Articles on the Irish language, folklore, history and place-names, from anglicised surnames and Ogham to fairy forts and the festivals of the Celtic year.
A free, friendly home for learning the Irish language and falling for the culture behind it. Here's what Love Irish is, and how to begin.
Nearly every parish once had a stone that was lifted to prove what a person could do. The custom died out here, and the stones were only found again by reading what schoolchildren wrote down in 1937.
Ireland has around forty five thousand ringforts and the map still remembers nearly all of them. Learn five Irish words and you will start seeing them all over your own county.
October is Deireadh Fómhair in Irish, the end of the harvest. Here is the Irish October: the last of the gathering in, the clocks going back, the geese arriving from the Arctic, and a month that runs out on Oíche Shamhna.
The weekly Irish spelling list can be a struggle at home, especially if your own Irish is rusty. Here is how Irish classrooms teach spellings, and a free tool that reads every word aloud and tests your child the same way.
From the tricolour first raised in Waterford in 1848 to the county colours at every GAA match, Ireland flies flags for its nation, its four provinces and all 32 counties. Here is what they mean, and where to download every one for free.
As September arrives, its Irish name places you exactly in the year: Meán Fómhair, “the middle of the harvest”. Here's a look at the Irish September, from its name to Michaelmas and the turn of autumn.
For four centuries, Irish was written in Cló Gaelach, the flowing Gaelic type with its séimhiú dot and its little symbol for “and”. Here is the story of the old script, and why the ‘h’ was once a dot.
Most Irish town and townland names are anglicised Irish words hiding in plain sight. Learn a handful of elements (baile, cill, dún, cnoc) and you can read the map of Ireland.
Before it was Halloween, it was Samhain, the Irish festival that opened the dark half of the year, when the door to the Otherworld stood ajar. Here’s where our Halloween really comes from.
Irish spelling looks intimidating but is remarkably regular. Learn the fada, broad and slender consonants, séimhiú and urú, then hear every sound in a native Munster voice.
On 1 August, Lúnasa opens the harvest with the assembly of the god Lugh, the Tailteann games, and the hill-climbing pilgrimages that survive as Reek Sunday.
Opposite Samhain on the wheel, Bealtaine lights the fires of summer on 1 May, driving the cattle between the flames and opening the bright half of the year.
On 1 February, Imbolc marks the first day of spring and the festival of Brigid: goddess, saint, and now the namesake of Ireland's newest public holiday.
The old Irish year turned on four cross-quarter festivals: Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lúnasa and Samhain. Here is the wheel of the year, and how its four spokes still shape the seasons.
The Irish names for the months and seasons carry the old Celtic year inside them. Spring begins in February, and four ancient festivals still mark the turning of the year.
A Smith and a McGowan can be the very same Gaelic family. Here's how English law and English-speaking clerks turned Mac Gabhann into Smith, and how to trace your own name back.
Those grassy rings no farmer will plough through are 1,500-year-old ringforts, and many hide a secret souterrain underground. Here's what they are, and the folklore that kept them safe.
Ogham is the earliest writing in Ireland: strokes carved into standing stones over 1,500 years ago. Here's how it works, why the letters are named after trees, and how to write your own name in it.
You don't need fluent Irish to support a child in a Gaelscoil. Here's a free printable sheet of 41 everyday phrases, from questions about the school day to praise and greetings for the múinteoir, each with simple pronunciation.
The Irish language, Gaeilge is one of the oldest living languages in Europe. If you're learning it, you're connecting yourself to a linguistic tradition that stretches back over 2,500 years. To put that in perspective, Irish is more than a thousand years older than English as we know it today.
The Irish call proverbs seanfhocail, "old words." Here are five of the most loved, and the quiet wisdom tucked inside each one.