The Celts & Celtic Ireland
Celtic Ireland 2000 BC - 400 AD
The pre-Christian or Celtic people of Ireland are of largely unknown origin, though it is believed they arrived here via Britain, possibly from Germany and Austria, even North Africa.
Gold NeckletThe Celts were not literate and no direct written accounts of this time exist, they passed their tradition down by oral means. Most of what we know about them was either written at the time by Roman observers (though the Romans never came to Ireland, so their observations are of other Celtic races) or later by Christian historians who preserved the oral tradition of those they came to convert.
By all accounts they were a striking and colourful people, tall, fair and strong. The well off wore brightly dyed and embroidered clothing, gold and silver jewellery and, in the case of the women, elaborately braided hair. Farmers and poorer people wore plainer woollen clothing and little ornamentation.
A Well Ordered Society
The Celts divided Ireland into numerous kingdoms, each with its own ruler. It was a hierarchical society, with Kings surrounded by nobility, a learned class of scholars or poets known as the Aos Dana, farmers who worked the land and, at the bottom of the pile, slaves, or near slaves, who did most of the physical labour.
Warriors were revered and powerful and were the stuff of popular myth and legend for centuries to follow. Kings and noblemen were expected to take an active part in battle and failure in the field of war was catastrophic for their position in society.
It was during the Celtic period that circular fortified structures or forts began to be built. The earliest settlements were circular areas surrounded by banks and ditches of earth, sometimes supplemented with wooden palings, where people and animals lived together.
Crannogs
Reconstructed CrannogThese were a particular type of enclosure built on either natural or artificial islands on rivers and lakes. The islands were created from wood, clay, timber and stone, all held in place by wooden pilings. They could be reached only by boat or via a footbridge which was often just below the surface of the water, and so invisible, or was built to be easily retracted.
Most appear to have been built in the early Celtic period and some were still in use until the Middle Ages. There have been many archaeological findings at the sites of crannogs, as so many eventually ended up being submerged or waterlogged, thus preserving the remains. From these it seems that crannogs were not permanent dwellings, but used temporarily for fishing, hunting or industrial purposes.
Many Irish lakes still have small islands which were at one time crannogs. While there are no enclosures still visible, they are easy to spot, being relatively small and usually circular in shape. Look out for them!
The building of enclosures arose primarily from the need to protect people, because of the warlike situation which constantly prevailed between rival kings and their clans, and also the need to enclose and protect livestock. Most were small, housing single families, but those belonging to powerful kings could be quite extensive.
A Fairy Fort in Tipperary Photo © Chris Parkes (Thanks!)Because of the materials from which they were made, only vague traces of many of these structures remain, as faint circular patterns in the landscape. These were for centuries believed to be "fairy forts", home to fairies and never interfered with by farmers, in spite of the years they lay uninhabited.
Even now it is a rare farmer who would damage or remove a fairy fort or anything growing on it, though many will vehemently deny believing in fairies!
Brehon Law
It was during the early Celtic period that a code of law, known as Brehon Law, that would endure in Ireland for well over 2000 years were first established. These remarkably detailed, egalitarian and democratic laws were at first passed on orally from one generation of 'Breitheim', or lawgivers, to the next.
In the 5th century they were written down in five books known as the Senchus Mór or books of law. This work was undertaken by St Patrick with an Irish King, Laoghaire, and seven other people chosen for their wisdom and their knowledge of the existing laws. There were some changes made at this time to bring the laws into accordance with Christian teaching. Thereafter it required a panel of nine, from defined diverse backgrounds, to add or alter any law.
The laws covered civil, military and criminal law in minute detail, setting out the rights, and the duties, of people at every level of society. The relationship between landlord and tenant, father and son, professional person and client, master and servant are defined and responsibilities assigned to each. Women were given very extensive rights, including the right to own land and to retain that ownership after marriage. Rates of compensation for every conceivable type of injury are enumerated as are punishments for a huge range of crimes and transgressions.
Punishments fit not just the crime, but the criminal and the victim also. Thus there was more severe punishment when a thief stole from a poor person rather than a wealthy one and an educated person with power or a position of responsibility would be more severely punished for fraud than a poor and illiterate one.
Brehon Law survived the arrival of the Normans and the English, who for the most part adopted it although it was never officially recognised or approved of by England. Brehon Law remained as the de facto code in Ireland until the 17th century during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Celtic Beliefs
The Celts lived close to nature, and their lives and pagan beliefs reflect that. Sunrise and sunset, the solstices and equinoxes had great significance to them, as did the four major annual festivals: Imbolg in February, Bealtaine in May, the summer festival of Lughnasa in August celebrating the beginning of Autumn and Samhain or the beginning of Winter.
Perhaps the most important legacy of the Celts was the their language, which evolved and endured through successive invasions and occupations over the succeeding centuries and as Irish Gaelic is still alive today.
Where to Visit in Ireland
There is a permanent exhibition of worked Gold artefacts from this period in the National Museum in Dublin.
At Lough Gur, near Limerick, there is an interesting visitor centre with reconstructions of Celtic and pre-Celtic dwelling and some interesting exhibits that shed light on how people lived at the time.
Craggaunowen tells the story of the Celts in a very vivid manner, with not only reconstructed dwellings and boats and part of an Irish road dating from the first century BC, but actors going about their lives as Celtic dwellers of the area. A little cheesy the last bit, but it works.
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