It\u2019s no wonder that the name we called ourselves in our own language was \u2018Gaels\u2019 and that the language was an Ghaeilge. Gael means \u2018forest person\u2019 or \u2018wild man\u2019. It derives from the Old Irish goidel (\u2018wild man\u2019 or \u2018warrior\u2019), from the Proto-Celtic root weidelos (\u2018savage\u2019 or \u2018woodsman\u2019), which in turn is connected to weyd (\u2018wilderness\u2019). Initially, this may have been a derogatory term used by others about us, but we adopted it wholeheartedly. Its meaning suggests that we regarded ourselves primarily as people of the unenclosed wilderness rather than as settled farmers. <\/p>\n
We come from dank, misty woodland that, for much of our history, covered three-quarters of the island \u2013 this image of ourselves is a core element of early mythology, and yet it is challenged by recent studies of pollen deposits that reveal that large areas of the country were cleared at various points over the last six thousand years. The analysis supports the proverb, showing that the forests waxed and waned considerably in response to population levels, climate change, bog growth and various other factors. But across every epoch, from the Neolithic era to the Bronze Age through to the Iron Age and Middle Ages, woodlands were important symbolic ceremonial places. Our identity was bound up with trees. <\/p>\n
Most notable is the way that people were compared to trees or were praised for their tree-like attributes in poetry and mythology. Words such as g\u00e9ag (\u2018branch\u2019), buinne\u00e1n (\u2018slender shoot\u2019 or \u2018scion\u2019), slat (\u2018rod\u2019), tamhan (\u2018trunk\u2019 or \u2018stem\u2019) and bile (\u2018noble tree\u2019) are used interchangeably for both people and trees. Common honorific terms in the oral tradition were craobh choscartha (\u2018triumphant branch\u2019) or g\u00e9ag den chraoibh (\u2018branch of the tree\u2019) and the practice continued into Modern Irish. A nimble warrior could be compared to a willow, hazel, birch or aspen. A prominent leader or chieftain was portrayed as a venerable oak, ash or yew tree. <\/p>\n
In Duanaire Finn (an anthology compiled in the seventeenth century from far earlier sources), Fianna warriors were known as daoine mar daragh (\u2018people like oaks\u2019). C\u00fa Chulainn, the principal hero of the Ulster Cycle, is frequently compared to an oak in strength, resilience and fortitude. Genealogical poems also frequently refer to tree imagery, portraying ancestors as fr\u00e9amhacha (\u2018roots\u2019) and descendants as g\u00e9aga (\u2018branches\u2019). Indeed, families and clans were also likened to coillte (\u2018forests\u2019), doir\u00ed (\u2018oak woods\u2019) and craobhacha ghinealaigh (\u2018genealogical trees\u2019). <\/p>\n
These metaphors consciously drew parallels between a thriving family and the healthy ecosystem of a tree rooted in a particular locale, drawing nutrients from the soil to feed the network of branches, twigs, buds and leaves, while also providing nuts and seeds to feed animals and insects, creating leaf mulch in autumn to nourish the land and casting shade in summer to shelter the community. <\/p>\n
In the early seventeenth century, the poet Fearghal \u00d3g Mac an Bhaird praised archbishop Flaithr\u00ed \u00d3 Maoilchonaire as A cheinnbhile chathrach T\u00faama (\u2018O stately tree of the city of Tuam\u2019), craobh do lubhghort leasa T\u00e9 (\u2018branch of the orchard of the goddess T\u00e9\u2019s fortress\u2019) and tamhan \u00far \u00f3n Bhanbha bhr\u00e1ointe (\u2018fresh stalk from warm, moist lands of the goddess Banbha\u2019). <\/p>\n
![\"Manchán](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/X4CIYE32VRB5XPAMXRKFQJIZYA.jpg\")
Manch\u00e1n Magan’s final book. <\/p>\n