Hello all, I wondered if you could help me.
My father passed away last week, and his funeral is next Tuesday. I've written the eulogy and wanted to end it with two lines in Irish - Dad was from Galway and Mum from Fermoy, and both spoke a little Irish although had forgotten much of it, but I thought Dad would have appreciated the sentiment and there will be other Irish speakers at the mass.

The two lines I was going to use were:
Go lonraí solas na bhFlaitheas ar d'uaigh
Go soilsí aoibh Dé ar neamh thú

I understand these to mean:
"May the light of heaven shine on your grave"
and
"May the smile of God light you to glory"

Phonetically I have tried to work them out and come up with this:
Goh lun-ree solus na bla-hass airj d-oo-a
Goh syul-shee eve day airj ne-av hu

If anyone can spare a second to look them over can you let me know
1. Are my translations accurate?
2. Is there anything wrong with the phonetics
3. In your opinion (in the context of using it at the end of a eulogy) is it appropriate?

Any help would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

Kieran

Hi your very welcome to the forum Kieran, very sorry to hear of your loss. I know Fermoy quite well, coincidentally I am just back from a rugby match in Fermoy.

To get the ball rolling!



These are nice translations you have here. However, as your father was from Galway we may be able to get you some dialectal alternatives, so hold out a bit longer- we need three to agree on a translation before it can be authorised, see forum rules.

The second option:

Go soilsí aoibh Dé ar neamh thú

Although aoibh can mean smile its used more to mean humour/ temper i.e Dea-aoibh good humour, droch-aoibh bad humour. I think its clear which aoibh i.e humour, is being talked about here so I do not think its overally ambiguous and I kind of like it (wait for a second or third opinion on that first).

However, neamh means Heaven not glory. But I think its still a lovely translation and the sentiment is there, its a bit difficult to translate it literally into English.

I would take the second sentence to mean:

May the humour/"smile" of God illuminate you (your way) in heaven

miongháire or meangadh would be the more usual words for smile; aoibh may be common for smile in other dialects? If so that would be grand.

Another option would be:

Go dtreoraí grásta Dé ar neamh thú

May the grace of God guide you in heaven

Have you considered a font? (the Cló Gaelach is quite nice):

i.e.

Go lonraí solas na ḃFlaitheas ar d'uaiġ



There's always difficulty with using English phonetics/ phonemes because your interpretation of the letters may be totally different to mine. Bla-has is definitely wrong for all dialects. In Munster Irish its more like vfla-has.

I don't know whether you are familiar with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The best thing we can do is probably give you a recording when we have something nailed down.




Oh I see, its a eulogy, apologies, I thought it was an epitaph. You can disregard the cló Gaelach font that I have given you above. Yes these would be very appropriate.

A more common/ traditional eulogy saying at an Irish funeral would be:

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

All the best,

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Hi Kieran, sorry for your loss.

The weekends can be quiet around here. I have 'stickied' your thread to keep it at the top of the list for the next couple of days as obviously time is of the essence for your request. This should help people to notice it a little more.

Saoirse

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I agree


I think in that context in English "glory" means "heaven" anyhow.



I'd go with "aoibh" as it sounds more poetic.
I think "gáire" and "miongháire" are best used in humour situations.


But once you are in Heaven do you still need guidance?

what about -
Go dtreoraí grásta Dé go neamh thú.

or if you prefer the original -

Go soilsí aoibh Dé do bhealach go neamh.


And sorry for your loss, go ndíona Dia grásta air d'athair.

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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Those look very nice, a Bhríd. Just for clarification for the original poster, here's what they mean (in context) with my rough amateur phonetic versions, since no one has done a sound file yet:

Go dtreoraí grásta Dé go neamh thú.
May the grace of God guide you to heaven.
"guh DRYOH-ree GRAW-stuh dyay guh nyav hoo"

Go soilsí aoibh Dé do bhealach go neamh.
May the smile of God light your way to heaven.
"guh SULL-shee eev dyay duh VAY-lukh guh nyav hoo"

Corrected as per Lughaidh's message (I left a couple of words out in my second set of phonetic sounds). His other comment I assume refers to several words which would be pronounced differently in Ulster. I am actually more used to Uster pronunciation myself (though it's not as good as his), but since you mentioned Kerry I went with a more Munster pronunciation (as best I can produce it).

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

you did a copy-and-paste without correcting the end: pronunciation of "do bhealach go neamh".
I won't give the pronunciation here because I don't pronounce like you

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Go soilsí aoibh Dé do bhealach go neamh.
. .


Go dtreoraí grásta Dé go neamh thú.
. .


Go lonraí solas na bhFlaitheas ar d'uaigh.
. .


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
. .

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Just to say a huge thank you to everyone for your helpful replies - and a special thanks to Brid for the sound files. I decided to use the last two of those, with one of the original lines I was planning on using and the more traditional "Ar dheis…"

On another note, this brief foray into the Irish language has sparked off another dormant but longstanding desire of mine to actually try and learn more than just the (very) small number of words I know, so who knows - you may see more of me around here in the future!

Thanks again everyone

Hi Kieran. We look forward to seeing you again in the future so you can expand on the cúpla focal. You have been officially 'unstickied'!

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