placenames – OG(H)AM

In Search of Lost Ogham Biographies

By Dr Nora White, OG(H)AM’s Irish Postdoctoral Researcher Following the first recording of an ogham stone (at Emlagh East, Co. Kerry) by Edward Lhuyd in the early 1700s, the vast majority of Irish ogham stones were recognised and recorded in the 19th and 20th centuries, although an occasional new find does still occur. In many… Continue reading In Search of Lost Ogham Biographies

Since some of the OG(H)AM team will be heading Stateside in early March to share our findings with colleagues in Boston, it seems timely to feature an Ogam of the Month with a US connection. The manuscript now known as ‘Dunnington 1’, bequeathed to the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 2017 by the late Professor Edgar Slotkin of the University of Cincinnati, was one of two Irish manuscripts purchased by Mr Michael Dunnington in Lexington, Kentucky during the early 1980s. At the end of the manuscript, some ogam script was written alongside several doodles. The first ten symbols should probably be transcribed as PATTMULLER. These are followed by an eleventh symbol of doubtful value, shaped a little bit like a lozenge. The significance of this little scrap of ogam script is uncertain: could it be the name of someone once associated with or in possession of the manuscript, or is it merely more doodling on the part of the scribe?