I'm hoping to get a tatoo of the Celtic trinity symbol in between my shoulder blades and around it I wanted it to say ... God the Father , God the Son, God the Holy Spirit ( in Irish of course) and I found this so far... Dia=God Athair=Father Mhack=Son Spiorad Naoimh=Holy Spirit.... So I'm guessing it would go something like Dia tá Athair, Dia tá Mhack, Dia tá Spiorad Naoimh .... can someone PLEASE let me know if this is correct... I'd feel pretty dumb if I had the wrong thing tatooed on my back...Thanks a BUNCH- Ryan

God the Father = Dia an tAthair
the Son = an Mac

The letter "k" in Irish only exists in loan words from other languages - it does NOT figure in any variation of the word "mac".

"Tá" can roughly be translated as the English verb "is" and would not figure at all in what you're trying to say, if I've understood you correctly.

Le meas,
Larry.

LARRY.... thanks SSOOO MUCH... I'm just wondering what does the "t" before Athair mean?? and does it need to go before Mac and Spiorad Naoimh?? ... Thanks for the help... Ryan<

Ryan, a chara,

In Irish, there is no indefinate article (the equivalent of the Enlish "a") so "a man" is the same as "man". The definate article (English "the") is "an" so "the man" is "an fear". Nouns following this definate article behave differently depending on whether they're masculine or feminine.

A masculine noun, beginning with a consonant (p, t, c, b d, g, f or m), which follows the definate article is unaffected but if that noun begins with a vowel a "t-" is prefixed. So we have a construction like "an t-athair" - the father, but when the noun begins with a capital vowel (as in the case of "the Father") the hyphen is dropped giving "an tAthair"

A feminine noun beginning with a consonant is lenited (an "h" is added after the consonant) whereas if that noun begins with a vowel it remains unchanged.

As with many grammatical rules there are exceptions, but I hope that I've explained it adequately :-)

Le meas,
Larry.

Larry - THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!! the grammar lesson is GREATLY appriciated and clears up SO MUCH. Dia linn... I know you didn't sneeze but it's the closest to what I wanted to say. Take care.... Ryan<