About Nine Arrow

Hi my name is Cat and I'm an Irish illustrator who draws under the name Nine Arrow. Just like some of you who are reading this, I studied Irish in school for many years and yet I couldn’t have a relaxed conversation in the language ( I couldn’t even manage a stressful one! ). Once I’d left school I forgot everything I'd memorized and I stopped engaging with it all together. When I lived abroad in Japan I was always embarrassed when someone asked me 'whats the word for ... in Irish' my face would go red and I'd feel like I was in school again. I kept thinking 'I'll go learn that properly some day', but kept putting that day off.

I've been back living in Ireland for a number of years now and I love the cultural change in attitude to Irish. There's more content available and it's way more interesting than school. It was reading Darach O'Séaghdha's book Motherfoclóir and listening to him and his co-hosts podcast that re-ignited my drive to do something with Irish, something I could manage, and that’s illustration.

I started an illustration project, where I'd illustrate words and phrases in Irish that I found interesting. After some prompting from friends and family I started to make some of my artwork available as art prints and offer custom commission work of Irish words and phrases. I love engaging with this language on a daily basis and I want to show you what I learn with each piece of Irish through an illustration. You can follow this visual journey on Instagram or Facebook. Feel free to take a word or a phrase and add it into your life. I believe Irish belongs to everyone.

Cat is on maternity leave right now but you can contact Eoin with this form!