Traditional Irish Gifts For Every Occasion

The classic traditional Irish gifts are a Claddagh ring for love, silver for a new baby and a St Brigid’s cross for a new home. When someone dies, the custom is a Mass card. Aran knits, Irish crystal, Belleek and Irish books suit almost any occasion. Below I sort them by occasion and separate old customs from shop stories.

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Buying traditional Irish gifts is easy. Buying one with a bit of meaning behind it takes a little more thought.

Most gift sites call every item “ancient”. Some are. Plenty were dreamt up in a shop a few decades ago.

So this guide goes occasion by occasion, with the custom behind each gift and whether it has an old record. If you’re shopping for December, I have a separate list of Irish Christmas gifts.

Jump to:

Irish wedding gifts
Gifts for a new baby or christening
Irish housewarming gifts
Birthday and St Patrick’s Day gifts
Irish gifts for Mom (or Mam)
Anniversaries
Sympathy and memorial gifts
Retirement and going-away gifts
What to know before you buy
Irish gifts to avoid
Irish gifts FAQ

Occasion	Gift	Old custom or modern?
Wedding	Claddagh ring	Old, from about 1700
Wedding	Wedding bell, magic hanky	Modern, it seems
New baby	Silver in the baby’s hand	Old, in the folklore records
New home	St Brigid’s cross, salt	Old, in the folklore records
Mother’s Day	Celtic motherhood knot	Modern design
Sympathy	Mass card	Long-standing Catholic custom

Irish wedding gifts

The Claddagh ring

If there’s one traditional Irish gift for love, it’s the Claddagh ring. The hands stand for friendship, the heart for love and the crown for loyalty.

It’s named after the Claddagh, a former fishing village just outside Galway’s walls. The name comes from the Irish cladach, “shore”.

The best-known story credits Richard Joyce, a Galway man captured by pirates in the late 1600s. He is said to have learned goldsmithing in Algiers and come home with the design.

So is it ancient Celtic? No. Britannica says the oldest known Claddagh dates from about 1700 and carries Joyce’s mark. It’s now in Galway City Museum.

I recommend ordering authentic Claddagh rings from Galway. Thomas Dillon’s Claddagh Gold on Quay Street says it has traded since 1750, and it runs a small free museum. See claddaghring.ie.

If you’d rather order from home, here’s a Biddy Murphy Claddagh ring on Amazon. Solvar, a Dublin family jeweller since 1941, also makes Claddagh rings, at solvar.com.

How to wear it and the Queen Victoria connection are in my guide to the Claddagh ring meaning. For the famous fans, see celebrities who wear the Claddagh ring.

The wedding bell and the magic hanky

Irish gift shops sell a small wedding bell for the couple. As the story goes, if a row starts, one of you rings the bell to call a truce.

Then there’s the “magic hanky”. The bride carries a lace handkerchief, and a few stitches later it becomes a christening bonnet for the first baby.

Both are lovely ideas. Neither turns up in the folklore archive or museum records, only in shops. Give them as modern customs with sweet stories, not ancient ones.

The horseshoe and a blessing

The horseshoe has a better record, though not at weddings. In the 1930s, a school in Kilcorney, Co. Cork, told the Schools’ Collection that a horseshoe found on the road was hung over the kitchen door for luck. It’s on Dúchas, the national folklore archive.

A framed blessing costs little and gets read for years. Pick one from my top 10 Irish toasts or my Irish sayings.

For bigger gifts, Belleek in Co. Fermanagh and Newbridge Silverware in Co. Kildare both have wedding collections.

Gifts for a new baby or christening

This one has a good paper trail in the folklore records. It’s silver.

A school in Granagh, Co. Limerick, told the Schools’ Collection it was customary to bring a present to a new baby. Or you could put “a bit of silver into its hand for luck”.

A Cork school, in Carrigtwohill, said the silver had to be worth at least two shillings. It added that a first baby’s clothes should be gifts, not bought.

You’ll sometimes see this called “handsel”. In the Irish folklore records, handsel was mostly a New Year custom, with money given on Handsel Monday. For a baby, just call it silver.

Today it usually comes as a christening gift. Newbridge Silverware has christening ranges, and Belleek has a new baby collection. A coin tucked into the card keeps the old custom going.

Mamó mug: Irish for granny, with pronunciation

From our own little shop

We have started making Irish-language gifts ourselves: word mugs like Mamó (granny), name prints, Christmas ornaments and blessing blankets, each with the Irish and how to say it.

See the Mamó mug

From our own little Etsy shop. Or browse the whole shop.

Irish housewarming gifts

For a new home, my pick is a St Brigid’s cross. It’s one of the best-recorded house customs in the folklore collection.

A school in Áth Dúna, Co. Cork, recorded that rush crosses were pegged inside the roof. They protected the house “against fire, lightning etc.” Crosses are traditionally made around St Brigid’s Day, 1 February.

Other moving-in customs turn up in the folklore collection too:

Salt: a Co. Louth school said bringing salt to a new house is lucky.
A sod of turf: a Co. Clare school said visitors brought one.
The day: Clare said Friday was lucky for moving. Louth warned that “Saturdays flitting is a short sitting.”

You’ll see “bread and salt” sold as an Irish housewarming tradition. The salt is in the records, but there’s no Irish source for the bread. Give both if you like, as a nice gesture rather than an old Irish rule.

For something to hang on the wall, this Irish blessing wall cross has shamrocks, a blessing and a Claddagh in the centre.

Birthday and St Patrick’s Day gifts

Birthdays don’t come with many recorded Irish gift customs, so pick something good. Write “Lá Breithe Sona!” in the card. It means Happy Birthday, and you say it roughly law BREH-heh SUN-a.

For a music lover, you’d have a hard time choosing between the bodhrán, the spoons, the tin whistle and the fiddle. My personal favourite is the bodhrán. Waltons makes an 8-inch Celtic cross bodhrán.

For a reader, try an Irish book. For a laugh with some history thrown in, check out my review of F*ck You I’m Irish.

St Patrick’s Day is 17 March, his feast day. Britannica notes that emigrants, mainly in the US, turned it into the big secular party we know. Boston had a parade in 1737.

The classic gift is something to wear. “The wearing of the green” means a green item or a shamrock on your lapel, so a shamrock pin does the job.

A twist for the trivia fan: the colour first linked with St Patrick seems to have been blue, not green. Add one of my St Patrick’s Day blessings to the card.

Irish gifts for Mom (or Mam)

This one catches people out. Ireland and the UK keep Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. America keeps the second Sunday in May.

Where	Rule	2027 date
Ireland and the UK	Fourth Sunday of Lent	7 March
United States	Second Sunday in May	9 May

So if you’re in Boston sending a gift to your mam in Cork, post it in February. Going the other way, you have until May.

Jewellery is the popular pick. The Celtic motherhood knot is lovely, but it’s a modern design rather than an ancient one.

For the home, look at Belleek china, Nicholas Mosse pottery from Kilkenny, Avoca, or a Foxford throw woven in Co. Mayo since 1892.

Two easy picks to order online: a silver Celtic knot necklace, or a Royal Tara blessing mug set with teabags for the tea-drinking mam.

Anniversary gifts

The Claddagh works here too, as a second ring or a pendant years after the wedding.

The Celtic love knot is another favourite. It’s built from real early medieval knotwork, but the love knot itself is a modern design.

Crystal is the other classic. Waterford says George and William Penrose founded it in 1783. The original works closed in the mid-1800s, and it was revived in 1947.

One catch. Since the 2009 collapse, much of Waterford’s range has been made outside Ireland. Waterford says some collections are still handcrafted in Ireland, so check the product page if that matters to you.

Sympathy and memorial gifts

A Mass card

When someone dies in Ireland, a very common gesture is a Mass card. If you’ve never sent one, here’s how it works.

A priest offers a Mass for the person who has died. You make an offering, and the card tells the family a Mass is being said. You don’t buy the Mass; the money is an offering.

The simplest way to get a genuine card is through your local parish, a priest you know, or a religious order. If you’re not Catholic, a plain sympathy card and a few kind words are always welcome.

A Celtic cross

For a lasting memorial, many families choose a Celtic cross. The stone high crosses date from roughly the 8th to the 12th centuries.

The Celtic cross headstone became popular much later, during the Celtic Revival of the 1800s. A small cross pendant can be a gentle keepsake for someone grieving.

Retirement and going-away gifts

Ireland knows goodbyes.

The night before an emigrant left for America, neighbours gathered for an “American wake“. There was music and dancing and, near morning, keening, as at a wake for the dead.

That’s how 1930s schoolchildren described it for the Schools’ Collection. One Kerry school recalled a procession of cars to the railway station next morning.

Goodbyes are easier now. A going-away gift is still a little piece of home for the suitcase.

A book: Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn follows a young woman who leaves Wexford for New York. If you think the movie Brooklyn was great, the book is even better!
A knit: an Aran jumper is warm and travels well. Here’s an Aran cable-knit sweater on Amazon.
A cross: a St Brigid’s cross makes a strange new flat feel like home.
A blessing: “May the road rise up to meet you” was written for exactly this.

For a retirement, a Foxford throw, a good piece of crystal or the instrument they always meant to learn all fit.

What to know before you buy

Is it really made in Ireland?

Look for the maker, not just the shamrock on the label.

The Guaranteed Irish symbol started in 1974. Its website now lists more than 2,500 member businesses. It certifies the business, judged on jobs, community and provenance. International companies operating in Ireland can hold it too.

So it tells you a company has a real stake in Ireland. It doesn’t promise every product was made here.

Design & Crafts Council Ireland, at dcci.ie, is a good place to find makers. Kerry Woollen Mills, Aran Woollen Mills and Inis Meáin Knitting Company are all worth a look for knits.

The Aran sweater drowning myth

Aran Sweater Market, a shop that sells the jumpers, made this short preview about the jumper’s story.

You’ll often hear that each Aran family had its own stitch pattern, used to identify drowned fishermen.

Ireland.com says the jumper is thought to date only from the early 1900s. It quotes Tarlach de Blácam of the Inis Meáin Knitting Company. He says most families had their own patterns, but he believes the drowning story is untrue.

The myth seems to grow from J.M. Synge’s play Riders to the Sea. There, a drowned man is identified by a knitted stocking. His sister counts the stitches: “three score stitches, and I dropped four of them.” A stocking, not a sweater.

Ireland.com says a jumper can hold up to 100,000 stitches. It doesn’t need a legend.

How old are Celtic symbols, really?

Knotwork reached Irish art around the 7th century. The Claddagh dates from about 1700. The love knot and motherhood knot are modern. My guides to Celtic knots and their meanings and Celtic symbols have the details.

Irish gifts to avoid

A short list, offered with love.

Leprechaun anything. Unless they collect them, it’s going straight to the charity shop.
Plastic shamrocks. A proper shamrock pin is far nicer.
“Kiss me, I’m Irish” T-shirts for someone who lives in Ireland. They know. Everyone around them knows.
Anything labelled “ancient Druid symbol” with no maker’s name on it.

I’m sure there are plenty of other Irish gifts you can think of. Tell me your favourite in the comments.

Irish gifts FAQ

What is a traditional Irish gift?

The best known are the Claddagh ring, a St Brigid’s cross, an Aran knit, Irish crystal and Belleek china. Silver for a new baby and a Brigid’s cross for a new home have the oldest records.

What is a traditional Irish wedding gift?

The Claddagh ring, which goes back to about 1700. The wedding bell and magic hanky are popular, but they seem to come from modern gift shops.

What is a traditional Irish housewarming gift?

A St Brigid’s cross for over the door or in the kitchen. Folklore records also mention bringing salt or a sod of turf to a new house.

Why do Irish people give silver to a new baby?

For luck. Folklore records from Cork and Limerick describe putting a silver coin into a new baby’s hand.

When is Mother’s Day in Ireland?

On the fourth Sunday of Lent, so in March. In 2027 it falls on 7 March, two months before the American one.

Were Aran patterns used to identify drowned fishermen?

Not in the way the legend says. Tarlach de Blácam of the Inis Meáin Knitting Company told Ireland.com that most families had their own patterns. But he believes the story about identifying drowned fishermen by their jumper is untrue.