Ninety-Nine Words for Rain

Meet the néaladóirí (cloud-watchers) and réadóirí (stargazers) from our past who, without the luxury of Met Éireann 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 bhíonn an corr éisc suas in aghaidh srutha chun na sléibhte (when the heron flies upstream to the mountains the weather will be dry but rough). Fearthainn nuair a thagann sí 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.

Dimensions: 20.5 x 22.5 cm, 256 pages

Manchán Magan was a writer and documentary-maker. He wrote occasionally for The Irish Times, reported on travel for various radio programmes, and has presented dozens of documentaries on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ, and the Travel Channel. He lived in County Westmeath.

Megan Luddy is an award-winning illustrator and artist. A graduate of NCAD, where she was Design Student of the Year in 2022. This is her first book.