“What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for”

“What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for” is an Irish proverb of uncertain origin. “What butter and whiskey won’t cure, sure, there’s no cure for,” W. G. Dowsley wrote in Travelling Men, published in Dublin in 1925. “What butter and whisky won’t cure, there’s no cure for,” Christopher Morley wrote in the novel Kitty Foyle (1939).
 
“Butter” was removed from the proverb in the 2000s. “What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for” has been cited in print since at least 2004.
 
   
Google Books
Travelling Men
By W. G. Dowsley
Dublin: Talbot Press
1925
Pg. 216:
“What butter and whiskey won’t cure, sure, there’s no cure for.”
 
Google Books
Kitty Foyle
By Christopher Morley
Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott
1939
Pg. 303:
I caught myself the grippe that was prevalent then, and remembered Pop’s remedy, hot whiskey and water with sugar and a lump of butter. He always said, ‘What butter and whisky won’t cure, there’s no cure for.”
   
17 March 1988, The Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, NC), “Graffiti” by Cathy McHugh, pg. 5, col. 3:
“What butter and whiskey will not cure there is no cure for.”
 
7 March 1990, Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, AR), “Irish Toasts,” pg. 1E, col. 2:
“What butter and whiskey will not cure there’s no cure for.”
 
Google Books
Irish Folk Wisdom
By Mairtin O’Griofa
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company
1993
Pg. 55:
What butter and whiskey won’t cure there’s no cure for.
 
Google Groups: news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
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4/8/04
(...)
What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.
 
Google Books
The Wee Book of Weegie Wit and Wisdom
By Ian Black
Black & White Publishing
2006
Pg. ?:
What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.
 
Google Groups: Quotations Book - Quotes of the Day
Quotes of the Day - Tuesday, August 28
Quotes of the Day
<8/28/07

(...)
What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.
Proverb, Irish - http://quotationsbook.com/author/5884/
 
Google Books
Scottish Miscellany:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Scotland the Brave
By Jonathan Green
New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing
2010
Pg. 161:
Or, as the Irish proverb has it, “What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.”
 
1 July 2010, Wall Street Journal (New York, NY), “A Pension on the Rocks Gets an Emergency Shot of Liquidity” by Michael Carolan and Molly Neal:
LONDON—What whisky will not cure, there is no cure for, goes an old saying. Does that apply to a pension deficit?
   
Google Books
Irish Wit and Wisdom:
Quips and Quotes to Suit All Manner of Occasions
By Richard Benson
London: Summersdale Publishers Ltd
2016
Pg. ?:
What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.
IRISH PROVERB