rest. (both rest and peace in one word )
síoraí: eternal



Yes, an chuid eile: "the other part"

Cheers Labhrás.
One last thing. They would not be able to "leave off" any words as it would leave the spacing of the txt look odd and not symmetrical.
So what about ......Sos sa tsíochain...?????
I saw this in a few obituaries.
Would that work as rest in peace?

Very symmetrical.
(You can make it shorter by using a dot: suaiṁneas síoraí)



Hmm, that's a rather terrible verbatim translation from English, not idiomatic.
sos sa tsíocháin = a rest in the peace
sos means rest - but in the sense of a break, pause from work
síocháin is peace - but rather in the sense of absence of war or fight

So, it could mean "a pause in the absence of war" or shorter: a war

And furthermore: sos is a noun, a rest - not a verb in imperative mood as is "rest in peace!" in English.
Suaimhneas is a noun, too. But because this is an idiomatic expression it is understood as a shortened version of
Go raibh suaimhneas síoraí dá n-anam "May there be eternal rest for their souls" or something similar.

Thank you so much I have stated that there is no literal translation for REST IN PEACE to my sister in law, so I'd imagine they will leave it off untill there Father ( my Father in law) passes away.
Thanks for all your help in this.
This forum has been extremely helpful to me every time I have posted a question.
Also it has made me do some homework in trying to find the answers myself.
There must be a lot of graves with heartfelt messages on but not gramatically correct.
What people don't know won't hurt them but when it comes to things that are written in stone it's best to try and find the right words.
All the best and thanks again

Sorry for you loss.


I agree with Labhrás.

You can't expect idioms in one language to be the same as another.
Suaimhneas síoraí - sounds nicer too.

As Labhrás explained adding pronouns are problematic in Irish if you want to change to plural later.