Pipe band motto translation?

[A Lenape Scot]

Hello guys. My pipe band "Fort Smith Firefighters Pipes and Drums" wants to have its motto painted on our base drum in Gaelic. The motto is "just wing it." Can anyone help me translate it? In case this slang term does not make sense, it means to do something without a plan. Thank you.

[OC Richard]

I went through this a while back, when I joined the Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band, and wanted to have the band name translated.

In Scottish Gaelic they don't use a word for 'fire' either for the department or for the men that work there. Rather, they use a word meaning 'extinguish' thus:

Seirbheis Smalaidh na Gaidhealtachd 's nan Eilean (or) Seirbheis Smàlaidh sa Ghàidhealtachd is na h-Eileanan Highlands and Islands Fire Service (literally, the Highland and Islands Extinguishing Service)

an t-Seirbheis Smalaidh the Fire Service (literally Extinguishing Service)

Luchd-Smalaidh Firefighters (literally extinguishing-folk)

Also, seems that in Gaelic they don't normally say the equivalent of "pipes and drums" but rather simply "pipers" piobairean. (The drummers are evidently understood.)

I'm told one can say comhlan pioba 'pipers-group'.

Anyhow to say "Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band" I'm told that an idiomatic way to express it is

Piobairean de'n Roinn Smalaidh a Traigh Fhada (literally pipers of department extinguishing of beach long)

What I don't know is how to change it from "fire department" (Roinn Smalaidh) to "firefighters" (luchd-smalaidh).

Because for all I know if one said Piobairean Smalaidh it might infer that the pipers were being extinguished, not good at all! And Piobairean Luchd-Smalaidh might not work either. We need a real native Gaelic speaker!

Fort is dun, smith is gobha. Would Fort Smith be Dun-Gobha?

So with my admittedly incomplete knowledge, subject to correction by a real Gaelic speaker, I would guess

Fort Smith Firefighters Pipes & Drums

Piobairean Smalaidh a Dun-Gobha

or

Piobairean de'n Luchd-Smalaidh a Dun-Gobha

Whew... that was just the band name!

"Just wing it" is obviously an idiomatic expression which is by definition untranslatable directly; one would need to find a native speaker who might be able to find a Gaelic expression with similar intent. It might be something along the lines of "do the best you can with what you have to work with".

My Gaelic dictionary gives various examples of idiomatic expressions to illustrate various words, one is

ni airc innleachd ("a predicament is the mother of invention" more or less)

which is used to illustrate the noun

innleachd: invention, stratagem, ingenuity, contrivance, expediency

[Tarheel]

Fine job there Richard. I believe the "ni airc innleachd" will be as good as it gets for translation of "wing it". Remembering the root word origins from school (and my father-in-law's Oxford Unabridged) would lead me to that conclusion.

[OC Richard]

Thanks, I'm out of my depth, no doubt about it.

For examples of these words being used, here's a news article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan/17098251

[A Lenape Scot]

Thank you Richard and Tarheel. You have been a great help. I believe my pipe major will be pleased.