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Focail Gaeilge | Irish Words

Language as Living Memory

The Irish language carries ways of seeing and sensing the world that are often difficult to translate directly. Each word holds echoes of land, relationship, rhythm, and worldview. In this space, individual Irish words and phrases are offered not as definitions alone, but as living forms — vessels of memory, imagination, and inner orientation. You are invited to sit with each word, to sound it, to feel its texture, and to notice what stirs beyond meaning. Language here is not something to master, but something to meet.

Latest Focail Gaeilge | ‘Irish Words’

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The Christmas Candle
The Christmas Candle

The Irish word for candle is coinneal. It was a common tradition to light the candle at Christmas and place it in the window…

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Mystery, Numinosity and the Collective Unconscious
Mystery, Numinosity and the Collective Unconscious

This word literally means “God's secret” or a “secret-sacred” or “hidden-divine”.  Another related word is “rún”, meaning “secret”, “mystery”, or even “beloved.”

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Scéalta, “Stories” - Seeing into the Darkness
Scéalta, “Stories” - Seeing into the Darkness

No matter how tangled or imperfect our path or our story has been, we start to glimpse the wholeness of who we are—and see how, even our mistakes, are threads in the greater tapestry of our life’s unfolding, the story that carried us forward…

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Athrú - On the Cusp of a New Season
Athrú - On the Cusp of a New Season

We are on the threshold of a new season.  The natural world around us is still full and ripe, yet we feel a change is coming. The trees are getting ready to lose their leaves again, and vegetation will begin to change colour and die away...

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Misneach
Misneach

Courage is facing our fears, going into them, and being able to face what frightens us…

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An Fharraige
An Fharraige

His name means ''Son of the Sea,'' he is considered the God of the sea and one of the Túatha De Danann…

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Cineáltas
Cineáltas

Going through difficult times in our lives really brings home the importance and value of kindness…

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Mac Tire
Mac Tire

The Grey wolf was an integral part of the Irish countryside and culture until 1786, when the last wild wolf in Ireland was said to have been killed…

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An Ghealach
An Ghealach

The moon has a face we can see and an unseen side in the shadows.  This is a wonderful symbol for our own psyche…

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An Ghrian
An Ghrian

Solstice, blessings to you all! This is a beautiful time of the year when we can celebrate the sun…

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Stoirm
Stoirm

Before the famine, Ireland saw one of the worst storms ever recorded in Ireland. It was a storm that led to…

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Teallach
Teallach

Teallach is the Irish word for hearth. The hearth was always of central importance in Celtic society…

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Cocaí Féir
Cocaí Féir

The haystacks stood in the field for a month or so, and then it was time to bring them home from the fields to the shed or haggard- the traditional storage area for the crops…

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Uisce
Uisce

Water is life-giving. We meet it from the very beginning, in the womb. We emerge into the world when the waters break…

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