Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (And One for Sun)

Meet the nealadoiri (cloud-watchers) and readoiri (stargazers) from our past who, without the luxury of Met Eireann at their disposal, observed birds, trees, animals, as well as markers on land and sea for signs of weather change. The sheer richness and variety of terms they amassed reveal the closeness with which they observed the world around them.

Swallows flying low foretold rain. The heron's behaviour offered many hints: Aimsir chrua thirim nuair a bhionn an corr eisc suas in aghaidh srutha chun na sleibhte (when the heron flies upstream to the mountains the weather will be dry but rough). Fearthainn nuair a thagann si an abhainn anuas (when she goes downstream, it will rain).

Evoking countless sodden, shivery experiences on this Atlantic-swept island of ours, this beautifully illustrated gift book uses Irish words to grasp an almost-lost world through the wisdom stored in the Irish language.