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Initial High Front Vowels or Where the [j] in Eòrna comes from

Actually this isn't so much about where it comes from but rather how you can tell when it's there and where it isn't.

In a nutshell, it appears when you have a word with an initial high front vowel followed by a back vowel. Which means what exactly?

High front vowels are [i] and [e] in Gaelic, back vowels are [a] [o] [ɔ] and [u].  So if you get any combination of those two (in the said order), you get and initial glide, the [j].  Don't confuse this with the [ʝ] sound (slender gh and dh) - [j] has much less friction.  This is a sound you actually get in English words - year, yarn, yen etc.

A few examples:

Unfortunately, this rule doensn't always work and you get words like iorram [ir̴əm] or iarann [iər̴ən̴̪]. The short answer to this problem is that it has something to do with Old Irish. So the best way of dealing with this issue is to expect a [j] glide when you get e or i before a back vowel, especially if the first syllable contains a long vowel and learn when the exceptions apply.