Gaelic Society

Though the ancient myths told of successive waves of pre-Celtic invaders in the distant past, by the year 1000 AD Ireland had been settled for at least a couple of millennia by people who spoke a language of the Celtic group which would become Gaelic, and whose culture and artefacts were typical of those found across Europe from pre-Roman times. The Romans did not incorporate Ireland into their empire, and though there was some trade with them along the east coast, there was little outside influence until the coming of Christianity in the 5th century.

From then until its final demise over a thousand years later, the native Irish or Gaelic society persisted with varying degrees of vigour and dominance. It remained fragmentary and never achieved unified sovereignty – there was no central authority or ‘national identity’ in the modern sense - but perhaps this gave it the resilience to absorb and adapt to changing circumstances up to the point where it was crushed by overwhelming forces.

Not having been part of the Roman Empire, it did not suffer the consequences of its demise, and in the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ Irish scholars, missionaries and exiles did much to preserve and re-invigorate European civilisation.

In Ireland itself, though there were large monastic establishments, there were no cities, no central government and no monetary system. Most domestic buildings were of wood and clay, with the more affluent living within well-protected stockades or on artificial island fortresses in lakes. They were a pastoral people, tending cattle and growing crops, and probably moving around with the seasons. There was, however, a fairly well-developed division of labour, with a legal system (the Brehon Laws), traditional medical practitioners, literary and artistic specialists and high levels of craftsmanship.

Politically, Ireland was divided into as many as a hundred separate Tuatha (petty kingdoms), each ruled by a Rí (king) or Taoiseach (chief). The people of a Tuath regarded themselves as a kinship group or sept (the fine or sliocht), and their loyalty was to their local chieftain, with whom they shared a belief in descent from a common ancestor. There was little or no concept of a wider political ‘Irish’ nation with which they could identify or to which they owed loyalty.

In the absence of a centralised authority, these small septs waged fairly continuous war on each other, with alliances shifting and re-grouping opportunistically as they vied for dominance.

Overlordship was exercised by exacting tribute from underlings, usually in the form of cattle or produce and military service. For instance a sub-king might have to provide his overlord with 20 cows per annum, and provide ten horsemen and twenty infantrymen from among his followers to serve the overlord for thirty days a year.

Some groups such as the Ó Neill, Ó Briain and Ó Conchubhair septs achieved a high level of temporary dominance, but long-lasting unity was never established.

Thus when Ireland was invaded by the Danes and Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries, and by their descendants the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century, there was little sustained resistance to their expansion. Quite often, a local king would seek an alliance with an invading force to subjugate his neighbour. The Vikings built the first cities, and the Normans built walled towns, castles and churches, and also developed agriculture and commerce.

King Henry II of England had persuaded Pope Adrian (the only English-born pope) to grant him the Lordship of Ireland in 1155 on the grounds that the Irish church needed to be reformed and brought into line with Roman practices. The Anglo-Norman knights and their armies who arrived to enforce the king’s rule quickly gained control of large sections of the country, mostly in the east and south, but soon found that, far from the control of the crown, they could establish their own more-or-less independent fiefdoms .

Back

Signposts

Continued