Colm O'Regan: For all their faults, we still cleave to sayings that have lasted hundreds of years

You would wonder about the so-called bardic geniuses who came up with these seanfhocail. It feels like it was just lads sitting on ditches watching everyone go by

Colm O'Regan: 'Generally, if you’re a woman in proverbs, you don’t fare well. Cashman and Gaffney’s book lists numerous women to be wary of or things that are generally their fault. There is also a suspicion of cats, clergy and the Devil.'

It mightn’t seem like it now, but spring is on the way. And with it, young women and men’s thoughts turn to one thing: Learning off Irish phrases for the exam.

The air will be blue with the nathanna cainte, the sun splitting the stones, the alarming wind-speed with which you ran, the streets so crowded it was Black With People.