La firu ferdacht...
La firu ferdacht. La mná mifre.
(with * men * manliness / with * women * despondency)
Men are meant to be manly. Women are meant to be sad.
So says Cú Chulainn in “Brislech Mór Maige Murthemni”. This sentiment was echoed in the refrain of a nineteenth century poem, “The Three Fishers”, by Charles Kingsley:
“For men must work and women must weep,
And the sooner it’s over, the sooner to sleep.”