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About Vincent Byrne

Managing Director of Celtic Rings Ltd. But my passion is Celtic history and mythology.

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The History of the Ogham Alphabet

Posted on: May 14th, 2012 by Vincent Byrne 1 Comment

Anyone who has an interest in Irish history, will encounter references to the Ogham alphabet. This is an ancient script that resembles tally marks in a straight line, it is believed to date as far back as 1500 to 2500 years ago and is thought to be named after the Irish god Ogma.This is a large time scale, few facts are known about this ancient method of recording information and most of what is known is shrouded in legend and mystery. There are many examples of Ogham carved into standing stones and a few examples have survived etched into wood. Ogham is found extensively on the many standing stones of Ireland but examples can also be seen in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man.

Ogham Stone in Dingle, County Kerry


One of the difficulties about researching this period of Irish history is that there are no written accounts relating to the people of the period from 500 BC until Christianity arrived in Ireland in the 5th century AD. What is known has been obtained from records written by Greek and Roman historians or from stories told by the native people to missionaries and monks after the coming of Christianity and subsequently written down by them. The only exception to this is the Ogham record.

Ogham is also referred to as the Celtic Tree Alphabet and it looks nothing like today’s letters or writing, but surprisingly the letters of the Ogham alphabet correspond to those of the Roman alphabet and experts can translate them easily. Ogham was mainly used for carving names or inscriptions onto important stones, often grave stones or stone territorial markers. It is also believed to have been frequently used on wooden buildings, but very few examples of these have survived. Later,it was written down and can be seen in manuscripts, often as notes in margins, recorded as late as the 16th century.

The National Museum of Ireland.


There are some very good examples of Ogham stones to be seen in Ireland, some of which are at the National Museum in Kildare St, Dublin, but many survive still in their original location, placed there by people who lived more than 2000 years ago!

About 370 stone Ogham inscriptions have been discovered in Ireland. These are on standing stones that are from three to nine feet tall and mostly located in the southwest province of Munster in Ireland with others in County Kerry.

Where to See Examples of Ogham

St. Flannan's 13th Century Cathedral.


One unusual example in St Flannan’s Cathedral in Killaloe has Nordic Runes as well as Ogham carved on it.

The Ballycrovan Standing Stone with Ogham


Another stone stands near Ballycrovane Bay on the Beara Peninsula, this is easy to find, as it is well sign posted.

Saint Declans Church, Ardmore


The longest known inscription on any stone is on one of two stones at St Declan’s Church in Ardmore Co Waterford.

Collection of Ogham Stones in Dunloe.


To see a group of Ogham stones visit Dunloe, which is 8kms west of Killarney on the R562 near the village of Beaufort.

Kilmalkedar Church in County Mayo


In Kerry, the 12th century church at Kilmalkedar near Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula has a good example.

The Ancient Rathfranpark Wedge Tomb


A single ancient Bronze age standing stone stands near the Rathfranpark wedge tomb near Kilala in Co Mayo.



The Ogham Alphabet

Ogham Alphabet - Consonants and Vowels


The Ogham alphabet (vertical)



Ogham script reads - Love Forever

A Little Information About Hallmarks

Posted on: May 13th, 2012 by Vincent Byrne No Comments

If you read the details about each of the beautiful items of jewelry created by our craftsmen you will see that we usually mention that every piece is hallmarked by the Dublin Assay Office. We then explain that this is your assurance of the high quality of the item. This is quite important because a hallmark is only stamped on jewelry which has been examined by the Assay Office, that hallmark exists to protect the customer.

The Dublin Assay Office was founded in 1637 to assay all items of gold and silver produced in Ireland. The word ‘hallmark‘ dates back to the fifteenth century when craftsmen in London first brought their articles to Goldsmiths’ Hall for assessing and marking. The idea was that the stamp shown on the item would enable people to recognize which company produced the piece. Historic Dublin Castle in the city center is the location for the Irish Assay Office. The castle itself is a major tourist attraction and the magnificent State Apartments are open for guided tours when not in use for official business.

Assays Office

Dublin CAstle Assays Office


In their purest form precious metals are unsuitable for making into jewelry, the metals just don’t work well unless other metals are included to form an alloy. The other metals are included in exact proportions, for instance 10k is 417 parts of pure gold per thousand, 14kt gold is 585 parts pure gold per 1000 and 18kt gold is 750 parts per 1000. The Assay Office tests this and part of the hallmark will show these numbers so that you will be able to recognize the purity of the gold. Among the other metals added to gold are silver, copper and zinc.

In the case of sterling silver the proportions are 925 parts per thousand and for platinum it is 950. Should these proportions not be accurate for any item, it will not meet the standards of the Assay Office and will be returned to the manufacturer.To determine the purity of the precious metal, a tiny sample is scraped from the item in an unobtrusive place and then tested. Once the purity has been established the item will be stamped accordingly.

As well as the purity mark there is the manufacturers mark and also a date letter which denotes the year in which the piece was created or hallmarked. This letter is changed on New Year’s Day each year, so the hallmark can also tell you the age of an item. Hallmarks are a fascinating and complex subject, you can learn much more about them with research, but for our purposes, here at Celtic Wedding Rings, we are confident knowing that each hallmarked item we sell to our customers is of the highest quality, both in content and craftsmanship.

Saint Patrick & Saint Patrick’s Day

Posted on: March 6th, 2012 by Vincent Byrne 1 Comment

It’s fairly certain that virtually everyone who is Irish, or is of Irish descent will have heard of St Patrick and be aware that his special day is celebrated on March 17th. This is the day when he is believed to have died, in the year 461 AD, but many may not be aware of his life story, much of which is shrouded in legend and myth.

Saint Patrick as Bishop

Saint Patrick Portrait


However, there are some facts about his life of which we can be sure, because they originate from two letters, written by Patrick himself, which amazingly still survive and provide some details of his life which are universally accepted as true. He may have been born in either Scotland, or Roman England, but from the letters we know that at around sixteen years of age he was living in Wales with his family and was captured by Irish raiders, who took him to Ireland as a slave. He was finally able to escape after six years of mostly imprisonment and returned to his family. He later entered the Church and perhaps surprisingly, returned to Ireland, (this time as an ordained bishop) in the north and west of the country. Legend says that he saw God in a dream and was instructed by Him to escape with a ship.

The more uncertain information about Ireland’s’ patron saint is that he was born in the latter half of the 4th century AD and his real name was most likely Maewyn Succat, but the Roman version was Patricius. His father was a British-Roman army officer named Calpurnicus. The events that followed his escape from slavery are believed to be that after his return to Wales he traveled to France, where he joined a monastery and studied for about twelve years under St. Germain, the bishop of Auxerre. After being ordained as a bishop, he dreamed that the Irish people were calling him to return and teach them about God.

There is an important document called The Confessio, which is Patrick’s spiritual autobiography. It refers to a dream he had after his return to Britain, in which someone named Victoricus delivered to Patrick a letter titled “The Voice of the Irish.”

Saint Patrick Shamrock

The Shamrock is strongly linked with Saint Patrick


Of the many legends associated with St Patrick is the story that he used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the idea of the Trinity, which is the concept of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why the shamrock is so strongly associated with him. Another legend tells that Saint Patrick rid Ireland of all venomous snakes by putting the curse of God on them. He then drove them all into the sea where they drowned. In the literal sense, this is very unlikely to be true as it is highly improbable that there were ever any poisonous snakes in Ireland. It is more likely to be symbolic as the serpent represents evil and could mean St Patrick’s mission to remove the pagan influences from Ireland. This mission lasted for about thirty years until his death in the 5th century AD, March 17th, which is now commemorated as St Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in America in 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. New York City held its first official St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1766 and the saying goes that on this day “everybody is Irish!” Nowadays more than 100 U.S. cities hold Saint Patrick’s Day parades.

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