abstract:This paper is concerned with the problem of how many consonant qualities the Old Irish language displayed. Most scholars in the first half of the twentieth century apparently favoured a three-way contrast, i.e. i-quality, u-quality and a-quality. However, since in the 1960s the idea of a two-way distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized consonantal phonemes appeared in the world of Celtic studies, there has been a debate as regards which division is better and more faithful to the phonological reality of Old Irish. Recently, McCone (2011) and Anderson (2011) brought this issue to public attention again. This article is a reaction to their approaches. I propose below that, however many phonetic qualities may have existed in Old Irish, it is most pragmatic to recognize only two.