Hello!

I just want to know what is the right name in the irish gaelic language of the “black druid” of the irish/gaelic folklore.

I firstly knew him as the Fear Dorcha. But after reading different articles I found out multiple kind of names:

- Fear Dorcha
- Far Dorocha
- Fear Dorocha
- Fear Doirich
- Fer Doirich
- Fear Doirche


As you can see I found different names, but, are all correct? What's the main and traditional one?

Thank you very much!
Have a nice day!

Fear Dorcha, which means "dark man", is the only correct one. [I don't know what it was in Middle Irish, but someone might know.]

The pronunciation of dorcha is with three syllables. Dor-uh-khuh, where "kh" would be like the Spanish j or the German ch in Bach. But this adjustment is made in speech only (a bit like Irish people pronounce film as filim - with a filler vowel).

You can hear the pronunciation (in 3 dialects) at https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/dorcha

Hi djwebb,

thanks for your kind and precious answer!
The pronunciation was also interesting

Another thing, about the meaning: Dark Man.
Does “Dark” stand for obscure/evil or for “dark skinned” ?

Thank you again!
I wish you a nice day