May you get to Heaven a half hour before the Devil knows you're dead.

This line is widely circulated as an Irish blessing or toast, often delivered in convivial settings (pubs, wakes, family gatherings) where humor and piety mingle. It belongs to a broader tradition of Irish vernacular benedictions that invoke Christian imagery—Heaven, the Devil, the afterlife—while keeping a wry, earthy tone. Rather than a traceable single author, it functions as a piece of folk speech: a compact wish for protection at life’s end, shaped by oral transmission and repeated in collections of “Irish blessings” in the 20th century and later popular culture.

The blessing wishes the listener a swift, safe passage into salvation—so swift that evil has no time to interfere. The “half hour” is comic exaggeration, but it underscores a serious hope: that one’s death will be met with mercy, not fear, and that whatever threatens the soul (temptation, regret, judgment) will be outpaced. The Devil here represents not only theological evil but also misfortune and the lingering hazards of life. Its enduring appeal lies in balancing tenderness with irreverent humor, turning anxiety about death into a spirited, communal good wish.

May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.
May you get to heaven before the devil knows you’re gone.
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.