How old is the Irish language?

How old is the Irish (Gaelic) language? Why am I asking this? Because there is something very interesting in the Irish language, which can possibly help us determine when and where this language had originally developed...This:

This image shows a person standing at the door of his house. The door is facing east. What is astounding is how these words for direction of movement and orientation match in the Irish (Gaelic) language...

This language characteristic can only be explained if we assume that this part of the Irish language was developed by the culture which lived in a world which faced east...Where facing east was something everyone did every day...

Like if their houses were built in such a way that the house entrances faced east...

It turns out that most rectangular [Irish] Neolithic houses had east facing entrances...

The same goes for the Irish Bronze Age round houses, which were also predominantly built with their doors facing East or South East...

So if you were a person living in this kind of the world, then your language will naturally develop in such a way that North is Leftward, South is Rightward...

I can't see any other reason why such a strange cultural trait would develop...Can you?

So when did this part of the Irish language develop? 

During Neolithic, 4th - 3rd millennium BC?

During Bronze Age, 3rd - 1st millennium BC?

Irish dictionaries

S. Dineen 1904 dictionary

Ó Dónaill 1977 dictionary

Neolithic houses

"Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland" by Gabriel Cooney

Bronze Age houses

"Bronze Age settlement in Oranmore" - blog article

"Middle Bronze Age Houses At Mitchelstown, Co. Cork" - excavation report

PS: The only other culture where I found something similar is Hebrew culture...

In "Doorway Orientation, Settlement Planning and Cosmology in Ancient Israel During Iron Age II" by Avraham Faust we can read that:

"An examination of Iron Age buildings and settlements in ancient Israel indicates that a large number of them were oriented toward the east, while the west was extremely under-represented...

An examination of various climatic and functional considerations does not seem to explain the phenomenon. But ethnographic studies, show that cosmological principles can have on the planning of buildings and settlements, and that in many cases the east is preferred...

The common Biblical Hebrew word for east is qedma (forward), while the west is ahora (backward). Additional words for these directions indicate that the east had a good connotation while the west had a bad one...

Thus, the archaeological pattern, along with language and texts (which are used as a substitute for human informants), seem to give an important insight into some of the cosmological principles of the ancient Israelites"...

I want to thank @ainiladra for pointing me to this table found in "Handbook of Ugaritic Studies" by Wilfred Watson and Nicolas Wyatt, which shows that exactly the same overlap between the sides of the world and directions found in Gaelic, is also found in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hebrew and Arabic...And it obviously dates to at least the Bronze Age... 

Greedy king Gaban

Llyn Tegid also known in English as Bala Lake, is a lake in Gwynedd, Wales. The name Tegid may be related to Welsh teg, meaning "fair". It is the largest natural body of water in Wales. The name Bala could actually be older than the Welsh name. It could be derived from Proto-Indo-European "*bale-" (bog, marsh).

Cognate with

Baltic:
Lithuanian "bala" (bog; marsh; swamp; pool)
Latvian "bala" (a muddy, treeless depression)

Slavic
Russian "baloto" (swamp; bog; marsh)
Serbian "blato" (lake, pond, mud, swamp), "bala" (slime, spit)
(Same in all other Slavic languages)

Germanic
English "pool"
(Same in all other Germanic languages)

Albanian "baltë" (mud)
Romanian "baltă" (mud, swamp)
Greek "βάλτος" (váltos, swamp)

Thought to be derivable from Proto-Indo-European "*bʰelH-" meaning white...

So it is possible that Bala also just means lake, pond, swamp...

Why am I talking about this? Because of a very interesting legend about the lake Bala in Wales.

Once upon a time, where Bala (Llyn Tegid) lies today was the old town of Bala. Tegid Foel, who was very cruel prince, lived in a palace in the town. Despite numerous warnings that vengeance would come for his cruelty, he still didn’t change his ways. When his first grandson was born, the prince held a banquet to mark the occasion and he invited all of his friends and acquaintances who were all equally as cruel. Along with the food and the drink, the prince had hired the best harpist in the country to entertain them. During the feast, the harpist heard a voice saying “Vengeance will come!” When he looked over his shoulder he saw a little bird, which enticed him out of the palace and up to the hills where he fell asleep. Upon waking in the morning, the harpist saw that the old town of Bala had been drowned, and he found his harp floating on the lake. The lake was named after the cruel prince, and it’s said that boatmen, can hear at times, a feeble voice saying “Vengeance will come, vengeance will come” and another voice enquiring “When will it come?” The first voice replies “In the third generation”.

The reason why this legend is so interesting is that we find the same legend in two places one in Croatia and one in Serbia. 

Sveti Juraj u tradicijskoj baštini Hrvata https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/171692

In Senj area of Croatia, there is a legend about Miloševo jezero (Miloš's lake) which is located under Krinja hill.  

Where the lake is once stood Širingrad city and the castle of king Gavan. Because of Gavan's evil deeds, the castle was swallowed by the earth and in its place a lake appeared. In this lake, the legend says, St George killed  a dragon. People say that until recently you could still see Gavan's castle at the bottom of the lake. The lake was also home to bulls with six horns, which used to come out of the lake and fight with bulls belonging to the people living in the area. Some shepherds swear that they have seen these bulls with their own eyes...

Here is the original in Croatian:

In Serbia there is a story recorded in a mid 19th century dictionary about king Gavan or Gaban. 

King Gavan was a mighty king who ruled somewhere above Danube. His wife's name was Gabanka, Gavanka. He had a great city and was very powerful. But he was also a very greedy and mean. One day angels fell from the sky and destroyed the King Gavan's castle and it sank into the lake Balaton (Originally just Balato meaning lake, pond, swamp). 

King Gavan was punished to be eternally bitten by snakes. 

There used to be a fresco in the old Tronosha (tripod) monastery in Serbia depicting an old man naked covered in snakes which were biting his nipples. A local legend says that the man depicted on the fresco was king Gaban.

Now this is really interesting. We have the same story about evil greedy king whose town was submerged by a lake called Bala (Balaton) because of his sins. But we also have something even more interesting: the name of the evil greedy mean king from Balkan legends literally means "greedy" in Gaelic, Irish (Celtic)...

Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages. An important record of the folkloric history of Ireland, it was compiled and edited by an anonymous scholar in the 11th century, and might be described as a mélange of mythology, legend, history, folklore and Christian historiography. It is usually known in English as The Book of Invasions or The Book of Conquests, and in Modern Irish as Leabhar Gabhála Éireann or Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann.

The word Gabala from "Lebor Gabála Érenn" comes from the Irish root word gabh (old Irish gab) which means to take, to capture, to seize.

So king Gabhan could be the mean greedy king who only takes and never gives. If we look at "foclóir gaedhilge agus béarla by Patrick Dineen" we find these words which are derived from this root:

gabh - to take, to capture, to seize
gabhálach - taking, catching, receiving, seizing, spoiling, preying, conquering, passing or going by.

As far as I can recall from history books, Celts were last seen in the Balkans in 3rd century BC...Many many centuries before current local Slavic population arrived from somewhere in Poland...

How come then the mean greedy always grabbing king from this stories is called Gaban (Gavan)? Coincidence?

One of old towns in Neretva valey in Bosnia is called Gabela. Gabela means custom, tax, taking and also a customs house. Gabella in Catalan, Italian, French means tax, taking given to a prince. But if you look at the etymology of these word you will see that they all come from Arabic قبالة (qabāla, “bail, guaranty”), which makes no sense at all. I believe that this word also comes from Gaelic, Irish (Celtic) gabh - to take, to capture, to seize, which is what tax literally is, a portion of what you have which you have to give to a greedy mean prince or king or...

Interesting right?

Sceptre

BronzeAge warrior with a "Shillelagh", type of blackthorn knobstick. Sardinia, Nuragic Culture. 

This is the so called "Ptuj inscription", a line of text written in Noric language, a little known Central European #Celtic language spoken in Roman province of Noricum. 

It reads: ARTEBUDZBROGDUI

This is interpreted as two personal names: Artebudz [son] of Brogduos. The name Artebudz is proposed to mean "bear penis" (compare Welsh arth "bear" and Irish bod "penis")... 

In Serbian we have these two words: 

budža - knobstick, also anything that sticks out, that can be stuck into something else, like a penis. 
budžiti - to stick something like budža into something tight, like a penis into vagina 

This is an Irish knowbstick. I believe most people reading this know what penis looks like 🙂 

Serbian word budža also means someone important, someone who is sticking out...🙂 

In Brittany we find "Penn Bazh" which is exactly the same as the Irish knobstick. 

Penn Bazh was and still is used as a weapon. It literally means head stick where the word "bazh" means stick, basically Celtic "budz" or Serbian "budža" 

Interestingly in Serbian we have another version of the word "budža" meaning someone imortant: "badža" which corresponds with Breton "bazh". So we find both variants of the Celtic word for knobstick, budz and bazh in modern Serbian... 

The official etymology for the Irish word "bod" meaning "penis" is that it comes from Middle Irish "bot" (tail, penis) which comes from Proto-Celtic "*buzdos" (tail, penis).

Interestingly, there is a Serbian word "buzdovan" means a knobstick, battle club just like "budža". So we have two old Irish words (bod, buzd) in Serbian both meaning the penis (knob), knobstick.

In English the phrases "to be a knob" or "to be a dick" both mean that the person in question is showing off, is full of himself, is unpleasant, offensive or even abusive. Like someone who has or thinks he has absolute power, superior worth and right over others.

In Serbian when someone has power over others, he is called "budža" literally a penis, a knob, a knobstick. This is not a derogatory term, but an expression of respect. Knobstick is here directly linked to importance and power over others and is the symbol of that power

In Serbian when someone is "budža", has power over others he is also "neki kurac" meaning a penis, a knob. Like in "on misli da je neki kurac" meaning he thinks that he is important. This directly links a knobstick and knob, the power over others and reproductive power...

Here is a perfect example of the use of "neki kurac": "Modern paradox: The bigger cunt you are (obvious), the bigger chance you have to become a dick (not obvious, means powerful, important)"🙂

This is completely natural and logical, because in clan societies, where all clan members are blood relatives, the oldest male, "Djed" (grandfather) is the one who holds the position of power over others. And unsurprisingly in the Balkans, knobstick is the symbol of that power

Like on this medieval fresco from Macedonia where the elders called "Djed" (grandfather) carry knobsticks both as weapons and as symbols of power.

I believe that this is ancient. It is the simplest the most direct expression of the patriarchal power that you can get. I made you, you came from my penis, therefore I have power over you. 

In Serbian the word for descended from is "potekao" literally "poured out of (his penis)" 🙂

Originally the elders probably held their penises as symbols of powers. In Serbian when someone is behaving like he has power we say "kurči se", meaning "he is showing off, he is being a dick" but literally "he is sticking his dick out" and "he is wielding his knob" 🙂

In Serbian the expression "ponaša se kao da je uhvatio boga za kurac" means "he is behaving like he has absolut power", but literally means "he is behaving like he is holding God's dick". 🙂

Serbs believed that they descend from god Dabog. That they were children of Dabog. So Dabog being the oldest male, the DJED, means that his dick is the symbol of absolute god given power. Is knobstick the symbol of the Dabog's dick? And is this where sceptre of power comes from?

These medieval stećak standing stones from Bosnia all have engraved knobsick. As all the medieval stećak standing stone engravings have religious symbolism, this shows that knobsick was a symbol of not just civil but also religious power at the time. These were djed, elder graves...

And just so you know I am not the only one who has seen penis as the original sceptre, here is a line form the Sumerian lexicon by John A. Halloran:

ñišuš-bar: ruler's staff; scepter. Literally 'penis'+'to see,show'

Klis

In my first article "The cross between hockey and murder" I talked about mythological, historical and archaeological references to hurling which show that this Gaelic game could be over 3000 years old.

In my second article "The invasions of hurlers" I talked about the spread of hurling to other parts of North Western Europe and how this spread was facilitated by the Irish invasions of Scotland and Wales and the Irish settlement in Iceland. It looks like Hurling could be an origin of such games as  shinty in Scotland, cammag in Isle of Man, bando (bandi) in Wales, field hockey in England, choule in France, knattleikr in Iceland, Bandi in Scandinavia and in Russia and eventually ice hockey.

In my third article "The long puck" I talked about a version of Hurling which could be an origin of such games as kolf in Netherlands and golf in Scotland.

In my article "Pagan games" I talked about the origin of Hurling. 

This is the last article about the European "stick and ball" games. 

There is a whole series of folk stick and (loosely speaking) ball games recorded across Europe which can be described with these three sentences:

1. One person is throwing the ball towards another person who is trying to bat it away
2. One person is batting the ball away from himself, while the other person is trying to catch it
3. One person is defending the target (a stump of a tree) with a bat while another person is trying to hit the target with a ball

These folk games differed over time, place, and culture, resulting in similar yet variant forms. They had no standard documented rules and instead were played according to historical customs. They tended to be played by working classes, peasants, and children. These games were often associated with earlier religious ceremonies and worship rituals and became discouraged and even altogether prohibited by subsequent governing states and religious authorities.

I will here list the known variants of these games:

Stoolball

Stoolball is attested by name as early as 1450. Nearly all medieval references describe it as a game played during Easter celebrations.

In stoolball, one player throws the ball at a target while another player defends the target. Originally, the target was defended with a bare hand. Later, a bat of some kind was used (in modern stoolball, a bat like a very heavy table tennis paddle is used). "Stob-ball" and "stow-ball" were regional games similar to stoolball. What the target originally was in stoolball is not certain; it was possibly a tree stump, since "stob" and "stow" all mean stump in some local dialects.

There were several versions of stoolball. In the earliest versions, the object was primarily to defend the stool. Successfully defending the stool counted for one point, and the batter was out if the ball hit the stool. There was no running involved. Another version of stoolball involved running between two stools, and scoring was similar to the scoring in cricket. In perhaps yet another version there were several stools, and points were scored by running around them as in baseball.

When Englishmen came to America, they brought stoolball with them. William Bradford in his diary for Christmas Day, 1621, noted (with disapproval) how the men of Plymouth were "frolicking in þe street, at play openly; some pitching þe barre, some at stoole-ball and shuch-like sport". Because of the different versions of stoolball, and because it was played not only in England, but also in colonial America, stoolball is considered by many to have been the basis of not only cricket, but both baseball and rounders as well.

Cricket

The history of cricket prior to 1650 is something of a mystery. Games believed to have been similar to cricket had developed by the 13th century. There was a game called "creag", and another game, "Handyn and Handoute" (Hands In and Hands Out), which was made illegal in 1477 by King Edward IV, who considered the game childish, and a distraction from compulsory archery practice.

References to a game actually called "cricket" appeared around 1550. It is believed that the word cricket is based either on the word cric, meaning a crooked stick possibly a shepherd's crook (early forms of cricket used a curved bat somewhat like a hockey stick)

Trap ball

In trap ball, played in England since the 14th century, a ball was thrown in the air, to be hit by a batsman and fielded. In some variants a member of the fielding team threw the ball in the air; in some, the batter tossed it himself as in fungo; in others, the batsman caused the ball to be tossed in the air by a simple lever mechanism: versions of this, called bat and trap and Knurr and spell, are still played in some English pubs. In trap-ball there was no running, instead the fielders attempted to throw the ball back to within a certain distance of the batter's station. Trap-ball may be the origin of the concept of foul lines; in most variants the ball had to be hit between two posts to count.

Lapta

Lapta is a stick and ball game which has been played in Russia since at least early medieval time. Lapta accessories, such as wooden bats and felt balls dated back to the 14th century were found by archeologists in Veliky Novgorod. No festival or holiday in Russia could pass without Lapta.

Lapta is played by two teams of 5 to 12 players each on a level ground about 30 to 70 m long.  One team is considered to be “batsmen” and another stands for “taggers”.  One of the taggers throws the ball at the batsmen. A batsman tries to hit the ball as far as possible. While the taggers are trying to get the ball, the batsman runs across the field to the opposite side of the field and then back again. Once the taggers get the ball, they try to hit the running batsman who tries to avoid being hit.  Each successful run earns points points to the batsmen team. A team wins by either getting more points during the scheduled time or by having all its players complete runs.

Palant

Palant is a Polish stick and ball game which dates back to the Middle Ages  Palant is played by two teams of 8-15 players, for 10 or 15 minutes twice. The players select priority to start the game by, for instance, throwing coins. The playing field is a rectangle, 50 metres by 25 metres. Players of one team take their places behind the nest line, while the players of the other team stand in the field and behind it. Points are scored only by the team inside the nest. One by one, the team members hit the ball from the nest with the palant (a wooden bat) aiming to strike it as far as possible into the field and then run, ideally to come back to the nest to score. The striker gains points if he can do this before the “field players” (catchers) catch the ball and throw it back behind the nest line. The player can do it in four parts reaching particular bases (points A, B or C) and stopping if necessary, or at a time. If the ball hasn't left the field yet, the striker can do it at a time. The higher scorer is the winner.

Šore

The game "šore" (batting) was once played all over Banat region of Serbia. The game is played in the same way as Russian Lapta. It was originally only played for Easter...

Oină

Oină is a Romanian traditional sport, similar in many ways to baseball and lapta. The oldest mentions  of the game come from the 14th century.

The game begins with the team at bat, with one of the players throwing the ball while another player of the same team has to hit it with a wooden bat ("bâtă") and send it as far as he can towards the opponents field. After that, if the ball is caught by the opponents, the player has to run along the marked lanes on the field to reach the end line without being hit by the opponents.

What is very interesting is the etymology of the name "oină". It was originally "hoina", and is derived from the Cuman word oyn "game" (a cognate of Turkish oyun). Why is this interesting will become obvious soon. 

Horne-billets

This game, otherwise unknown, was described in an unpublished 17th-century monograph on games by Francis Willoughby, which included rules for over 130 pastimes including stool-ball and stow-ball. It is significant in that it involved both a bat and base-running, although it was played with a wooden cat rather than a ball and the multiple "bases" were holes in the ground: the batter reached safety by putting the end of his bat in a hole before the fielders could put the cat in it. This has echoes in cricket's manner of scoring runs by touching the bat to the ground across the crease before the fielders can hit the nearby wicket with the ball.

Finally there is a game which is played from England to India under various names: Tip cat (England),  Tchizh/Siskin (Russia), Gulli Danda (India), Klis (Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia)... All these games are played with two sticks: a small one 10 to 15 cm long pointed on both ends, and a stick 60 to 80 cm long.

This is the most primitive stick and "ball" game inasmuch that it is played with a sharpened stick and not a ball. 

Tip cat

This is an English game, also called cat, cat and dog, one-a-cat, pussy, or piggy. 

Using the stick, the player shouts "Catty" and shoots the catty (short pointy stick) as far as possible from the base. The base is a small hole over which the catty had been placed. The stick placed under the catty helps shoot it forwards.

The fielders try to catch the catty as it flies through the air. If the fielders catch the catty the player is out and the fielder who makes the catch then becomes the player.

If a clean catch is not made, the stick is laid across the "catty hole" and the fielder who retrieves the catty throws it from the spot where it landed to try and hit the stick. If the catty hits the stick the player is out and the fielder becomes the player.

If the catty does not hit the stick the player then strikes the catty on one of its pointed ends with the stick. This causes the catty to shoot up in the air - when it is up in the air the player tries to strike it with the stick and drive it forward.

This is repeated three times - if skilfully done the catty should be sent forward 20-30 yards. Fielders again try to catch the catty.

The stick is then laid across the catty hole and the player estimates how many strides are needed to get from the catty hole to the stick.

One of the fielders tries to cover the distance in this number of strides. If he succeeds the player is out. If he fails the estimate is added to the players score. The player tries to make his estimate large enough to gain a good score, but not so large that he will be out.

Tchizh (Siskin)

This Russian game is played with “tchizh/siskin”, i.e. round stick 10 to 15 cm long and 2 to 3 cm over, pointed on both ends, and “lapta” – a stick 60 to 80 cm long, with one end squared to make it more convenient to hold in hand. A square (“home”) up to 1 m large is drawn on a playground and put tchiz in the middle. One player is a batsman and others are catchers that stand in line at the edge of the playground. The batsman strikes tchizh to go up in the air, and with the second blow tries to beat it off far away. A catcher tries to catch it. If he is success with that, he gains one score and the right to replace the batsman, who stands in line of catchers. If the catcher fails to get the flying “siskin”, he has to throw it from its falling place into “home”, whereas the batsman beats it off with lapta. In Ukraine the game is known as chizhik (чижик)

Gulli Danda

This Indian game is played with two sticks: a large one called a danda, which is used to hit a smaller one, the gilli. Gilli Danda is known by various other names in India. Standing in a small circle, the player balances the gilli on a stone in an inclined manner (somewhat like a see-saw) with one end of the gilli touching the ground while the other end is in the air. The player then uses the danda to hit the gilli at the raised end, which flips it into the air. While it is in the air, the player strikes the gilli, hitting it as far as possible. Having struck the gilli, the player is required to run and touch a pre-agreed point outside the circle before the gilli is retrieved by an opponent. This aspect of the game is similar to runs in cricket or home-runs in baseball.

In Azerbaijan, a similar game is called Çilingağac (Chilingaghaj).

In Galicia (Spain), a similar game is called billarda.

In Catalonia and the Valencian Community, a similar game is called bòlit.

In Italy a similar game known as "Lippa", "Lipe", "Tirolo"

In Poland a similar game is known, called Klipa

In Slovenia a similar game is known as pandolo

In Serbia this game is known as "Klis".

This game has been played all over Balkans specifically in areas inhabited by Serbs. 

To define which team starts first, two players (one per team) stack their hands up one after another, bottom-up on a vertically positioned stick. The team whose player’s hand covers top of the stick begins the game. This exact same rule exists in Lapta, Šore and Oină.

The game starts by batter tipping "klis" (a tip-cat) up into the air with "pala" (a stick, bat), while the opponent tries to catch it before it hits the ground. If the opponent succeeds, the roles are changed. If not, the attacker defends the trunk with his stick from the opponent who throws the tip-cat from where it fell on the ground at the trunk. If the opponent hits the target, the attacker who tipped the tip-cat is out and his teammates have the right to throw the tip-cat.

If the tip-cat falls close to the trunk (up to the length of the stick), the game continues and the player who was throwing the tip-cat, throws again. If the tip-cat falls on the ground farther than the length of the stick, then the player who was defending the trunk measures the distance from the trunk to the tip-cat in stick lengths. The number of stick lengths represents the awarded score. The team whose player manages to defend the trunk and hit the tip-cat gets points and the right to throw the tip-cat again.

The game is played till one of the teams reaches the agreed number of points.

Now here is, to me, the most interesting bit about this game. In Serbian parts of Balkans this game is called "klis". This word has no meaning or etymology in Slavic languages. 

However

In the Irish-English Dictionary - University College Cork we find this:

cleas, -a, pl. id. and -anna, and clis, m., a play, a game, sport; a feat, device, trick; craft; art,
science; cleas do dhéanadh, cleas d'imirt ar, to play a trick on; an cleas céadna do
dhéanamh leis, to do the same thing with it, to treat it in the same manner.
cleasach, -aighe, a., tricky, wily, playful; ingenious.
cleasacht, -a, f., sport, pastime.
cleasaidheacht, -a, f., playing, pastime, illusion, sleight-of-hand, frolic, subtility, trick.
cleasradh, -aidh, m., device; sport, game, amusement, sleight; acting. juggling
cleasuidhe, g. id., pl. -dhthe, m., an artful man, an actor, a juggler, a quack, a mountebank; a
tugger (Om.).
cleasuighim, -ughadh, v. tr. and intr., I sport, play, gambol, perform feats.

And in Focloir gaeilge bearla O Donaill we find that: 

clis is the plural of cleas

Now remember how Romanian game "oină" was originally "hoina", a word derived from the Cuman word "oyn" meaning "game"? 

It seems that the Serbian word "klis" is of Gaelic origin and literally means "games, sports, feats, tricks". 

How old is this word? According to official history, Celtic languages were last time spoken in the Balkans in the 4th and 3rd century BC when Celts invaded Balkans on their way to Galatia. Did they bring this game with them and somehow both the game and the name survived in the mountain of the Balkans until this day? Preserved by the descendant of the Scordisci? 

Slogan

A slogan, is a short and striking or memorable phrase used to quickly and effectively capture the attention of the audience.

It is used in advertising

And in politics

Slogan can be written but it can also be vocal. Please note that the people on the above picture are carrying a placard with a written slogan but they are also shouting slogans. And this is the original meaning of the word slogan: a short and striking or memorable phrase shouted by a group of people to describe their common cause. 

If we look at the etymology of the word "slogan" in the online etymological dictionary we find this:

"Slogan first written down 1670s, earlier slogorne (1510s), "battle cry," from Gaelic sluagh-ghairm "battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh "army, host, slew" and gairm "a cry". Metaphoric sense of "distinctive word or phrase used by a political or other group" is first attested 1704"

This is following picture is a scene from the movie Braveheart. In it, just before the main battle with the English, Mel Gibson, who plays the Scottish leader William Wallace, yells a battle cry: "Alba gu bràth" which in Scots Gaelic means "Scotland until judgment" or roughly "Scotland Forever". And all the Scottish warriors repeat it, to show to the enemy, and to each other, that they stand united and that they will fight united. 

This unity, this readiness to fight together and for each other, is what transforms a group of people into a sluagh "army, host, slew". 

Now the Irish word "sluagh" comes from Old Irish "slúag, slóg" meaning "army, host, throng, crowd, company, assembly". This word is then said to come from hypothetical Proto-Celtic "*slougos" meaning "troop, army", which is then said to have come from hypothetical Proto-Indo-European root "*slowgʰo-", "*slowgo-"  meaning "entourage". Now what is interesting about this proposed PIE root is that the only other words that come from this PIE root, apart from the Celtic ones, are Proto-Slavic "*sluga" meaning "servant", whose descendants are found in all Slavic languages, and Lithuanian "slaugà" meaning "servitude". 

Again we see interesting connection between Celtic and Slavic languages....

But I believe that the connection is even more interesting. 

What is it that turns a group of people into a troop, an army? The common cause that unites them. Original troops, armies were groups of family, clan, tribe members united together in order to protect the family, clan, tribe and its property. Or take over another family, clan, tribe's property. It was their unity, the readiness to fight together and for each other, that gave them their power. The mobilization of the people to join the family, clan, tribe army was done through shouting slogans. Like "For McLeods" or "Death to McLeods" depending on the situation :) Once the army was mobilized, the morale and unity of the troops was reinforced by shouting the same slogans that made them join the army in the first place. And just before and during the battle, the same slogans were shouted in order to show to further reinforce the morale of each member of the troop and show him that he is not a lonely individual, but a member of a united army which is fighting together. And also to show the same thing to the enemy. You have to deal with all of us, a united army...

Nothing really changed here since the beginning of time. People still most commonly fight for their families, their clans, their tribes, their nations, their countries....And it is the common cause, declared and reinforced through slogans, that motivates them to do so. 

Unless they fight for money that is...But that is another sad story...

Now in Slavic languages the word for unity, the thing that turns a group of men into an army, and which is achieved through common motivation reinforced by the use of slogans, is "sloga"... :) 

Could this word be somehow related to the Old Irish "slúag, slóg" meaning "army, host, throng, crowd, company, assembly"?

Àth Cliath

On the Wiki page "History of roads in Ireland" we can read that according to an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters for AD 123, there were five principal highways (Irish: slighe) leading to Tara (Irish: Teamhair) in Early Medieval Ireland. The entry in the Annals claims that these routes were 'discovered' at the birth of Conn of the Hundred Battles:

"The night of Conn's birth were discovered five principal roads leading to Teamhair, which were never observed till then. These are their names: Slighe Asail, Slighe Midhluachra, Slighe Cualann, Slighe Mhór, Slighe Dala. Slighe Mhór is that called Eiscir Riada, i.e. the division line of Ireland into two parts, between Conn and Eoghan Mór."

In reality, the ancient road system (such as it was - there cannot have been a developed national system) fanned out not from Tara but from Dublin.

The Slighe Assail went due west towards Lough Owel in Co. Westmeath, then to Cruachain. The Slighe Midluachra went towards Slane, through the Moyry Pass north of Dundalk, round the base of Slieve Fuaid, near Newtownhamilton in Co. Armagh, to Emain Macha, ending at Dunseverick on the north coast of Co. Antrim. The Slighe Cualann ran south-east through Dublin, crossing the River Liffey via a "hurdle-ford", then went south "through the old district of Cualann, which it first entered a little north of Dublin, and from which it took its name". The Slighe Dala ran towards and through Ossory in Co. Kilkenny. Finally, the Slighe Mhór ("Great Highway") joined the Esker Riada. It then, more-or-less, followed the Esker Riada to Co. Galway.

It is believed that this "hurdle bridge" was built across the river Liffey in 1014 AD.

In "A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland..." which was published by Joyce, P. W. (Patrick Weston) in 1906, we can read in the section entitled "Bridges" that the place chosen for the erection of a bridge was very usually where the river had already been crossed by a ford; for, besides the convenience of retaining the previously existing roads, the point most easily fordable was in general most suitable for a bridge. There is no evidence to show that the Irish built stone bridges before the Anglo-Norman invasion. Bridges were very often built of planks laid across the stream from bank to bank if it was narrow enough, or supported on rests of natural rock or on artificial piers if the river was wide: a kind of bridge occasionally used at the present day. Sometimes bridges were constructed of strong hurdles supported on piles; like that across the Liffey which gave Dublin its old name. These timber bridges of the several kinds were extremely common, and they are frequently mentioned in old authorities.

The fact that both articles talk about the "hurdle bridge" across river Liffey, which "gave Dublin its old Gaelic name" is actually very interesting.

This is because the old Gaelic name for Dublin is "Baile Atha Cliath" which translates literally as "town of the hurdle ford" and not as "town of the hurdle bridge".

Irish "baile" meaning "home, settlement". From Old Irish "baile", meaning "place; settlement; farm, farmstead; (fortified) village, town, city".

Irish "áth" meaning "ford, river crossing". From Old Irish "áth" meaning "ford, open space or hollow between two objects, a shallow area of the river that can be crossed on foot", from Proto-Celtic *yātus meaning "ford", from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- meaning "ride, go".

Irish "cliath" meaning wattled, latticed frame; hurdle. From Old Irish clíath, from Proto-Celtic *klētā. Cognate with French claie (From Gaulish *cleta attested in medieval Latin clida) and Welsh clwyd, both meaning hurdle, wattle (stick) fence.

There are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford.

So before any permanent bridge was built, river Liffey was crossed at the ford.

The ford's exact location is a mystery today. It is proposed that it could have been somewhere near Usher's Island (when it still was an island), maybe a hundred yards west of what is now the Father Mathew Bridge, near St Paul's Church.

So ford is basically a river crossing. The place where you can "walk across the river".

I came across this artist's impression of the "hurdled ford":

I doubt that this is actually what the "hurdle ford" looked like. This half submerged structure would not provide any benefits to the people crossing the river. They would still get wet. But there is another type of wooden structure that would fit the description of a "Àth Cliath":

This is the type of a primitive wooden river crossing that can be seen in remote rural areas all over the world. The most primitive type consists of one or two long logs placed across the river. They are supported either by the banks alone or by the banks and wooden stakes stuck into the river bed.

The walking surface can be made wider and more stable by nailing or tying short cross logs on top of the original two logs spanning the river.

If you spread the logs spanning the river and make the cross logs wider, and add you get something like this, a narrow corduroy road bridge.

Now in my post "Togher wooden trackways" I talked about a millenniums long Irish tradition of building wooden walkways (toghers). They are basically corduroy roads and bridges built all over the country across marshes and bogs from Bronze age until Early medieval time.

Exactly the same construction can be used, supported on parallel logs lying on stakes stuck into the river bed, to build bridges. Like this one:

So if there ever was "Àth Cliath" across river Liffey, it probably went through these evolution steps, from a simple logs crossing to the logs bridge. 

But, I can hear people saying, cliath means hurdle. 

In my post "Kolac - Golac" I talked about the existence of a whole cluster of words based on the base word "cleath" meaning stick, pole. 

cleath, -eithe, -eatha, f., a goad, a wattle, pole, stake; a fishing-rod.
cleath thiomána, a goad.
cleath-ailpín, a short stick with a knob.
cleathach, -aighe, a., ribbed, composed of wattle-work (cage, basket, granary).
cleathar, -air, pl. id., m., a stake, a pole; a pile or post; fig., a prince, a chief.
cleatharáil, -ála, f., a severe beating, a dressing, a flogging.
cleath-chur, m., a planting of trees; hence the correlative or collateral branches of a pedigree 

I also talked about the fact that this cluster has its cognate, and possible root, in Slavic word "kol" meaning "stake, stick" and which comes from the word "gol" meaning "naked, bare, stripped" of leaves, branches, which is how you make sticks and stakes. I also talked about the Slavic word "klada" which means log (a tree trunk stripped of branches) and which probably comes from the same root "kol, gol". 

Now if we look at the above walkways we can see that they are made from stakes (Irish cleath, Slavic kol) and logs (Slavic klada). If a Slavic person wanted to describe the walkway construction he could describe it as "koljat, koljast" (made of kolje, stakes, sticks).

That takes care of "cliath". It actually doesn't have to mean hurdle. It can mean anything made from stripped off branches, trunks (sticks, stakes, logs). 

Now about the word "Àth". In Irish the word means ford, the place where you can walk across rivers. The official etymology states that this word comes from "Proto-Celtic *yātus meaning ford, from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- meaning ride, go". I would not agree with this. The proposed "Proto Celtic" root was never attested. The only descendant is Gaelic Àth (pronounced "oh" but which used to be pronounced "oth"). 

In my post "Odin the wandering deity" I talked about the Serbian word "od" meaning "walking". This Serbian word comes from Proto Slavic "xodъ" and has cognates in all Slavic languages. It also has a cognate in Ancient Greek "ὁδός" (odos), alternative "οὐδός" (oudós) – Homeric (used only once in Odyssey) meaning "way, road, path", basically something you "od", walk on. 

The official etymology says that these words come from Proto-Indo-European *sodos, from *sed- (“to sit”)!!! I don't have to say how ridiculous this sounds...The root has to be preserved in Slavic "od, hod" meaning "walk, walking"...Road, path, way is what you walk on and derives its meaning from the fact that you walk on it...

Now if the Irish "Àth" meaning "ford, walkway, place where you can walk across the river" has any cognates, they have to be Slavic "od (hod)" meaning "walk, walking" and Ancient and Modern Greek "ὁδός (odos)" meaning "way, road, path". 

Now knowing all this, let's have a look again at the phrase "Àth Cliath":


Irish: "Àth Cliath (Cleath)" = Ford, Walkway, the place where you walk across the river made of sticks, stakes
Serbian (Slavic): "Od koljat" = Walkway, the place where you walk across the river made of sticks, stakes

Interesting don't you think?