Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages The Goidelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic languages: Irish , Scottish Gaelic (Gà for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, when it gave way to Middle Irish Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the Goidelic language used from the 10th to 12th centuries; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old English and early Middle English. The modern Goidelic languages, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx, are all descendants of Middle Irish.
Contemporary Old Irish scholarship is still greatly influenced by the works of a small number of scholars active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among them Rudolf Thurneysen (1857-1940) and Osborn Bergin Osborn Joseph Bergin was a scholar of the Irish language and Early Irish literature. He was born in Cork and was educated at Queen's College Cork (now University College Cork), then went to Germany for advanced studies in Celtic languages, working with Heinrich Zimmer at the Frierich Wilhelm University of Berlin (now the Humboldt University of (1873-1950). Their books are viewed as required material for any enthusiast of Old Irish even today.
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