ABSTRACT
Irish relative clauses (RCs) are formed in two different ways, depending on the role of the head noun in the relative clause. Clauses where the head noun is subject or direct object of the verb in the RC are known in Irish grammar as direct relative clauses. The position the noun would fill in the clause itself is simply left empty. In formal Irish, mostly written, a structure synonymous with the indirect relative clauses above may be found. Irish uses the indirect relative clause, with a possessive pronoun matching the head noun in person and number. Indirect relative clauses with head nouns referring to place, time, manner, or cause can be used as a kind of indirect question. The complementizers introducing such clauses, many of them synonymous and varying by region, are too numerous to catalogue completely here, but the following functions illustrate the most common such types of clause.
