Scots got their Gaelic from an Irish kingdom

WHILE agreeing with Maurice Fitzgerald's assertion that the TG4 debate was a ludicrous one give that only one of the contestants was proficient in the fluent use of Irish, his contention that the Irish language came to Ireland via Scotland is incorrect (Letter, October 25).

The Gaelic language originally came to Scotland circa 500AD with the expansion of the Irish kingdom of Dál Riata (North Antrim) into the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland.

The expansion of the language was aided no end in the conversion process of various tribes by the Irish monastic settlement of Iona headed initially by Columcille and his followers who converted much of north Britain.

The expansion of this settlement and subsequent absorption of the Pictish Kingdom of North Scotland, the British Kingdom of Strathclyde in the SW and part of Anglican-controlled Northumbria in the southeast, established a largely Gaelic-speaking Scottish Kingdom, largely reflecting the confines of Scotland today.

Jerome Lordan

Old Head of Kinsale

Co Cork