There are two sections to this:
1. Background to Wishing Trees
2. Vocabulary
1. Information about Wishing Trees can be found on the last page of the book. Here is a translation:
Wishing trees or fairy trees can be found in many places in Ireland.
Historically, these were places that were believed to be door-ways to the fairy world.
The trees were considered good places to make wishes for future health and happiness.
Trees that were thought to be fairy trees were usually hawthorn trees, but they could also be oak or ash and they were often located near a holy well.
More recently, some of these trees have been covered with the physical embodiments of people’s wishes. Over time, however, these physical wishes can be harmful to the trees if they are made from material that won’t biodegrade.
The inhabitants of my story bring wishes to tie on this wishing tree. Like wishes, which can be fleeting, the best kind for the trees are those which will disappear over time and become part of the environment.
Some famous wishing trees sites in Ireland include:
The Hill of Tara, County Meath
St. Brigid’s Well, County Kildare
Tarbert Fairy Fort, County Kerry
Ballyvourney, County Cork
Dungiven Priory, County Derry
Fore Abbey, County Westmeath
2. Stór focal (vocabulary)
page 1
ar chnocainín – on a little hill
(cnoc = hill)
léi féin = by herself
page 4
crann = tree
guíonna = wishes
page 5
daoine = people
ábalta = able
(in ann = able)
guíonna a fhágáil = leave wishes
ann = there
page 8
bhí cónaí ar = lived
go leor ainmhithe = lots of animals
mór(a) = large
page 10
beag(a) = small
page 12
áit shábháilte = a safe place / haven
(literally: a safe place was in the tree but in Irish, we can use “in” to define something so: “the tree was a safe place”)
dóibh siúd = for those
a bhíonn ag eitilt = who fly (literally “who do be flying”)
sa lá = in the day (you can also just say “lá”)
page 13
san oíche = at night (you can also just say “oíche“)
page 15
áit shábháilte = a safe place / haven
do chách = for everyone
(you can also say “do gach duine”)
page 17
ach = but
céard faoin = what about the
faoin gcrann féin = about the tree (it)self
(note: we refer to the tree as female in this book despite “crann” being a masculine noun; there is no genderless ‘it’ form in Irish)
nach raibh = didn’t
guí ar bith = any wish/any wishes at all
aici = have/has (for a female)
page 19
nach raibh = didn’t
mianta = desires
ar bith = at all
page 21
go cinnte = for sure/surely
mianta a croí = her heart’s desires
teas na gréine = the heat of the sun
page 23
séideáin ghaoithe = gusts of wind
page 25
ceathanna báistí = showers of rain (i.e. rainshowers!)
page 28
cairde = friends
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