Chapter Four: OGHAM STANDING STONES
Over 400 surviving Ogham inscriptions are to be found on standing
stones throughout Ireland and Wales, but most are in southern Munster.
Ogham-marked standing stones are often territorial boundary-markers
containing the property-owner’s name.
stones throughout Ireland and Wales, but most are in southern Munster.
Ogham-marked standing stones are often territorial boundary-markers
containing the property-owner’s name.
Standing Stones with Church-Sponsored Graffiti
It is on these Ogham-inscribed Standing Stones that we find Ogham written in many directions usually on the edge or side corner of a stone but also occasionally in the middle of a stone without an inscribed center line. There are also examples of Ogham being written on stone from bottom to top, from left to right and from the top-down. There are hundreds of online images of known Ogham inscribed standing stones with access details etc but the main focus of this book is on Ogham itself and not on standing stones.
The period of Ogham appearing on standing stones relates to the early Church in Ireland from 500 to 700 CE. This is the beginning of their imperial literary tradition in Celtic Ireland. As the Church displaced the Druids’ influence in some areas, churchmen began to appoint and anoint kings who subscribed to the Church's ways. Because the majority of writers rely exclusively on older written works it is often declared that Ogham only began when the stones were engraved upon. But this is not the case, because early Ogham predates the Catholic era by over two thousand years according to the Church writings. Some ‘scholars’ have even claimed that Ogham was merely an Irish version of Latin! Many of the Ogham stones found in Wales are bilingual, with vertical Ogham on the edge or corner of the stone and on the face the Latin version shown horizontally: this is evidence of imposition of a foreign imperial culture on indigenous people.
The fact is that the Church stole Ogham and then revised it to serve their own agenda i.e. Ogham to Latin / Church Irish. A big part of this was the sudden appearance of Ogham inscriptions on Standing Stones during the early Catholic era that somehow translated directly to Latin. This is cultural misappropriation of an indigenous literary tradition by a foreign imperial invader at its most vulgar. The Church stole the intellectual property, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions of our ancestors and then it proceeded with the wrongful, fraudulent and corrupt use of this ‘Church Ogham’ to promote its own control agenda as “written in stone”.
This was the fake news of the early medieval era in Ireland. Before the arrival of the Catholic religion, standing stones were not marked with Ogham, because Ogham was not for vulgar use. We are told in the Book of Ballymote that Ogma, father of Ogham, created Ogham to “keep learned men apart from rustics.” So when the Catholic scribes started carving Ogham on standing stones they knew that they were breaking the ancient traditions of the land that had been revered for centuries.
There is also the issue of the imperial notion of ‘ownership’ that appears with the Church marking standing stones with their version of Ogham declaring land ownership boundaries. The Celts like all indigenous peoples did not have a concept of ownership of land, they were stewards or guardians within a system that protected the land with a proscription on unnecessary tree felling etc. While the vast majority of actual carved Ogham inscriptions on standing stones consist of personal names (indicating land ownership) and were carved during the early Church era in Ireland, the erection of most of those standing stones (before carvings in Ogham were added) date from a much earlier period. By the Church organising ownership names to be carved in their version of Ogham on standing stones they desecrated the monuments of the indigenous people. Ogham translations from this era are based on an early Irish alphabet that corresponds to certain letters of the classical Latin alphabet, so Church Ogham is often a mix of old Gaelic and Latin.
This short chapter is an attempt to contain strong emotions in the face of open cultural mis-appropriation. So many writers ignore obvious evidence as it often contradicts their pet theories. Then they quote each other, do literary reviews and so on, but this author can only see such choices as a ‘market driven profitable ego selection’ where evidence that does not fit their theories is discarded.
It is on these Ogham-inscribed Standing Stones that we find Ogham written in many directions usually on the edge or side corner of a stone but also occasionally in the middle of a stone without an inscribed center line. There are also examples of Ogham being written on stone from bottom to top, from left to right and from the top-down. There are hundreds of online images of known Ogham inscribed standing stones with access details etc but the main focus of this book is on Ogham itself and not on standing stones.
The period of Ogham appearing on standing stones relates to the early Church in Ireland from 500 to 700 CE. This is the beginning of their imperial literary tradition in Celtic Ireland. As the Church displaced the Druids’ influence in some areas, churchmen began to appoint and anoint kings who subscribed to the Church's ways. Because the majority of writers rely exclusively on older written works it is often declared that Ogham only began when the stones were engraved upon. But this is not the case, because early Ogham predates the Catholic era by over two thousand years according to the Church writings. Some ‘scholars’ have even claimed that Ogham was merely an Irish version of Latin! Many of the Ogham stones found in Wales are bilingual, with vertical Ogham on the edge or corner of the stone and on the face the Latin version shown horizontally: this is evidence of imposition of a foreign imperial culture on indigenous people.
The fact is that the Church stole Ogham and then revised it to serve their own agenda i.e. Ogham to Latin / Church Irish. A big part of this was the sudden appearance of Ogham inscriptions on Standing Stones during the early Catholic era that somehow translated directly to Latin. This is cultural misappropriation of an indigenous literary tradition by a foreign imperial invader at its most vulgar. The Church stole the intellectual property, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions of our ancestors and then it proceeded with the wrongful, fraudulent and corrupt use of this ‘Church Ogham’ to promote its own control agenda as “written in stone”.
This was the fake news of the early medieval era in Ireland. Before the arrival of the Catholic religion, standing stones were not marked with Ogham, because Ogham was not for vulgar use. We are told in the Book of Ballymote that Ogma, father of Ogham, created Ogham to “keep learned men apart from rustics.” So when the Catholic scribes started carving Ogham on standing stones they knew that they were breaking the ancient traditions of the land that had been revered for centuries.
There is also the issue of the imperial notion of ‘ownership’ that appears with the Church marking standing stones with their version of Ogham declaring land ownership boundaries. The Celts like all indigenous peoples did not have a concept of ownership of land, they were stewards or guardians within a system that protected the land with a proscription on unnecessary tree felling etc. While the vast majority of actual carved Ogham inscriptions on standing stones consist of personal names (indicating land ownership) and were carved during the early Church era in Ireland, the erection of most of those standing stones (before carvings in Ogham were added) date from a much earlier period. By the Church organising ownership names to be carved in their version of Ogham on standing stones they desecrated the monuments of the indigenous people. Ogham translations from this era are based on an early Irish alphabet that corresponds to certain letters of the classical Latin alphabet, so Church Ogham is often a mix of old Gaelic and Latin.
This short chapter is an attempt to contain strong emotions in the face of open cultural mis-appropriation. So many writers ignore obvious evidence as it often contradicts their pet theories. Then they quote each other, do literary reviews and so on, but this author can only see such choices as a ‘market driven profitable ego selection’ where evidence that does not fit their theories is discarded.