Ogmia

The name found on a piece of pottery at Richborough, in England, depicting a figure with long curly hair and sun rays emanating from his head. He also holds the whip of the Sol Invictus. This is obviously the British equivalent of Ogma and Ogmios.

Ogmios

The Gaulish god cognate with Ogma in Irish mythology. Lucian identified him as a Celtic Heracles. Ogmios was thought to transport the dead to the Otherworld, although Bíle also had this role.

Oillipheist

[I] A fabulous beast whose passage westward caused the River Shannon to be formed.

Oílmelc

[I] The alternative name for Imbolg, meaning “sheep’s milk.”

Oirbsen

[I] An alternative name for Manannán Mac Lir. Loch Oirbsen was an ancient name for Loch Corrib, Co. Galway, where the ocean god is said to have met his death by drowning.

Oireachtas

[I] An assembly. An annual gathering organised by Conradh na Gaeilge, founded in 1893, and similar to the Welsh Eisteddfod.

Oisín

[I] Ossian in Scotland and Oshin in the Isle of Man. Son of Fionn Mac Cumhail and the goddess Sadb, daughter of the Bodb Dearg. He was acknowledged as the greatest warrior in Ireland and a great warrior of the Fianna. He was found by his father, who was searching for Sadb, who had been turned into a deer. Fionn called him Oisín, or “fawn.” He grew up to be one of the leading champions of the Fianna. He married a yellow-haired stranger from a sunny country named Eibhir. His most famous son was the warrior Oscar. Oisín took part in many of the adventures of the Fianna but refused to help Fionn exact vengeance on the lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne. He consorted with Niamh, a goddess from the Other-world, and dwelt there with her for three hundred years—a period that seemed like only three weeks to him. The Fenian Cycle is often referred to as the Ossianic Cycle. The tales were made famous by the Scot James MacPherson, whose rendering of them under the general title Ossian became a European classic and started the Romantic Movement.

Ol

[W] The best tracker in Britain at Arthur’s fortress.

Ollamh

[I] Sometimes given as Ollave. Of the seven grades of poets, it was the highest grade. It took candidates nine to twelve years of study, for they had to memorise 250 prime stories and 100 secondary stories to claim the title. Ollamh Fódhla was the eighteenth