Ba deól mela a mecnaib ibair.

Ba deól mela a mecnaib ibair.

(was * sucking * of honey * out of * roots * of yew)

It would be like sucking honey from yew roots.

A proverbial expression for the impossible, found in “Aislinge Meic Con Glinne”. A slightly different version found in the Book of Ballymote runs “Is do dechraib in domain buain mela ar mecnaib ibair” (“harvesting honey from yew roots is one of the difficult things of the world”).

Topics: Proverbial Sayings