It is no great secret that Ogham and the Gaelic language, both written and verbal, was systematically hounded to near extinction over a period of centuries. Those days have passed. But it’s important to understand that the destruction of the Gaelic culture was the prevailing attitude of the British establishment and its academics.
They created a selfserving version of Irish history that has gone largely unchallenged and is still accepted today. There have been many acts of vandalism to Ireland’s ancient history. Ancient megaliths have been desecrated, treasures plundered, and countless ancient books burned. However, of the numerous acts of vandalism, one stands above all else in terms of its impact — the sinister claim that Ogham writing was only invented in the 4th century by Christian monks.
This is an opinion still held today by most blinkered academics. Those who offer no logical explanations as to why Ogham has been found inside several caves, souterrains, and even inside the great mound at Knowth. Ireland’s mythology is steeped in accounts of Ogham writing going back to the Stone Age mound builders. The claim that Ogham was invented in the 4th century is as ignorant as it is bizarre.
This one falsehood has led to more confusion about the origins of Irish civilisation than any other. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that Ogham is an ancient alphabet. It reaches back deep into the Stone Age. This is an extraordinary possibility that, if proven true, has global ramifications for our understanding of ancient civilisations.
Progression
To understand the development of anything we must examine its progression — from the most primitive to the most advanced. When we visit ‘Pluais na Scríob’ (The Cave of Inscriptions) in Co Kerry we find what can only be described as a very primitive early ‘pr-Ogham writing. This is literally the writing of cave men. They first started to develop writing by carving straight strokes into cave walls. It was a precursor to the ancient Ogham alphabet of the Druids.
Another similar example of early pre-Ogham writing is found at Tinure, Co Louth, around 15 km from Newgrange. These inscriptions are clearly a very primitive form of writing. It was most likely a tally system to record the movements of the heavenly bodies. Of particular interest is the sun and the moon, which the ancient Irish considered the cow and bull (and later the king and queen) of heaven.
As Ogham developed it was clearly based on a five-finger tally system. It was the natural place for early man to start counting and writing as he tried to figure out his place in the world. At one time letters, numbers, and musical notes all used this simple arrangement. Ogham hand signals were also used as a form of sign language.
Other cultures
Compare the primate nature of this ancient Irish cave writing to Sumerian cuneiform, which is from around 3100 BC, and is widely accepted by academics to be the world’s oldest writing. A basic observation demonstrates that cuneiform is clearly much too advanced and complicated to be the world’s first writing.
It is also worth noting that the currently accepted age of Newgrange is actually older than this cuneiform writing. Are we really to believe that the magnificent scientific and mathematical minds that built Newgrange couldn’t write?
I say the “current accepted age” of Newgrange, because archaeological dates get pushed back all the time. Luminescence is the newly emerging field of revolutionary scientific technique to date megaliths by using light trapped beneath stones. It can, and hopefully will, prove in time that Newgrange is a lot older than currently realised.
Contradictions
Returning to the Ogham writing, it’s easy to see how the belief that the ancient Irish didn’t have writing has resulted in an infectious fog of contradictions and confusions. They have poisoned the Emerald Isle’s ancient history. Academics ignore and ridicule Irish mythology —the only surviving records from the time. Yet Irish mythology has proven to contain more than a grain of truth.
There are literally hundreds of stories relating to Ogham writing dating back to ancient Ireland. They involve such legends as Cú Chulainn, Queen Medb, and several of the ancient Tuatha De Danann kings. In these tales, warriors were expected to learn the many variations of Ogham writing.
Druids regularly wrote Ogham on yew wands. The resting place of many legends was marked with an Ogham stone. This proves that ogham was an integral part of life. There is an Ogham inscription, thought to be by Fráoch, son of the legendary Medb, found at the ancient royal site of Rathcrogan, Co Roscommon.
Another Ogham inscription from Curraghmore West in Kerry reads NUADAT, or Nuada. He was one of the Ancient Tuatha de Dannan kings. Both of these inscriptions relate to characters who lived long before the 4th century when Ogham was apparently invented.
Presumably, when the Christians invented Ogham they also invented a time machine. Four names carved in Ogham were also found inside the magnificent ancient mound of Knowth in the Boyne Valley. Academics have explained these away as mere acts of vandalism.
Ogham throughout history
It’s obvious to those who study what remains of ancient Irish records that the druids used Ogham writing regularly. Irish mythology is awash with examples just like this one from Tochmarc Etainen (The Wooing of Etain). It is as follows: “The Druid deemed it a grievous thing that Etain should be hidden from him for the space of one year, and thereupon he made three wands of yew; and upon the wands he wrote an Ogham; and by the keys of wisdom that he had, and by the Ogham”.
Another example from Tochmarc Étaíne clearly links the Stone Age megalithic mound builders with ogham writing: “Do thou see that his burial mound be heaped for him; and that a standing-stone be set up in memory of him; and let his name be written upon it in letters of Ogham”.
These are just two of countless examples showing Ogham use in megalithic Ireland, millennia before it was apparently invented. As mentioned earlier, it’s no great secret that Ireland’s history has been written by her enemies. All things Irish were banned by the British Crown while all knowledge of the ancient druids was suppressed by the Roman church.
Myths about Irish History
History has shown both the Crown and The Roman Church to be myth mongers. They were masters of creating fake histories, forgeries, and stories for any culture they sought to control. Let’s say we accept the possibility that the Gaelic language, both written and verbal, is much older than presently realized. The question becomes, how much older?
Calvert Watkins (1933 – 2013) was an American professor of linguistics at Harvard University. He was one of the world’s leading experts on the origin of languages. Watkins concluded that Old Irish Gaelic is an extraordinary ancient language. And, it is the closest to the very first language, the famous “missing mother tongue”.
It’s my opinion that Old Irish Gaelic is not a branch of the world language tree as most academics think. It is the very root. It displays remarkable similarities to the oldest languages on the planet including Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chaldean and Native American tongues. Study these ancient languages and you will be stunned by the similarities with old Irish Gaelic.
Gaelic: The Origin
Several scholars over the centuries have claimed that Irish Gaelic is the world’s oldest language. They also claim that Ogham, the tree alphabet of the Druids, was the world’s first alphabet. In Joseph Gwilt’s timeless masterpiece The Encyclopedia of Architecture, he informs us that standing stones predated all other forms of architecture. The Druids were the world’s first race of civilised people. At one time the language and alphabet of the entire ancient world from Ireland to India was the same. It was that of the Irish Druids.
The Dispilio Tablet is a 7,300-year-old wooden tablet that was discovered in Greece alongside ancient flutes, ornaments, and figurines. Carved into this tablet were several letters, many of which are unmistakably Ogham characters. The Dispilio Tablet is an incredible 2,000 years older than the earliest example of Cuneiform, which blinkered academics still believe to be the first form of writing.
There are an incredible 150 known variations of the Ogham tree alphabet. 93 of these are recorded in the Book of Ballymote, a famous vellum text currently housed in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
From Ogham to Hebrew
In Anacalypsis by Godfrey Higgins, the author makes an excellent case that the letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet were named after Irish trees.
“How came these Hebrew letters to bear the name of Irish trees? … There is no way of accounting for these extraordinary coincidences and circumstances except by supposing an original alphabet called after trees, and changed by accident in long periods of time. Bigots may ridicule this, but they cannot refute it. … it is impossible to believe that the Asiatics by accident called their sixteen letters after the Irish names of trees.
I think it is pretty clear that the Hebrew letters, and of course the Greek or Cadmean taken from them, were originally called after the Bethluis- nion (alphabet) of the Irish, or after some language whence that was taken. The ancient Rabbis had a tradition, that the names of the Hebrew letters had the meaning of the names of different trees.”
Higgins echoed his findings in another work entitled Celtic Druids.
“All the languages of the western world were the same, and that one system of letters, that of ancient Irish Druids, pervaded the whole — and was common to the British Isles, and Gaul, to the inhabitants of Italy, Greece, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and Hindustan.”
It is astonishing to think that the propaganda of the Dark Ages, designed to tarnish Ireland’s reputation, still persists in academic circles today. It’s blindly insisted that the Irish Ogham alphabet wasn’t invented until the fourth century. It will eventually be shown that Ogham writing began deep in the old Stone Age. Starting as the writings of cavemen, before evolving into the tree alphabet of the druids.
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