Having spent much of December and January reading books about trees in Ireland I noticed a common theme running throughout them; the presence of trees in Irish folklore and language.
Ogham is an alphabet which was traditionally used to write the earliest form of Irish and is Ireland’s earliest form of writing. Dating from the fourth century, it is often called a tree alphabet. It is an ancient script using trees for letters.
There are twenty letters within the Ogham language and each letter is associated with a different native tree of Ireland. Sometimes the association is very direct – the name of the tree in Irish matches the name of the letter. Other times it is more poetic – the name of that letter translates to a word that would be associated with only one tree in particular. Their selection gives us clues as to the importance spiritually and symbolically of trees in this ancient society. The Ogham alphabet was written and read from the roots up with each character sprouting from a central line, like branches on a tree. The philosophy behind the language is amazing and primarily considers how intimate the connection is between forests and humans.
Having grown up in rural Leitrim I’ve always found great solace in our wild landscape in trees, now more than ever in the times we find ourselves. Trees play a large role in my life right now. There are days they bring me great happiness, days they rise a rebellious fire inside me that’s fit to flitter before me to protect my county while other days they bring self doubt and defeat. It’s not the trees fault; it’s the result humans and their positive and negative actions.
FÉACH ANSEO
Because of all this, I have an awful lot to say to them, the trees. I have studied how they communicate with each other and now I think I have found my way to communicate with them.
I will write a letter to them in our Irish language and dance it out to them using their own alphabet, their forest floor my Ogham tree.
