So I’m curious about the Irish guide Old Moore’s Almanac. The name crossed my radar a few weeks ago and what I found is that it’s an Irish book containing information for the coming year (you know, typical almanac stuff) that has been published annually since 1764 (whoa) and was initially written and circulated by a man called Theophilus Moore (awesome name).

The almanac includes all kinds of information.  There’s general stuff like tide times, moon phases, and fair dates but it also contains a variety of prophecies. You’ll find predictions of election winners (both in Ireland and abroad) and forecasts for the victors of sporting events like Wimbledon and the World Cup. The weather forecast in Ireland is foretold too as well as incidents relating to celebrities and political figures.

You can see Moore’s is a complete hodgepodge of actual scientific information, event news, and random predictions. Some of the more interesting predictions for 2010 (a la The Irish Times) include a pregnancy for Michelle Obama, the Spanish football team winning the World Cup, and the discovery of Irish crown jewels.

What I really want to know is how this almanac came to be and how the information, particularly the predictions, is compiled. Unfortunately, little is known about Moore himself other than that he ran a classical academy in Dublin during his time. (I’m not even entirely sure what a classical academy is.) And as far as the approach and procedure to the almanac’s predictions goes, that process has never been revealed.

I couldn’t actually find a place online to purchase the book. It is mentioned on a few websites but even on those sites I couldn’t find a description or even an image of the almanac. Moore’s has been published for over two hundred years and it’s still going strong (I heard it’s been revamped and is in color for 2010) yet it’s still a bit of a mystery. Maybe I’m missing something or maybe it’s better off this way. A book like Moore’s seems more interesting shrouded in questions. If only I knew where to get a copy…

Source; Source; Image Source 1; Photo Credit 2: veronica.decker

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