May your blessings outnumber The shamrocks that grow, And may trouble avoid you Wherever you go.

This quatrain is commonly circulated as part of the modern repertoire of “Irish blessings” used in greetings, toasts, and cards—especially around St. Patrick’s Day and at life events such as weddings, farewells, and birthdays. Although presented as traditional, it is typically encountered in 20th-century popular print and ephemera (greeting cards, souvenir booklets, and later online compilations) rather than in a single traceable early Irish-language source. The imagery of shamrocks (associated with Ireland and, by later tradition, St. Patrick) and the wish for trouble to “avoid” the addressee reflect a diasporic, sentimental style of benediction that became widely popular in English.

The blessing offers a compact wish for abundance and protection. By measuring “blessings” against the countless shamrocks that grow, it invokes an image of inexhaustible plenty rooted in Irish landscape and symbolism. The second couplet shifts from prosperity to safeguarding: rather than promising a life without hardship, it hopes that trouble will pass by—suggesting luck, providence, or communal goodwill acting as a shield. The rhyme and simple diction make it easily memorizable and suitable for oral repetition, which helps explain its endurance as a cultural token of Irish identity and warmth, even when detached from a specific original author or moment.