What's the Irish for 'Ireland'?
Have you noticed that there seem to be three words in Irish for 'Ireland':
Éire; Éirinn and Éireann.
Why is this, and which word should you use and when?
Read on for all the answers!
Éire
'Éire' is the official name of Ireland, as set out in Bunreacht na hÉireann (The Irish Constitution).
This is the word you will see on stamps or anywhere that the word 'Ireland' is used without any other words before it.
Éirinn
If you're already confused about the different forms of the same noun in Irish (e.g. the nominative form of 'house' is 'teach' whereas the genitive form is 'tí') then you'll be relieved to know that there used to ANOTHER form for many nouns...the dative form, which has fallen out of use for the most part. The dative form of a word was used after prepositions. However, in modern Irish most nouns do not have a dative form....apart from one or two....one of those being Éire!
The dative form of the word 'Éire' is 'Éirinn'.
'Éirinn' should be used after prepositions (those small words such as under, on, in etc).
Here are a few examples:
Tá mé i mo chónaí in Éirinn / I live in Ireland
D'fhill mé ar Éirinn dhá bhliain ó shin / I returned to Ireland two years ago
Fáilte go hÉirinn / Welcome to Ireland (*the 'h' here is just to assist pronunciation - it would be difficult to say 'go Éirinn')
Éireann/na hÉireann
The genitive form of the word 'Éire' is 'Éireann'. This means that it is used for description, or possession. In the genitive form the word sometimes has the article before it: 'na'; and sometimes not. You will come across this form of the word very often - anytime something is being described as Irish, or 'of Ireland':
muintir na hÉireann / the people of Ireland
Uachtarán na hÉireann / the President of Ireland
Foireann rugbaí na hÉireann / the Irish rugby team (lit. the rugby team of Ireland)
Bunreacht na hÉireann / the Irish Constitution (lit. the Constitution of Ireland)
You will also see this word used without 'na' before it:
Seanad Éireann / the Irish Senate
Bus Éireann / Irish Bus
Iarnród Éireann / Irish Rail
How to learn Irish
There are lots of ways to learn Irish. If you would like to follow a structured programme be sure to check out my TEG A2 (Upper Beginner) and TEG B1 (Intermediate) Irish language courses. All About Irish also offers an online self-study Beginner Irish course. If you are interested in Irish literature and poetry then make sure to check out the Learn Irish Through Literature and Learn Irish Through Poetry courses. All courses are available to access on the free All About Irish app and come with full support. If you need any more information just contact All About Irish here.
