Speaking Irish
Irish, or Gaeilge, has been spoken on this island for well over 1,500 years, and written for nearly as long. It is the first official language of the State and an official language of the European Union.
Old Irish
Old Irish was spoken and written from about 600 to 900 AD. It is the ancestor of modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. Irish monks wrote notes and short poems in the margins of the Latin books they studied, and many of those books travelled with them to monasteries across Europe, where they survive today.
We can read these texts with confidence. How they sounded has been reconstructed by scholars, so we haven’t given pronunciation guides. The spelling below follows standard scholarly editions; the English is our own.
FactThe blackbird over Belfast Lough
9th century, written in the margin of a Latin grammar now kept at St Gall, Switzerland.
Int én bec
ro léic feit
do rinn guip
glanbuidi:
fo-ceird faíd
ós Loch Laíg,
lon do chraíb
charnbuidi.
The little bird
has let out a whistle
from the tip of its
bright yellow beak;
it sends its call
over Belfast Lough,
a blackbird on a branch
heaped with yellow blossom.
A scribe looked up from his copying and wrote down what he heard. Over eleven centuries later, the blackbird is still singing.
FactBitter is the wind tonight
9th century, in the margin of the same St Gall manuscript.
Is acher in gaíth in-nocht,
fu-fúasna fairggae findfolt:
ní ágor réimm mora minn
dond láechraid lainn ua Lothlind.
Bitter is the wind tonight,
it tosses the sea’s white hair:
I need not fear, on a calm sea,
the fierce warriors from Norway.
A monk is glad of the storm, because no Viking ship will sail in it. See the Vikings in Early Ireland.
FactPangur Bán
9th century, written by an Irish scholar in a notebook now kept at St Paul im Lavanttal, Austria.
Messe ocus Pangur Bán,
cechtar nathar fria saindán:
bíth a menma-sam fri seilgg,
mu menma céin im saincheirdd.
I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
each of us has his own art:
his mind is set on hunting,
my mind on my own craft.
A scholar compares his work with his white cat’s mousing. It is one of the best-loved poems from early Ireland.