Introduction to Old Irish

The Ortelius Map of Ireland dating to 1598. West is facing up.

Now at the library of Congress. Online at: https://www.old-maps.com/Ireland/irelandmaps1.htm

Old Irish word meanings based upon modern Irish words modified by how they are used in the sentences of Old Irish texts. The success of this approach has been inconsistent.

The ER ending of the Akkadian words means harbor or gathering-place (ERu) and is being used to indicate a region.

Place Names from Map Translated from Akkadian:

Connacht in Akkadian: Ka'u-NuNu-AḪu-Tu meaning "Prodders of chaos with attendants of astrology-magic (owls)Connacht in Old Irish (eDIL): Conn-acht meaning "Leader - except that" so no meaning.Connacht in Old Irish: (Univ. of Texas) This word has no meaning but is just a place name.
Corke (a lake) in Akkadian: Ka'u-RaKu-E meaning "Prodders making raking ineffective." ( Raking the life network organizes it and gets rid of excess stray threads so this lake was dangerous for life)Corke in Old Irish: This word has no meaning.
Down in Akkadian: Di'u-U-Nu meaning "Divine-motion-powers and revelations"Down In Old Irish: No meaning
Hibern in Akkadian: Ḫu-YaBu-ERu-Nu meaning "Hu's enemy's Harbor revealed. "Hibernia" was the name for Ireland which the Roman's applied to the Island. Whether they created it or heard it from Akkadian speakers along the northern trade routes is unknown. This name may have been due to fact the Ireland is not very sunny.  Hu is the Druid sun god. The "Irish Sea" uses the Latin "mare" which means "stormy place" in Akkadian.Hibern in Old Irish: No meaning. 
Mountfer in Akkadian: Ma'u-U-Na-TuPu meaning "Pushers and Revealers of Devotion." The harbor is an epithet for the rain making sky-shell. Apparently the southwestern corner of Ireland was known for being a rainy place.Mountfer in Old Irish: No meaning.
Quulfter in Akkadian: Qu-U-WaLu-Pu-Tu-ERu meaning "Channelers and Alu's Openers doing astrology-magic)." This implies the northwestern corner of Ireland is also rainy.Quulfter in Old Irish: No meaning.
Dublyn in Akkadian: Du-U-Bu-Lu-INu meaning "Manifesters and Nourishers Lacking the Moon-Eye." The Moon-Eye is the dark moon god and eye pupil god Su. He was also the source of all motion powers and the main god involved with astrology magic. Apparently these people did not use any sort of emotion magic to prod or push the divine powers. This relates to an assumed reference to Dublin by Ptolomy in his 140 CE Geographica who called it Eblana. Eblana in Akkadian: EB-Lu-ANu meaning "The sky-shell which lacks considerations" where consideration are the focused emotions used in astrology magic. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Dublin)Dublyn in Old Irish: Dub-Lin meaning "Dark Flows" (eDIL), or Dark-Number (University of Texas)
Leynefter in Akkadian: Lu-E-INu-EPu-Tu meaning "Lack making ineffective the Moon-Eye's baking of astrology-magic" For whatever reason this region just west of Dublin had a reputation for having uncontrolled astrology-magic.Leynefter in Old Irish: No meaning.
Kylkenny in Akkadian: KaYu-Lu-Ku-ENu-Nu-Ya meaning "Prodders lacking involvement with the reassignments not being revealed." Magic crafters from this place had a reputation of push life-powers through the life network without concerning themselves with the connections of that life network.Kylkenny in Old Irish: No meaning
Tiborray in Akkadian: Tu-Ya-Ba'u-Ru-AYu meaning "Not doing astrology-magic for nesting the eagle-vultures of Ayu." Ayu is the crescent moon goddess who edits the connections of the life network using eagle-vultures. This place had the reputation of not interfering with them. (One /r/ of the double /rr/ seems to be redundant here).Tiborray in Old Irish: No meaning.

Old Irish Dictionaries


  1. eDIL - Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. A joint project of Queen's University in Belfast, University of Cambridge: https://dil.ie/
  2. Old Irish Online from the University of Texas: https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol_base_form_dictionary/iriol/17

Irish History Around 590 CE

(November 7, 2024) (Copied from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ireland_(400%E2%80%93795)

Early Christian Ireland began after the country emerged from a mysterious decline in population and standards of living that archaeological evidence suggests lasted from c. 100 to 300 AD. During this period, called the Irish Dark Age by Thomas Charles-Edwards, the population was entirely rural and dispersed, with small ringforts the largest centres of human occupation. Some 40,000 of these are known, although there may have been as many as 50,000, and "archaeologists are agreed that the vast bulk of them are the farm enclosures of the well-to-do of early medieval Ireland."

The first reliable historical event in Irish history, recorded in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, is the ordination by Pope Celestine I of Palladius as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431 – which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland. Prosper says in his Contra Collatorem that by this act Celestine "made the barbarian island Christian", although it is clear the Christianisation of the island was a longer and more gradual process. The mission of Saint Patrick is traditionally dated around the same time – the earliest date for his arrival in Ireland in the Irish annals is 432 – although Patrick's own writings contain nothing securely dateable. It is likely that Palladius' activities were in the south of Ireland, perhaps associated with Cashel, while Patrick's were later, in the north, and associated with Armagh.

By the early 6th century the church had developed separate dioceses, with bishops as the most senior ecclesiastical figures, but the country was still predominantly pagan. The High Kings of Ireland continued pagan practices until the reign of Diarmait mac Cerbaill c. 558, traditionally the first Christian High King. The monastic movement, headed by abbots, took hold in the mid 6th century, and by 700 Ireland was at least nominally a Christian country, with the church fully part of Irish society. The status of ecclesiastics was regulated by secular law, and many leading ecclesiastics came from aristocratic Irish families. Monasteries in the 8th century even went to war with each other.

The Heights of Tara are found in the old kingdom of Mide. Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_Mide-900.svg

Christian Source Describing Irish Druid Magi and Burial Practices

(Novermber 16, 2024) Christians claimed the Old Irish word Erdathe was either a Druid phrase for the "end times" or it was a word which could be used for it. The word means:  

  • Erdathe = Akkadian ERu-Du-A-Ṭu-E = The gathering together of manifestations resulting in Thu's ineffectiveness.

Thu was the main Druid deity involved in emotion magic and was the cause of all change on earth. Since the runic Druid Akkadian texts make no mention of an end times "day of judgement" this in not what Erdathe means. Instead when Thu becomes ineffective then  drought, death, and wars are the result. Helping to defend against this spiritual imbalance is what ancestors would be expected to do.

The word erdathe is found in this passage from Tirechan's Collectanea (from the Book of Armagh) which was originally written shortly before 664 CE. The Book of Armagh is written in Latin.


For Niall my father did not permit me to believe, but (that I should) be buried on the heights of Tara, where men are drawn up for battle, because the pagans armed in their tombs, bear weapons at the ready to face "que ad diem erdathe apud magos, id est iudicii diem Domini" ("that day of erdathe among the Magi, that is the day of the judgment of the Lord.")

The Heights of Tara is ancient ceremonial and burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland. In Akkadian "Tara" means "Astrology-magic's Controllers" (T.AR) where the controller are the night deities of Su, Selene, and Kate/Hekate involved with fate and the reincarnation of life.

Magi were one of several classes specialized Druid priests:

  • Magi (Akkadian MaGi, These priests seek to affect the flow rate of the life-network's fertility fluids by using emotion magic and influencing the astrological-powers. The Magi can activate changes. "Magi" (M.G) means "fertility-fluid energizers" and are associated with the motion source deities Su and Selene.

References

Carey, John (Aug. 1996)  SAINT PATRICK, THE DRUIDS, AND THE END OF THE WORLD. History of Religions, Vol. 36, No. 1. Online at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3176472

Conway, M. D. (1883). The Saint Patrick Myth. The North American Review, 137(323), 358–371. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25118320

eDIL - Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. A joint project of Queen's University in Belfast, University of Cambridge: https://dil.ie/