Thuas / Suas / Síos / Thíos. Directions in Irish can be a bit tricky to get a grasp on as they work a little differently than they do in English. We will be looking at compass directions, motional directions and giving directions in this article.
Compass Directions
Two differences when talking about compass directions that are worth pointing out:
- Some of the directional words have multiple meanings. For example, deas can mean both ‘right’ and south’, and thiar can mean both ‘in the west’ or ‘behind’.
- Not only that but the words and forms differ depending on the context of where you’re looking to go or the direction you’re describing something coming to you from.
I’m going to illustrate the idea to you a few different ways because one way might click over another. Firstly let’s look at this table:
| Direction | Going to | Coming from | Adjective | Noun | Comparitive |
| North | ó thuaidh | aduaidh | thuaidh | tuaisceart | lastuaidh |
| South | ó dheas | aneas | theas | deisceart | laisteas |
| East | soi | anoir | thoir | oirthear | lastoir |
| West | siar | aniar | thiar | iarthar | laistiar |
If that doesn’t make too much sense to you, I’ve created this graphic that might help illustrate what I mean a bit more.
Here are written examples as well that may help explain it as well:
| S’é an t-oileán is faide ó thuaidh in Éirinn é | It’s the northernmost island in Ireland |
| D’athraigh an ghaoth ó dheas | The wind changed to the south |
| Chasamar soir | We turned towards the east |
| Ag gabháil siar | In a westerly direction (i.e. going west) |
| An ghaoth aduaidh | The north wind (i.e. the wind coming from the north) |
| Ag teacht aneas | Coming from the south |
| Ag teacht anoir | Coming from the east |
| Leoithne aniar | A westerly breeze |
| an Astráil Thuaidh | Northern Australia |
| an Chóiré Theas | South Korea |
| an Astráil Thoir | Eastern Australia |
| an Astráil Thiar | Western Australia |
| an Tuaisceart | The North of Ireland |
| an Deisceart | The South of Ireland |
| Fanann siad san oirthear | They stay in the east |
| Iarthar an chontae | The west of the county |
| Bhí sé 50 km lastuaidh dínn | It lay 50 km north of us |
| Bhí sé 50 km laisteas dínn | It lay 50 km south of us |
| Bhí sé 50 km lastoir dínn | It lay 50 km east of us |
| Bhí sé 50 km laistiar dínn | It lay 50 km west of us |
Motional Direction
I don’t know if that’s a proper word to describe this – let me know in the comments – but it will make more sense when I explain. Firstly let’s imagine a stair. On the stairs, we need to factor in a few situations.
- You could be going up and then at the top and then going down from the top.
- You could be at the top and going down and then at the bottom.
- You could be at the bottom telling someone to go up or come down.
- You could be at the top telling someone to go down or come up.
Let’s treat those all as different states and we often use the verb ‘bí’ (to be) to illustrate this.
A quick way of remembering it is through a sort of rhyme I learned a long time ago in the Gaeltacht:
Ag dul suas, thuas, ag teacht anuas (Going up, up, coming down (from being up))
Ag dul síos, thíos, ag teacht aníos (Going down, down, coming up (from being down))
Take a look at the images below to further illustrate what I mean and hopefully, it will make more sense (Táim is just the synthetic form of ‘tá mé’).
When we are giving directions, we often use the Imperative Mood. You can see it in the above pictures, ‘Téigh XYZ!’
In the examples above I’m trying to illustrate the difference between these states in English i.e. the person is up there vs the person is going up there.
Isteach / Amach vs Istigh / Amuigh
These are also motional states.
- Amach means out. For example, ‘Tar amach!’ is if someone is already inside and they are calling you to ‘Come out!
- But if you are already outside you are ‘amuigh’.
- Isteach means in. For example, ‘Tar isteach!’ is if someone is already inside and they are calling you to ‘Come in’.
- If you are already inside you are ‘istigh’.
Giving directions
You can use all of the above to give a person directions on where to go but for example, if you’re stopped on the street you can use simple directions such as:
| tóg an chéad chasadh ar chlé | take the first left turn |
| gabh ar chlé | take a left |
| lean ort díreach ar aghaidh | keep straight ahead |
| cas ar chlé agus lean ort ansin | turn left and then go straight on |
| gabh ar dheis | take a right |
| tóg an chéad chasadh ar dheis | take the first right turn |
| cas timpeall | turn around |
As someone re-learning Irish after many years I found this really helpful, thanks! You mentioned something that has puzzled me for a while: “Some of the directional words have multiple meanings. For example, deas can mean both ‘right’ and south’, and thiar can mean both ‘in the west’ or ‘behind’.”. I’m curious to know how or why these multiple meanings arose.
Hi Catherine, thanks for your comment. Folks I’ve asked remember hearing somewhere that the perspective was from facing east i.e. as a house might be built so that the door and front windows would face east to allow in light from the rising sun. Thus, south would be on your right hand side, and west would be behind you. So basically, the meaning comes from the perspective of facing the rising sun.
That’s very interesting, thanks! (I guess the house facing east would also have its back to westerly gales so that might have been the most common orientation for both reasons?)
An-chabhrach agus soiléir. Agus mé ag scríobh soiléir táim sa Fhrainc ag baint taitnimh as an ngrian, soleil sa bhFraincís. 🤔♥️