Ogham stone at
Coláiste Íde (1.2m high)
Ogham writing (pronounced
either AH-gum, or ohm) was a system of written
communication employed on Irish and Pictish stone
monuments. It was in use from the 5th to the 7th
centuries AD, and perhaps even much earlier. Ogham
writing was the writing system in use during the
transitional period from paganism to Christianity in
Ireland.
Legend ascribes its origins to Ogma, the ancient Celtic
god of flowery speech and oratory. The Ogham alphabet
consists of twenty letters in four groups of five each.
The inscriptions run along the edge of the monument
stone, or gallán, and are read from the bottom to the
top of the line of characters. The inscriptions are
typically brief, usually consisting only of a name, and
are apparently memorials for the dead. Some scholars
feel they may have been used as tribal boundary
markers.
The precise origins of Ogham are unclear. Many
authorities suggest possible runic antecedents, and
there are even theories that it may be somehow related
to Etruscan. Still another set of conjectures claim
that Ogham is simply a variation of the Latin alphabet,
and offer the inclusion of the letters h and
z as evidence in support of this position,
since these letters do not appear in Old Irish.
R. A. S. Macalister, in his 1945 study Corpus
inscriptionum insularum celticarum, cites 520 of
these inscribed stones. About a third of all known
Ogham stones, or approximately two-hundred of them, are
in Counties Cork and Kerry in southwestern Ireland.
Over seventy of these are found on the Dingle Peninsula
in County Kerry.
On the Dingle Peninsula (the Corca Dhuibhne, COR-ca
GWEE-nuh in Irish) excellent examples of Ogham
stones are... three stones near the road to Minard
Castle not far from Garrynadur; the "Priest's Stone"
near Dún Sían; at Teampall Geal near Ventry; at Cill
Colman also near Ventry (stone shown on Timeline page); at
Kilmalkedar, where the inscription reads "Mael Inbir
Son of Brocan." Some particularly good examples may
be seen on the Coláiste Íde boarding school grounds
off the Reenbeg road immediately west of An Daingean
(Dingle Town).
Contemporary Irish jewelers sometimes craft personal
items such as pendants and bracelets using the Ogham
script. One such master craftsman is Brian de Staic of
An Daingean.
