Development Of Irish Pagan Culture

(November 7, 2024, updated April 27, 2025) In the past, defining the meanings of Old Irish words has just been guesswork trying to extrapolate back in time from existing meanings and seeing how they are used in the texts. The result has not been successful with lots of inconsistencies. Written Irish has undergone lots of changes due to a combination of English language domination and the many attempted mergers of the many local dialects into one standard Irish language. 

Below is a comparison of Old Irish place names meanings as seen on the 1598 Ortelius Map below between traditional meaning and their new Druid Akkadian derivations:

Ireland is a compound word first seen in thr 1200's. Ire comes from Old Norse Irar which is the Druid Akkadian phrase IR.AR meaning "astrological-fate controllers" implying that the  Vikings who founded Dublin saw the Irish as big users of astrology magic. Land comes from Old English lond which is the Druid Akkadian phrase L'.N.D meaning "layout revealing life-manifestations."

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

(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.

(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 ER.D.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.

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/

(November 18, 2024, updated December 25, 2024) In May 1169, Anglo-Norman mercenaries landed in Ireland at the request of Diarmait mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurragh) who was the deposed King of Leinster. He sought their help in regaining his kingship. They achieved this within weeks and raided neighboring kingdoms. This military intervention was sanctioned by King Henry II of England. In return, Diarmait had sworn loyalty to Henry and promised land to the Normans. 

In October 1171, King Henry landed with a large army to assert control over both the Anglo-Normans and the Irish. This intervention was supported by the Roman Catholic Church who saw it as a means of suppressing Druidry, suppressing the still fairly independent Irish Christian church, and way of gaining tax revenue.  

Henry granted Strongbow Leinster as a fiefdom, declared the Norse-Irish towns to be crown land, and arranged the synod of Cashel to take over the Irish church. Many Irish kings also submitted to him, likely in the hope that he would curb Norman expansion, but Henry granted the unconquered kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy. After Henry's departure in 1172, fighting between the Normans and Irish continued. 

The 1175 Treaty of Windsor acknowledged Henry as overlord of the conquered territory and Ruaidrí as overlord of the remainder of Ireland, with Ruaidrí also swearing fealty to Henry. The treaty soon collapsed: Norman lords continued to invade Irish kingdoms and the Irish continued to attack the Normans. In 1177, Henry adopted a new policy. He declared his son John to be the "Lord of Ireland" (i.e. claiming the whole island) and authorised the Norman lords to conquer more land. The territory they held became the Lordship of Ireland, part of the Angevin Empire. The Normans' success has been attributed to military superiority and castle-building, the lack of a unified opposition from the Irish and the support of the church for Henry's intervention.

After this takeover of Ireland the Norman lords wanted to secure their lands by appearing Irish. It was then they started supporting local bards and marrying into noble Irish families. But the bards. by using Druid Akkadian phrases as names in their stories helped preserve the old ways in their tales while at the same time providing a deeper level of meaning to these stories to those listeners still familiar with the old ways.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_invasion_of_Ireland

The 18 letters of traditional Irish from one surviving branch before the modern alphabet reform between 1947 and 1958. Compared to the Elizabethan era the alphabet had drastically shrunk indicating that much of the original Druid Akkadian derived Irish language had been lost.

Reference

Joyce, Patrick Weston (1878) A grammar of the Irish language for the use of schools. Online at: https://archive.org/details/grammarofirishla00joycrich/mode/2up?ref=ol

(October 7, 2023, updated April 27, 2025)  Given recent scholarship the translations of these texts must now be considered to be uncertain.

The earliest set of surviving Irish Bardic Tales is the "Great Tain," (Táin Bó Cúailnge) which is the central story of the Irish Bardic era. This was accompanied by 14 "Lesser Tains," 3 of which are lost. The surviving ones are:  the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad, Regamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere. 

Dating is provided by the Tain Bó Fraich while the goddess Morrigan is mention in the Táin Bó Regamna and the Táin Bó Cúailnge, both which involve the ancient Irish province of Connaught (Connacht) raiding Ulster who fights back with their hero Cúchulainn.

Connaught (Connacht) was a hilly, wild and economically poor western province of Ireland. It's Druid Akkadian meaning is "Prodding chaos with attendants of astrology-magic."

• Morrigan is the Druid Akkadian phrase MR.G.N meaning "The storm energizing the fate-revelations."  Death is often associated with fate.

• Tain is the Druid Akkadian phrase T.AY.N meaning "Astrology-magic for Ayu revealed."

• Bo is the Druid Akkadian word B' meaning "nest."

• Cúailnge is the Druid Akkadian phrase K.W.AY.L.NG.E meaning "Involvement with Ayu's  form for avoiding the coast's ineffectiveness"  where coast is an epithet for the rain making sky shell.

• Táin Bó Cúailnge means "Astrology-magic for Ayu revealing nesting the involvement of Ayu's form which avoids the coast's ineffectiveness

Táin Bó Regamna

In the Táin Bó Regamna, Cúchulainn encounters  Morrígan but does not recognize her as she drives a magical heifer from what he thinks is his territory. 

• Regamna is the Akkadian phrase R.EG.AM.N.A meaning "The eagle-vulture's neglect of the Reed-boat's (Ayu) revelation results.

• Táin Bó Regamna means "Astrology-magic for Ayu revealing nesting the eagle-vulture's neglect of the Reed-boat's (Ayu) revelation results."

This story is found in the same two manuscripts that also record the Tain bo Dartada and the Tain bo Regamon ; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and Egerton 1782. Here is the core of the story (starting at page 132 of Leahy, 1902):

Táin Bó Cúailnge

In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge. Morrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn then defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats, the Morrígan appears to him as a young woman and offers him her love and her aid in the battle, but he rejects her offer. In response, she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a white, red-eared heifer leading the stampede, just as she had warned in their previous encounter. However, Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent despite her interference. Later, she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms had sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. He regrets blessing her for the three drinks of milk, which is apparent in the exchange between the Morrígan and Cúchulainn: "She gave him milk from the third teat, and her leg was healed. 'You told me once,' she said,'that you would never heal me.' 'Had I known it was you,' said Cúchulainn, 'I never would have.'"As the armies gather for the final battle, she prophesies the bloodshed to come. 

Reference

A. H. Leahy, translator (1902) HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND VOL. II Late Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. With Preface, Notes, and Literal Translations. Illustrations by Caroline Watts. Ballantyne Press. Online at: https://archive.org/stream/heroicromancesof02leah/heroicromancesof02leah_djvu.txt