Eochu, Eochaid Ollathair, (Horseman, Great Father, All Father). Ruad Rofhessa (“mighty one/lord of great knowledge”)
Samildánach (“many-skilled”)
Aed Abaid of Ess Ruad, Fer Benn (“horned man” or “man of the peak”), Cera (possibly “creator”), Cerrce (possibly “striker”), Easal, Eogabal, Crom-Eocha, Dáire
one end of the club killed the living and the other end revived the dead) , Undry (His bottomless cauldron), Uaithne (Living oak harp which caused the seasons to change in their order and also played three types of music, the music of sorrow, the music of joy and the music of dreaming. Other accounts tell of it being used to command the order of battle.) He possessed two pigs, one of which was always growing whilst the other was always roasting, and ever-laden fruit trees.
Description –
He was a beautiful god of the heathens, for the Tuatha Dé Danann worshipped him: for he was an earth-god to them because of the greatness of his power. A warrior. He was portrayed as wearing a brown low-necked tunic which just reached his hips and a hooded cape. On his feet were horse-hide boots. Behind him he pulled his eight pronged war club on a wheel, and when it was dragged behind him it left a track as deep as the boundary ditch between two provinces. Some of the more exaggerated and comical descriptions are believed to be embellishments added later when Christianity was spreading throughout ireland to make him more offish.
Notable Legends –
The Dagda was a High King of the Tuatha Dé Danann after his predecessor Nuada was injured in battle. The Tuatha Dé Danann are the race of supernatural beings who conquered the Fomorians, who inhabited Ireland previously, prior to the coming of the Milesians. His lover was Boann and his daughter was Breg. Prior to the battle with the Fomorians, he coupled with the goddess of war, the Mórrígan, on Samhain in exchange for a plan of battle
In one famous tale, the Fomorians–rivals of the Tuatha Dé Danaan–try to trick the Dagda. They make him a mammoth pot of porridge made with grotesque ingredients like live goats. Bound by the laws of hospitality, the Dagda must eat it or risk offending them. He slurps down the entire bowl of porridge with a gigantic spoon described as big enough for a man and woman to lie inside. Once finished, the Dagda finds his belly to be as large as a whale’s. This shames him not one bit and he promptly attempts to sleep with the daughter of his enemy. (The morrigan)
The Dagda had an affair with Bóand, wife of Elcmar. In order to hide their affair, Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months; therefore their son, Aengus, was conceived, gestated and born in one day. He, along with Bóand, helped Aengus search for his love.
In a poem about Mag Muirthemne (Plain of the Darkness of the Sea or Plain Under the Sea’s Roof), the Dagda banishes an Octopus with his “mace of wrath” using the following words: “Turn thy hollow head! Turn thy ravening body! Turn thy resorbent forehead! Avaunt! Begone!”
He is credited with a seventy or eighty-year reign (depending on source) over the Tuatha Dé Danann, before dying at the Brú na Bóinne, finally succumbing to a wound inflicted by Cethlenn during the second battle of Magh Tuiredh
In many tales, the Dagda finds himself bound by the laws of hospitality and he never fails to oblige. He unabashedly allows himself physical comforts, particularly food and sex.
Sacred Associations – Yew tree, The physical, Porridge, Hospitality, oak, harp, pigs, cauldrons, clubs, agriculture, the seasons, the sun (as a passage of time)
Through the Dagda we learn, confidence, to act generously and selflessly. We learn to respect our physical needs and to honor our commitments
originally posted in a thread at the polytheist community forum, now crossposted (with minor edits) to tumblr for the edification and interest of the irish and gaelic polytheist community.
what is ogham?
ogham is a system of writing consisting of notches attached to a central “stem” that was developed in order to write in early and old irish. its primary usage was in the form of inscriptions on stone monuments, but the letters were also carved into wood or metal as a method of sending messages or denoting ownership of an item. it is also used in mythology for magical purposes and occasionally for divination. you may also see words written in ogham as marginalia in irish texts–notes from the monks illuminating manuscripts about a variety of things, such as their mood at the time of writing or the conditions they are working in.
a marginal note that spells out latheirt, meaning “massive hangover.” irish monks go hard.
there are approximately 400 surviving monuments inscribed with ogham in ireland and parts of britain, the majority of which are in the south of ireland. outside of ireland, the largest collection is in pembrokeshire, wales.
because ogham was used mainly in monumental carving, it may be read either horizontally or vertically. on some stones, an inscription goes up vertically and continues in an unbroken line horizontally across the top of the monument. it is read vertically from bottom to top and horizontally from left to right. this means that notches found on the right side of a vertical stem are on the bottom of a horizontal stem, while left notches are found on the top.
the ogham alphabet consists of twenty main letters (also called feda or sometimes nin) and five or six additional letters, or forfeda (extra feda). you may occasionally see the ogham alphabet referred to as the beith-luis-nin, which means either “the beith-luis letters” (after the first two letters of the system, akin to “alphabet” or “futhark”), or is a shorthand for beith-luis-fearn-sail-nion (beith-lfs-nion), after the first five letters.
There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh). Newfoundland, in eastern Canada, is also seen to have a minor dialect of Irish, closely resembling the Irish spoken during the 16th to 17th centuries (Newfoundland Irish).
MUNSTER DIALECTS:
Munster Irish is mainly spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of Kerry, Ring, near Dungarvan in County Waterford, Muskerry, and Cape Clear Island in the western part of County Cork. The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (Na Déise) (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish.
Features:
The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus “I must” is in Munster caithfead, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé (mé means “I”). “I was and you were” is bhíos agus bhís in Munster but bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects.
A copular construction involving is ea is frequently used.
Stress is often on the second syllable of a word, e.g. bio-RÁN (“pin”), as opposed to BIO-rán in Connacht and Ulster.
CONNACHT DIALECTS:
The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the 20th century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the larger Connacht Gaeltacht is the dialect spoken in the smaller region on the border between Galway and Mayo. The northern Mayo dialect of Erris and Achill is in grammar and morphology essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster.
Features:
There are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan , e.g. lagachan instead of lagú, “weakening”.
The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound.
Distinguishing features of this dialect include the pronunciation of broad bh as w, rather than v as in Munster. For example mo bhád (“my boat”) is pronounced [wawd] in Connacht and Ulster as opposed to [vawd] in the south.
In addition Connacht and Ulster speakers tend to include the “we” pronoun rather than use the standard compound form used in Munster e.g. bhí muid is used for “we were” instead of bhíomar elsewhere.
ULSTER DIALECTS:
Linguistically the most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (na Rossa), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair), and used by native singers Enya and Máire Brennan and their siblings in Clannad, Na Casaidigh, and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from another local band Altan.
Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. For instance, Scottish Gaelic has many non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish.
Features:
One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative particle cha(n) in place of the Munster and Connacht version ní . Even in Ulster, cha(n) — most typical of Scottish Gaelic — has largely ousted the more common ní (except in níl “is not”) in northernmost dialects (e.g. Rosguill and Tory Island).
An Caighdeán Oifigiúil
An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (“The Official Standard”), often shortened to An Caighdeán , is the standard language, and was introduced in the 1950s/1960s in an attempt to make Irish easier to learn, as it was composed using elements of the Munster and Ulster dialects, but strongly based on the dialect of Connacht. It is the form of Irish that is taught in most schools in Ireland.
The dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this.
The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs mainly to the Connemara dialect. The Irish-speaking community in Meath is mostly a group of Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (who subsequently became one of the greatest modernist writers in the language).
What has been called “Dublin Irish” and “Gaelscoil Irish” is also spoken in the capital and amongst the students of Irish-speaking schools throughout the country. This is, arguably, simply the national standard of Irish, or An Caighdeán Oifigiúil but with strong influence from English in the form of idioms and expressions.
VARIANCE IN DIALECTS
The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. A good example is the greeting “How are you?”. Just as this greeting varies from region to region, and between social classes, among English speakers, this greeting varies among Irish speakers:
Ulster: Cad é mar atá tú? (“What is it as you are?” Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes ‘dé are alternative renderings of cad é).
Connacht: Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? (“What way [is it] that you are?”)
Munster: Conas taoi? or Conas tánn tú? (“How are you?”)
Leinster (Casual Dublin):Con’s ‘tá? (“How are [you]?”)
Standard Irish:Conas atá tú? (“How are you?”)
In recent decades contacts between speakers of different dialects have become frequent and mixed dialects have originated. With the growth in the Irish language media — and in particular the television channel TG4 — it has become much easier for speakers of different dialects to understand one another, although this is mostly seen in the younger generations.
Ocean's Meadow 