Irish Letters: Sacred and Secular Usage

Abstract

he objective of this article is to discuss the lettering styles that can be found in signs around Dublin, and which are used to convey some kind of Irishness and tradition. The first section discusses the story of insular scripts that flourished in medieval Ireland, being the Book of Kells their most conspicuous representative. After that, the rise of Gaelic typefaces is examined and, finally, examples are used to show the multiplicity of lettering styles in Dublin which are based on insular scripts. It is demonstrated that such letters often fail in their intention to display tradition and nationalism.

Keywords: Medieval Ireland; Gaelic typefaces; lettering styles.