Erin go Bragh

I've been saying "Erin go Bragh" my whole life and knew that it meant roughly "Ireland Forever!".

It's actually an anglicized version of the Irish language phrase "Éire go brách" or "Eire go bráth," which may be translated as "Ireland till doomsday".

The term brách is equivalent to "eternity" or "end of time", meaning the phrase may be translated literally as "Ireland until eternity" or "Ireland to the end (of time)". Éire go Bráth (or Éirinn go Bráth) is also used in Irish and means the same thing. Go is a preposition, translatable as "to", "till/until", "up to".

(Wikipedia)

go brách

Alteration of go bráth (literally “until Judgment [Day]”), from go (“until”) + bráth (“judgment, Judgment Day”), from Proto-Celtic *brātus (“judgment”); compare Welsh brawd. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic gu bràth and Manx dy bragh.

(Wikipedia)

Happy St. Paddy's Day, everybody!    <Pádraig

 

Selected readings

• "Pulmonic ingressive" (2/28/25)
• "Affected brogue" (12/19/24)
• "Brogue" (11/10/19)
• "Hiberno-English on the rise" (12/22/22)
• "Irish accents" (8/13/23)