Hello All,

I'm new to this forum and joined because I have recently started sorting through some of my deceased grandmother's belongings. She seemed to write notes on just about everything, but she did so in her first language, which I've been told is Gaelic. However, I don't know which dialect. She came to America with her parents when she was about 6 years old. She had advanced alzheimer's when she passed and would randomly start speaking Gaelic to me like I could understand.

The most common note I've seen so far is "Taeghlach thar gach rud" in the margins of several pages of what looks like a family tree. I think "Taeghlach" means family, but I don't understand the rest. Can anyone please translate this phrase for me? Thank you in advance for your consideration

Well, to begin with, it's badly misspelled.

"Teaghlach thar gach rud" is probably intended to mean "family above all," but if we're talking about your grandmother, and if she really was a native Irish speaker, it would be a pretty odd way to say it (assuming she'd say it at all...it's actually a pretty American thing to say).
"Teaghlach" typically means something more along the lines of "household." And "thar gach ní," or "thar gach uile ní" would make a lot more sense than "thar gach rud."

Wait for more.

Redwolf

Thank you for the reply. I found this mostly on what my great-uncle said was like a coloring book. There were several different spellings and many were all-together illegible. I'm still sifting through many of her things that have been in boxes for decades. I don't understand what "household above all" would mean to her. Thanks again!

Thank you. So, my great-uncle wasn't far off when he told me it meant something like "Home First" there's a barely visible scribble that I think reads "Teaghlaigh ar dtús". I may not be reading it correctly, but it is almost directly below one of the mispelled versions of the above phrase.
Hopefully the next box will have more interesting notes. Thank you, Redwolf for your help so far.

The first one means home/family above everything, and the second one means home/family first.

Considering that she left Ireland at age 6, it's no surprise that she didn't have good spelling. She would be writing the way a child writes, or even basing her spelling on American-English. Depending on her age, she could have left Ireland before Irish spellings were standarised anyway.

One important thing: make sure it's Irish Gaelic and not Scottish Gaelic.

_________________
Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Thank you to Redwolf, mm3136, and CaoimhinSF for linking me to this discussion. Being that my 18 year old is tattooing this phrase, "family first", in his grandmother's memory WE DO WANT TO GET IT RIGHT. Please ... any help refining and getting it right is so greatly appreciated. My mother was from County Down and our whole family, both sides, from grandparents backward hail from Ireland. Is this correct:
"Teaghlaigh Chéad"

Sincere appreciation, Rosemary from GTA (Toronto area) Canada

No...that absolutely is NOT correct. Don't know who gave it to you, but they've used the wrong case for "teaghlach" and the word that means "first in a sequence" (and lenited it for some unknown reason)

I would lean toward "Teaghlach thar gach uile ní," but wait for others to weigh in on that.

Redwolf

It strikes me as really weird to use teaghlach here. Surely there's a seanfhocal that expresses this sentiment more naturally.

If there is, we haven't found it in the at least 12 years I've been seeing this request on discussion boards. Now that "None but God may judge me" seems to have fallen off the radar, it seems to be the most commonly made tattoo request among men (women's requests still seem to be leaning toward "Live, Laugh, Love")

I think it might be better to put a possessive adjective in front of it, though: "Mo theaghlach...".

Looking in the dictionary, I've found a few phrases that express this idea, but they all seem to be quite long, especially if it's for a tattoo. Teaghlach is the most commonly used word in this context, as far as I can see.

My family comes first.

Tá tús áite ag mo theaghlach is í mo chlann an chloch is mó ar mo phaidrín.
Is é mo theaghlach is tábhactaí.

My family are more important to me than anything else.

Is tábhactaí liom mo theaghlach ná aon rud eile.
Tá mo theaghlach níos tábhachtaí agam ná rud ar bith eile.

Family comes first and so it ought.

Tá tús áite ag an teaghlach, agus is amhlaidh ba ceart dó bheith.

Perhaps this might help ? (I'm hoping that this conveys a suitable image of a Gallic shrug of the shoulders)