This is one I've been wanting to ask about for a while. There's a pub in Berlin (near where one of my sons lives) with a website and on their drinks page they give a quotation which they say is by Behan. You can find it on other websites in German, so it seems to be quite widespread over there. Try as I might, I just can't find the original anywhere, so if anyone knows where it comes from, I'd be grateful if they could tell me and if it's even from the man himself.
The pub is The Lir, and this is the page in question - www.thelir.de/de/drinks.html

"Wasser ist nicht zum Trinken da, sonst hâtte Gott nicht so viel davon gesalzen"
which I'm guessing would be something like - "Water isn't for drinking or why would God have put so much salt in it". To me it looks as if he could be referring to seawater, but I don't know.
Anyway I'll try and put it into Irish (and ten years from now, I wouldn't be surprising to find somebody out there quoting it as a traditional Irish proverb).

Ní an t-uisce le haighaidh a ól nó cén fáth chuirfeadh Dia salann níos mó air.

(is that getting anywhere near the original?)

I can't find a reference online, but I'm sure you've searched high and low for it already Franc.

Google translate says :"Water is not for drinking, otherwise God would not salted so much of it." Which I'd imagine refers to the oceans.

Níl uisce le n-ól, cén fáth (or: tuige) a shaillseoidh (spelling?) Dia an oiread dhe (spelling?) dá mbeadh?

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Go raibh maith agat - but is it really a quotation from Behan - either something he said or wrote in one of his books?

Ó Dónaill has only "saill"/"sailleadh", to salt, so: shaillfeadh ?

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

Shaillseodh in Munster, that would be pretty close to what you gave Bríd.

_________________
The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

I don't understand the last bit - an oiread (the amount) dhe dá mbeadh

an oiread = that amount
dá mbeadh = if it was so/otherwise
There may be a better way to say "otherwise".

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

OK but what about dhe, what's that there for?

Not sure is that the correct spelling. Maybe it should be "dhó". It's a preposition I think.. maybe a pronoun . It means - "of it".

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________