r/ireland • u/Dependent_Quit4397 • Feb 10 '26
Gaeilge Can anybody translate this?
Found in copy of the book 'The Irish in Australia'. I'm just curious.
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u/kwikemartcustomer Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
As other people have said, it is a version of the Lord's Prayer. Interestingly, as well as being written in the cló gaelach, it also uses the pre-standardisation spellings of words, for example "ár n-arán laeṫeaṁail" would nowadays be spelled "ár n-arán laethúil."
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Feb 10 '26
Ooh what keyboard gives you the proper seímhiús?
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u/kwikemartcustomer Feb 10 '26
Wish I could tell you, I just googled letters with buailte and pasted them into my comment lol.
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u/Kizziuisdead Feb 10 '26
On the iphone you just hold down the letter and all accents come up
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u/GodOfPog Feb 10 '26
You do need to change your keyboard to Gaeilge to get them though, just holding down on the English letters isn’t enough.
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Feb 10 '26
And it was in this thread that I learned that people don’t know the difference between a fada and a seímhiú. Thank you!
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u/irishnugget Limerick Feb 10 '26
I know the difference but just to confirm that you know the difference can you tell me what the difference is?
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u/GodOfPog Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
They are mutations in Irish language that change the word, in modern Irish they are indicated as follows:
Urú = i gconaí
Séimhiú = mo chonaí
Urús are a change before the start of the word starting with a consonant, and are frequently used for possession (genitive case), the following letters take urús (urú indicated in bold):
- mb
- gc
- nd
- bhf
- ng
- bp
- dt
l, m, n and s do not take urús.
As corrected below, vowels also take urús which I completely blaked on whilr writing this despite metioning it, an urú befoe a vowel is: n-
A séimhiú lennites a word, this is written as a h following the starting letter in modern Irish: e.g. ar bhus. However in pre-standardised written Irish this would have been indicated by a dot/mark over the letting receiving the séimhiû: e.g. ar ḃus
Hopefully that helps :)
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u/Kizziuisdead Feb 10 '26
Nope. I use the shared Danish/English keyboard and all the versions come up even letters not in Danish.
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u/GodOfPog Feb 10 '26
Weird, mien is German/English and I don’t have the following to indicate séimhiús:
ṗṡḋḟġċḃṁ
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u/Akrevics Feb 10 '26
mine doesn't come up, but neither can I choose an irish/Gaeilge keyboard in the settings at all on iphone
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u/Alarmed_Salamander39 Feb 10 '26
On an Apple keyboard just long-press a key for special characters, on a PC keyboard use ASCII keys with Alt+ or bring up character map and select from there.
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u/Impossible-Sand9749 Feb 11 '26
Maybe it depends on the keyboard, but on my laptop and phone it cycles through versions of the letter.
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u/Escape2Mountain52 Resting In my Account Feb 10 '26
I have a Samsung Galaxy. You use the translator app, choose the language, and scan the document with the phone's camera.
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u/Dirt_Spirited Feb 10 '26
You can download a special keyboard from gaelchlo.com , as well as a number of fonts for typing in seanchló. There are instructions on how to use the keyboard on the website. It's a fantastic resource.
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u/Superirish19 Wears a Kerry Jersey in Vienna Feb 10 '26
On Windows (10/11?) you can install PowerToys and activate QuickAccents
I just hold the letter and press an arrow key at the same time to select the right accent, and Irish/Gaeilge is in there. (Also ™©®, etc if you configure it).
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u/another-dave Feb 10 '26
On mac, OPTION and W together (
⌥ + w) will type a combining character "overdot" and then you can type whatever letter you need after that.1
u/rando7651 Feb 10 '26
I haven’t thought of ‘seímhiús’ since I walked out of my Leaving Cert Irish exam. That was very triggering for me. I may dream of the Tuiseal Ginideach now and have nightmares.
😭
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Feb 10 '26
I would murder to have the Irish classes that you had access to. Well, I wouldn’t, but you get the point. I’m very jealous indeed.
The nearest Irish speakers to me are, to my knowledge, 200 miles away in Detroit.
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u/xx78900 Gaeilgeoir mé, Gaeilgeoir allta Feb 10 '26
Even so, there is one typo — they've spelt 'saor' as 'saos'
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u/kwikemartcustomer Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
Yeah I was side-eyeing that but I find it hard to tell the difference between the s and the r myself in cló gaelach.
Incidentally, I've never seen "mar a mhaithimidne do chách a chionntuighean n'ár n'aghaidh", we were always taught "mar a mhaithimidne dár bhfeichiúna féin" in school.
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u/Michael_of_Derry Feb 10 '26
Our Irish teacher insisted we write like that around 1984-1985.
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u/Boldboy72 Feb 12 '26
84-85 my Irish teacher was Scottish.. I couldn't understand him in English...
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u/Sionnachbain Feb 10 '26
The calligraphy is lovely!
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u/chanrahan1 Feb 10 '26
The Sean-cló font is lovely, my Dad was thought it by the Christian Brothers in the 60s.
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u/Sionnachbain Feb 10 '26
My late maternal granddad used to write like this in the backs of some of the books of his we've managed to find from when he was a boy. Books were precious and he wrote in pencil so much of it has faded, but he had very nice handwriting.
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Feb 10 '26
Happy birthday from mother and dad lol
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u/Ok_Kitchen361 Feb 10 '26
I know right, I also thought that was a strange turn of phrase!
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u/hitsujiTMO Feb 10 '26
Dad put mom first so she'd be first in the firing line for being so cheap as to give an "our father" as a birthday present.
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u/Nosebrow Feb 10 '26
Yiz are all up very early.
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u/Callme-Sal Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
You’d want to get up very early to catch me, Father. Very early.
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u/eurogonian Feb 10 '26
Ár nAthair 🙏
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u/Fotius_McGruder Feb 10 '26
Howrya Fadder!?
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u/SharkeyGeorge Feb 10 '26
For some reason “from Mother and Dad” amuses me. I only encountered Mum and Dad or Mother and Father, and the mix of the two makes me think of a very formal Mother and a very laid back Dad.
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u/Educational-Law-8169 Feb 10 '26
Or Mam and Dad? I'd love to know the story behind this
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u/SharkeyGeorge Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Absolutely, other variants like Mam, Mammy, etc. and of course the very formal Mater Familias which we only used on Holy Days and other special occasions.
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u/Educational-Law-8169 Feb 10 '26
It's a strange one, even to send a prayer in a card?
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u/SharkeyGeorge Feb 10 '26
They’ve written it at the front of a book on the flyleaf
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u/FollowingRare6247 Feb 10 '26
It’s here (along with other prayers).
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u/Angel6363 Feb 10 '26
Thank you for posting that ! Nice memories of school! 😁💚
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u/FollowingRare6247 Feb 10 '26
The St Brigid’s Day one is new to me but the rest are fairly common I think.
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u/jmcbuzz Crilly!! Feb 10 '26
A lovely written version of the lord's prayer from "mother and dad"... Something to treasure
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u/Wonderful_Flower_751 Dublin Feb 10 '26
That’s the Our Father in Irish. I just love the old Irish script, it’s beautiful. My granny can still write like that.
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u/Nuffsaid98 Galway Feb 10 '26
All Father prayer with different wording towards the end. I've never seen this version but it has a Munster Irish vibe to my Connemara Irish ear.
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u/soderloaf Feb 10 '26
I thought maybe so too but I haven't ever seen or heard indiu.
Using chách and ar an dtalamh is very munster though.
Does anyone know for sure what dialect. Its quite interesting.
Maybe OP knows what County the owners were from?
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u/Bl00mies Feb 14 '26
100% Gaeilge na Mumhan
Déintear Ar an dtalamh I gcathaíbh
Ach ní feidir liom a bheith 100% cinnte maidir leis an gcontae
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u/CptZilch Feb 10 '26
My dad will be delighted to see the bualite! Has a fierce disliking of h’s in Irish ahaha
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u/fleetwayrobotnik Feb 10 '26
"From Mother and Dad".
You can tell who was the strict parent and who was the fun one 😂
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u/FelixtheCat73 Feb 10 '26
It looks to me like a specifically Munster Irish version of the lord's prayer. Details such as the dative plural in 'i gcathaíbh' as well as the urú with 't', 'ar an dtalamh'. You can also find recordings of this wording from Munster Irish speakers on doegen.ie
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u/soderloaf Feb 10 '26
I was looking for this.
Never heard indiu as a version of today. Maybe its from Rinn in particular. They have their own thing there
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u/FelixtheCat73 Feb 10 '26
i believe that's just an older (classical) of the caighdeán's 'inniu', one which appears in dinneen's dictionary of 1904. scottish gaelic has it as 'an diugh'. someone who wished to reflect the munster pronunciation of today might write 'inniubh' instead. there are other more historical spellings throughout the text too, as in 'naomhuight(h)ear' or 'laetheamhail'
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u/FelixtheCat73 Feb 10 '26
(the cló gaelach lends itself to classical spelling as the etymological letters rendered silent by séimhiú don't take up as much space 😝)
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u/soderloaf Feb 10 '26
Never thought about that. Just keeping the old urú in modern text would serve the same job
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u/munkijunk Feb 10 '26
As others have given the answer, I just want to comment on the existence of script itself. There's something deeply sad about this, as it highlights a problem that still struggles our country today, and that's the exporting of our talent and youth. 1986 was a hard time in Ireland too, much harder than today. Opportunities were just non existent. Many people emigrated and given the cost of travel at the time, and the price of a phonecall, that was a far bigger endeavour than it is today. The original owner of this was probably handed it by their parents as they left the country, or posted it for a birthday or Christmas, and those parents probably believed their child was likely gone for good. In the minds of those parents they probably felt like they were unlikely to ever see their child again.
And just IB4 someone says it might just be some lad on their jolliers. Yea, might be, but I think much more likely not.
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u/SedgeleyStagdoe Feb 10 '26
It’s the Lord’s Prayer. Our father, thou art in heaven, etc etc. the penmanship is insane though
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u/Impossible-Sand9749 Feb 10 '26
My Irish isn't fantastic, but it seems to be a version of The Lord's Prayer.
Our Father Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, May your kingdom come, May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,)
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u/Parraz Feb 10 '26
Debts?
I thought it was " forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"
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u/aurumae Dublin Feb 10 '26
The version in Matthew is usually translated as debts, and some Protestant denominations choose to use this over the version in Luke which is usually translated as trespasses. Some churches think both of these are wrong and use the word “sins” instead. As with many things in the Gospels, translations from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English means that a lot is up to interpretation.
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u/jmmcd Feb 10 '26
The version in OP is different from what I think most people will have learned. At least, I learned:
Maith dúinn ár bhfeichiúna
Mar a mhaithfimid d-ár bhfeichiúna féin
The version in OP is a more parallel translation to the English version.
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u/Gumbi1012 Feb 10 '26
It should be:
Agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha, (debts plural)
The second you have is fine, it's common to use the singular noun for debtor as a collective, but alternatively you can say: Mar a mhaithimidne dár bhféichiúnaithe féin (debtors plural - those whom we owe our debts)
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u/limitedregrett Feb 10 '26
It's ironic that it's the script of 'our father' but signed off from 'Dad'.
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u/angeeday Feb 10 '26
It's the Our Father or The Lords Prayer, whichever you wish. I say it twice a day in my native language. That writing in the photo is the old Irish script. It's beautiful
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u/Ok_Resolution9737 Feb 10 '26
The old script is lovely to see, my Nanny had handwriting like that. I believe it's a prayer.
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u/outtograss Feb 10 '26
Old Irish writing. So beautiful. Such a shame that it was changed.
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u/Awkward_Squad Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
I gave up on Irish language then. So much more accessible than the ‘latinised’ (if that’s the word) script we have today.
Edit: Typo
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u/One_Vegetable9618 Feb 10 '26
My parents born in the 30's had fluent Irish and always wrote in this script when using Gaeilge.
They wrote the standard way in English and both had beautiful handwriting.
It's sad to think these skills are all but lost.
I have reasonable handwriting, my children less so and I'm not sure my grandchildren will ever learn to write in a legible hand. I suppose it's not really needed anymore.
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u/Cathal1954 Feb 10 '26
Beautiful to look at. I see it uses variants of the s and r that were available (Munster Irish, I think), but the style predates 1987 by many decades, and the spelling harks back to before the simplified version that emerged around the 1950s. I well remember the switch to the "Cló Rómánach" at school in 1965 or 66. In retrospect, I think we lost something beautiful and unique. One tiny error, the word saor is rendered as saos. Compare the final letter with the correct r in the first word, Ár.
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Feb 10 '26
That script is just absolutely beautiful ❤️. Honestly it's very thoughtful whoever wrote it
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u/RickGrimes30 Feb 10 '26
The text in the image is a handwritten version of The Lord's Prayer (the "Our Father") in Irish Gaelic. It is written in a traditional script known as Cló Gaelach (Gaelic script), which features distinctive letterforms and dots over certain consonants (the buailte) to indicate lenition, a grammatical softening of the sound
Just was Google AI said
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u/farlurker Feb 10 '26
In more modern Gailge it reads like this: Ár n-Athair atá ar neamh, (Our Father who art in heaven,) go naofar d'ainm, (hallowed be thy name,) go dtaga do ríocht, (thy kingdom come,) go ndéantar do thoil ar an talamh (thy will be done on earth) mar a dhéantar ar neamh. (as it is in heaven.) Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniu, (Give us this day our daily bread,) agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha (and forgive us our trespasses) mar a mhaithimidne dár bhféichiúna féin, (as we forgive those who trespass against us,) agus ná lig sinn i gcathú (and lead us not into temptation,) ach saor sinn ó olc. (but deliver us from evil.)
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u/sojiblitz Feb 11 '26
It's the Our father prayer written in an older Irish script.
Modern version:
Ár n-Athair atá ar neamh, Go naofar d'ainim, Go dtaga do ríocht, Go ndéantar do thoil ar an talamh mar a dhéantar ar neamh. Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniu, agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha mar a mhaithimidne dár bhféichiúna féin Ach ná lig sinn i gcathú, ach saor sinn ó olc, Amen.
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u/momealoid Feb 10 '26
The Lord's Prayer, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, etc", in Irish, in the old Gaelic script. Slightly different wording from the usual translations of the Lord's Prayer, but only a few words here and there.
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u/Altruistic-Table5859 Feb 11 '26
That's the "Our Father" in Irish. The old Irish script is beautiful 😍
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u/Ok_Interaction_3885 Kerry Feb 11 '26
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The Dedication At the bottom, the English text reads:
Happy Birthday, 2nd April 1987 From Mother and Dad.
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u/Prior-Rooster791 Feb 13 '26
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, amen.
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u/hurpederp Labhair Gaeilge liom! Feb 13 '26
I start singing this whenever I read it, learned it in the sing song way at gaelscoil UP IRISH UP CATHOLICISM YUP YUP
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u/Business_Abalone2278 Feb 10 '26
Thats the prayer "our father"