[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by Oooo_get_her

Irish is actually an older language than English and Irish monks had a great deal of contact with Latin (what with writing out bibles and preserving Latin culture through the Dark Ages) and THAT is where the Irish language came into contact with the Latin Alphabet - not via English.

If you are interested and have a few moments have a read of this:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j22/irish.php

That just about nails it on the head....the anomalies of pronounciation over spelling were recognised way back. We still have them, but it is generally associated with what i would call old Irish names etc.

Thanks for that Oooo....very helpful.