“Did you ever hear how the life of a man is divided? Twenty years a-growing, twenty years in bloom, twenty years a-stooping and twenty years declining."

Made for Seachtain na Gaeilge 2023, this pin presents an alternative Irish proverb that translates into the above quote: life divided into twenty years of growing, blooming, stooping and declining. 

It also provided the title for Muiris Ó Súilleabháin’s memoir, Fiche Bliain ag Fás (1933). Ó Súilleabháin was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1902, a remote island off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. The book was translated into English as Twenty Years A-Growing the same year it was published in Irish.

I’ve been meaning to make this one for a while: it’s sort of a companion piece to the WB Yeats pin because both are morbid and both get stuck in my head a lot. It’s a proverb that comes from a very different time with different expectations (and life expectancies). Even so, I think there’s something interesting, and maybe grounding, about imagining your life as a series of little lifetimes.

• Gold plated with black enamel
• 35mm wide
• Embossed with logo
• Two gold butterfly clutches
• Comes with backing card as Gaeilge
• Guaranteed good time