Brehon Law

My boss gave me a copy of what follows today, saying that I might appreciate it. It's very well written, and as far as I know fairly accurate.

The beginning of the 17th Century saw English law and rule prevail in Ireland and the Irish laws outlawed and declared barbarous. These “barbarous” laws had been what had kept the English from implanting its feudal system in Ireland and from completing its conquest of Ireland for four centuries. These ancient “barbarous” laws of Ireland have since been recognized as the most advanced system of jurisprudence in the ancient world, a system under which the doctrine of the equality of man was understood and under which a deeply humane and cultured society flourished.

These ancient Irish laws have come to be called The Brehon Laws from the Irish term “Brehon” which was applied to the official lawgiver. They were transmitted orally and with extreme accuracy from generation to generation by a special class of professional jurists called Brithem ('judge' in early Gaelic). These laws are of great antiquity and may antedate the coming of the Celts to Ireland. St. Patrick is credited with codifying these laws in the 5th Century. His efforts fill five volumes and are known as the Senchus Mor. Its ordinances are named C’ain Padraic after St. Patrick. These five volumes which have come down to us, however, are only a small portion of the old Irish laws which covered almost every relationship and every fine shade of relationship, social and moral, between man and man.

While the Brehon, or lawgiver, administered the law, the aggregate wisdom of nine leading representatives was necessary to originate a law or to abolish it. The nine needed for the making of a law were the chief, poet, historian, landowner, bishop, professor of literature, professor of law, a noble, and a lay vicar. Impartiality is the salient characteristic of all the laws for all the ranks. The king himself was bound by law to do justice to his meanest subject. The king’s rights are acknowledged but his duties are also enumerated. The democracy of these laws is shown in dozens of ways. For example, a king carrying building material to his castle had the same and only the same claim for right of way as the miller carrying material to build his mill; the poorest man in the land could compel payment of a debt from a noble or could levy a distress upon the king himself; the man who stole the needle of a poor embroidery woman was compelled to pay a far higher fine than the man who stole the queen’s needle.

The Brehon Law was based on an individual’s identity, defined in terms of clan and personal wealth. Honor was evaluated in terms of personal wealth and each person’s wealth or honor price reflected his legal status in the community. In the sight of the law, the bishop, king, chief poet, and public hospitaller (person who owned and operated guest houses for no fee) were in the same rank and a like fine or honor price was payable for the killing of any of the four. The Irish law expected most from those who had received the most from God. For example, a member of the clergy might be fined double that of a lay person for the same offense. For certain offenses, lay people of rank were deprived of half their honor price for the first offense and all their honor price for the third offense. Clerics, on the other hand, would not only lose all their honor price for the first offense, but would be degraded as well. An ordinary cleric could, by doing penance and suffering punishment, win back his grade; a cleric of higher rank, such as a bishop, however, not only lost his honor price and was degraded for the first offense, but he could never again regain his position.

The Brehon Law applied to all areas of life and reflects the values of the people. In education, the rule was “instruction without reservation, correctness without harshness are due from the master to the pupil.” The master was also expected to feed and clothe his student. The student, in turn, was indebted to his instructor whom he was expected to support in his old age if the instructor was incapacitated or had no clan to care for him. Under the law, anyone who insulted or assaulted a student was guilty of insult or assault to the teacher. It was, therefore, to the teacher that a fine was paid. It was also the law that a student pay to his teacher the first fee earned by him when he graduated into a profession. Even though the mass of the people was not educated, all, including women, who desired an education could get one under the law.

While women in the Western World have been emancipated for less than a century, women in ancient Ireland were nearly on an equal footing with men. They were queens in their own right and led troops into battle. Women always held a place of respect in Celtic society and were accorded their rights as well. It took English law and civilization “to put women in their place.” Ironically, the stamping out of the Brehon Laws, and with them the rights of women, was finally accomplished under Queen Elizabeth of England.

In ancient Ireland, under Brehon Law, the lowest clansman stood on an equal footing with his chieftain. For example, it is recorded that when several Irish Kings visited Richard II in Dublin, the Irish kings sat down to dinner with their minstrels and entire retinue as was their custom. The English were appalled by such a display of egalitarianism and soon rearranged things so that the Irish royalty ate separately from the rest of their attendants. The Irish gave in to this demand of the English in order to be courteous guests even though it went very much against their inclination and custom.

It should not be surprising that it was in this race of Gaels, where the equality of man was so well understood and practiced, that woman stood emancipated from the remotest time. Indeed, women in ancient Ireland were often eligible for the professions, and for rank and fame. They were druidesses, poets, physicians, sages, and lawgivers. Bridget was not only the name of the ancient Irish goddess who represented poetry and wisdom, and of the later saint who helped to spread Christianity throughout Ireland, but was also the name of an Irish lawgiver, Brigid Brethra, or Brigid of the Judgments, who lived about the time of Christ. It is this Brigid who is responsible for granting the right to women to inherit the land from their fathers in the absence of sons.

Under Brehon Law women were equal to men with regard to education and property. After marriage, the woman was a partner with, and not the property of, her husband. She remained the sole owner of property that had been hers prior to marriage. Property jointly owned by her and her husband could not be sold without her approval and consent. A married woman retained the right to pursue a case at law as well as recover for debt in her own person. In certain cases of legal separation for good cause, the wife not only took with her all of the marriage portion and gifts, but an amount over and above that for damages.

Because of their equality, or near equality, with men in other realms, women warriors frequently felt it was their duty to take up arms and march into battle with their brothers or husbands. Beginning with the warrior Queen of the Milesians, the Book of Invasions lists several women leaders. In the Ulster cycle of tales the noblest warrior of Ulster, Cuchulainn, was taught the art of war by a woman warrior named Aoive, and fought his greatest battles against the forces of Queen Maeve of Connacht.

It was only in 697 that women were exempted from warfare. The law exempting them is known as the Cain Adanman after St Adanman, who, at his mother’s behest, fought for this exemption. It seems that St Adanman’s mother, Ronait, was appalled by the barbarity she witnessed of one woman with an iron sickle savagely tearing apart another woman in battle.

Even though women were exempted from warfare in 697, this warrior tradition persisted into the sixteenth century in the person of Grania Uaile (Grace O’Malley). She was an Irish sea-queen, pirate, who was, if one can believe the accounts written by Sir Richard Bingham in 1593, “the nurse of all rebellions for the last forty years.” While the English managed to stamp out the Brehon Law by the sixteenth century, the memory of these laws survived into the nineteenth century and showed itself in the Land League and the people’s claims. It is not surprising then that the Brehon Law has excited the wonder and admiration not only of laymen, but of eminent jurists deeply versed in ancient and modern law codes. It is under this ancient, just and beautiful judicial structure that men and women lived in equality and democracy in Ireland. The sense of justice and fair play expressed by the Brehon Law is, and always has been, a source of pride to the Irish as well as a strong part of their heritage.

(written by Loretta Wilson & originally printed in 1989)
© Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area

Celtic Art

Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction

by George Bain

In my quest to reproduce Celtic art several years ago, I began with this book as my only guide for a time before I discovered Aidan Meehan's series. The book was originally written to serve as a text book for elementary and secondary art students, and is faithful to the source material which Mr. Bain clearly studied in great detail. There isn't much in the way of text, most of the book is art with notes in the margins on how to do this or that tricky bit, in fact - a lot of it totally confounded me. However, if you have only one Celtic art reference, let this one be it.

Dover edition, 1973, an unabridged republication of the MacLellan & Co. Glasgow 1951 edition.
ISBN 0-486-22923-8

Celtic Design: Animal Patterns

Celtic Design: Animal Patterns

by Aidan Meehan

Another in this fantastic series which investigates the creation of the interlaced beasts, birds and serpents of Celtic art.The beautiful designs, decorations and patterns of the Celts were expressed in their metalwork, stonework and jewelry, eventually influencing the art of the scribes who worked in the monasteries of Ireland on the illuminated manuscripts that one now associates with the Celtic style.

Thames and Hudson, 1992

from page 59:
"Belts, buckles and brooches were something special in former times. Worn to enhance the spirit of the wearer, jewelry had a mystique, a ceremonial quality. Dressing up was a way of life. Every ornamental detail had a ritual significance. Decorations were bestowed as recognition of exceptional valour or service, not bought. They were only to be acquired through a demonstration of nobility of spirit, or supplied for a special occasion, or as a gift, and were prized accordingly. Rather than being preserved to give prestige to an heir, treasured ornaments were buried with their owner, so bound up were they with his or her personal power and charisma."

Celtic Design: Knotwork

Celtic Design: Knotwork : The Secret Method of the Scribes

by Aidan Meehan

This is a step by step guide on the creation of Celtic knotwork, decoration, and geometric patterns. Much more of a hand=holding guide than the Bain book, this is one in a series of texts designed to take the student through the steps the ancient scribes used to create the beautiful illuminated manuscripts we associate with Celtic art. A subsequent work goes deeper into the spirals for which they were famous, but this one provides a great introduction into the simpler patters which can be used to decorate myriad crafts.

Thames and Hudson, 1991

Celtic Myths

Celtic Myths and Legends

by T.W. Rolleston

Although nearly a century old, and suffering a bit from outdated scholarship, if you're looking for a good overview of Celtic mythology, you will certainly come away with a better grasp of the big picture from this book. All of the important Celtic myths and legends are dealt with, although many are presented in a shortened, crib-notes-like format. The book covers Irish and Welsh stories and tales of the Ultonian and Ossianic cycles, the voyage of Maeldun, and the myths and tales of the Cymry (Welsh). Favorite and familiar stories of Cuchulain, King Arthur, Deirdre, the Grail, many more are discussed. The tales are not merely told, but are carefully compared and contrasted in an informed way. I took to taking notes while reading the stories, because the sheer number of characters is overwhelming!

Dover edition, 1990 - an unabridged reproduction of the 'Second and Revised edition', 1917
ISBN 0-486-26507-2

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Read it online (link good Aug, 2007)

Diodorus Siculus on the Gauls and drinking

I've been reading Simon James' book 'The Celts' and he references Diodorus Siculus a great deal. Diodorus was a Greek historian who lived between 90 and 21 BC and compiled a great encyclopedia of history called the 'Bibliotheca Historica' (which he worked on for 30 years and eventually never finished). In search of a translation of this book, I found that Google has scanned in hoards of old books and posted the full contents of many of them as original scans (and text). It's a fantastic reference. They have recently added a feature that allows folks like us (with a website) to embed portions of the book into their own sites which link back to the full text on Google. This post is really just a test of that feature, but I thought with all the interest in Mead making on the Yahoo board of late, this was a particularly apropos section (concerning the Gauls of the continent and drinking):

The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian: In Fifteen Books. To which ... By Diodorus, George Booth

Eachna's Celtic Garb

(Comment from the AOL message board)

From: Eachna Apr 9, 1998

I keep promising Aonghus I'll add this link to the board, and I finally remembered to do it.

Eachna's Celtic Re-Enactments Page

This is a page dedicated to what I'm learning about the hobby. This includes my collection of information about garb. The perceptive reader will notice inconsistencies. For now, the mens page is more accourate than the womens page. This will change as I catch up information I'm learning from books borrowed from Inter-Library Loan.

In any case, there are useful bits and pieces of information to be found there (including a partial list of what I need for trade if you want garb made).

Eachna

Finding Books

Some things you should know - by Aonghus

So, you want to learn more about the Celts and Druids huh?? Well... before you embark on this fantastic and highly rewarding journey, there are some things you should know...

The field of Celtic study is plagued with misconceptions. I like to call these misconceptions "Celtic Quackery". These erroneous beliefs come from a wide variety of sources. Some of these misconceptions are due to commonly held "myths", some are due to movies and Hollywood fantasy, but the most sinister and insidious propagators of misconception is by BOOKS.

One of the hardest concepts to "get over" in research is: Just because something is written in print, doesn’t necessarily make it true.
We as a culture are very used to reading and taking the printed word verbatim. Most of us do it everyday when we read the newspaper. And, as we like to say, the news is printed in "black and white". We often make the mistake of assuming that most of what we read is fact.

Now I could go on how even newspapers and governments distort the truth... but that’s a bit beyond the scope of what I’m talking about so, just to tell you about books on Celtic history, I'll keep it somewhat short. Books, as you know, are written by authors. Authors are people. People can be unscrupulous, greedy, on some personal quest, and, sometimes, just flat out wrong. Therefore, a book does not necessarily tell the facts.

The "bad book" authors come in a few flavors, Mercenaries, New Age Cranks, and some are just Novelists!

I know alot of you are saying "How could something get printed if it isn’t true?? Doesn't somebody check these things out???" Well, books are published by publishing companies. Publishing companies want to make money. If they think a book will sell, you bet they are gonna publish it. Also bear in mind that in this day and age there are companies known as "Vanity Presses". These companies will print just about anything you want as long as you pay them.

Most of bad books on Celtic and Druidic quackery will be found in the "religion" or even "philosophy" section of your bookstore. You'll find a lot of them mixed in with books on "wicca". Many of these people claim and some actually "believe" themselves to be the inheritors of forgotten druidic lore, who either read a book by a "real" druid or may have even been taught by a "real" druid. These "real" druids can be somewhat convincing...they will wear robes, practice rituals, and might even hang out at Stone Henge. The average schmo might think its a lark, but the unwary can take these props and behavior as proof of authenticity.

These types of "clubs" (or "covens" or "druidic circles" or whatever these people chose to call themselves) actually can date back quite a few years. But they certainly do not date back to the 5th-6th century, when history saw the last of the druids. Modern occult practices, as most people know them, were largely conceived by groups and individuals during somewhat of a cultural rebellion of the 1800s. These people were often highly literate, educated, aristocratic, and very creative to say the least. Alister Crowley is one such individual. The poet, W.B. Yeats, was a member a group known as "The Order of the Golden Dawn" that was involved in all sorts of chicanery. And its a person as respected as Yeats that can cause a lot of confusion. Yeats may have been a great poet (and, personally, is on of my favorites ), but he was no Archaeologist nor Anthropologist, and respect due to him for his poetic works should not necessarily spill over to his opinions on ancient druidic practices.

I say these people were educated, which may seem somewhat of a paradox in this situation, but bear in mind that Archeology and Anthropology did not develop as a science till after World War II. Though there were a few pioneers in the science before then, a person read in the classics and interested in these areas was more properly called an "Antiquarian" ( The difference between an antiquarian and Cultural Anthropologist of today might be seen as similar to the difference between a Roman leech and a modern day brain surgeon.

As far as the modern off shoots of these practices, well, to borrow another medical analogy, if religion were medicine and these new age authors doctors, you would be suing for malpractice by now.

(Oh and let me tell you, if I had the money to be a bored aristocrat, I'd be pretty damn eccentric too :~)

Another thing to look out for is the category "Historical Fiction". It may be a good read folks, but authors are free to take as much license as they want to tell a good story. Morgan Lywelyn is a great author in Celtic historical fiction, but her books should only be read as inspiration and to give you the "flavor" of a Celtic setting. On that note, even the new age books can be somewhat inspiring...

Likewise with movies. Seeing might be believing, but history doesn’t always make a good movie and film makers can and will take whatever license necessary to be entertaining. Heck, Braveheart was an awesome flick (and one of my favorites) but i can point out a haggis load of historical error.

So, how do you know a good book when you see one??

Well... you cant judge a book by its cover, but you CAN judge by its inside back cover... that’s usually where they have the "About the Author" notes. If its not there, it may be in the first or last couple of pages. See if the author is a Ph.D. or has other relevant academic credentials. Basically, you want to confirm that the author is a scholar and not some wacky snake oil salesmen.

Oh and guess what... just because a person has a Ph.D. doesn’t mean they are right either. It does mean that they do know a lot on their chosen subject and that they have formed and documented an original theory and have extensively supported their idea with logical arguments and collected data.

So you know what that means???

Dont rely on a single source of information. The field of archeology is subject to almost as much varied interpretation and debate as economics.... If you want proof, ask a bunch of archaeologists with Ph.D.s what happened to the Neanderthals and you will soon see what I mean.

Unfortunately, there is more we dont know about the practices of the druids than what we do know. The best we can do is take what we have and attempt to fill in the holes using facts from other related cultures (other Indo-Europeans) using our best judgment. Any work that does not endeavor to adhere to this ethic should be regarded with suspicion.

Fortunately, there is a wealth of knowledge on Celtic material culture, and while the actual "dance steps" to the religious rituals have faded into time, we do know the names of the gods, and bunch of the legends. The sciences of Archeology and Anthropology improve every year, and with that more and more books will be available.

Hey... guess what, I wrote this whole thing without documenting any of my facts!!! Shame on me!!! Every assertion of fact in this document should have been followed by a footnote referencing the source where I got it from to give you the opportunity to verify those facts and to make sure I didn’t take anything out of context. Well... this is just to illustrate my point on how easy it is to take things as they are without a second thought... and if you believe that one I got some books I want to sell ya :)

Irish Cultural Centre

I don't know if there is a place for this already, but I didn't see one. I think a links page with be a good idea. Having links to other related sites is not a bad idea.

I'd like to post the first.
http://www.irishculturalcentre.com/

This is the project that Fionnuala mentioned at the meeting. Check it out.

More books....

If your not familiar with Oxbow books / David Brown you should aquaint yourself.

Oxbow / David Brown

they host a wide variatey of acedemic texts on history / archeology etc, with very few clunkers.

I came across this book which may be of interest... though its also available at amazon.

Prehistoric Music of Ireland

by O'Dwyer Simon

Im not sure if its the same guy.. but.. i think i saw this author in a video and he may have a website too...

Is "monkaí" focal greannmhar.

[ed. note] - I accidentally deleted Aonghus' follow up comment to this post which gave the author's website here.

Powell: The Celts

Several years ago I had borrowed a copy of T.G.E. Powell's The Celts and typed up interesting sections of it for some reason. I found an old archive CD in my desk drawer yesterday with the original document on it. I've decided to include the notes in the library.

The CELTS

by TGE Powell

from The Celts by T.G.E. Powell 1958 Thames and Hudson, London, 
1989 Thames and Hudson, New York

note: the image on the cover of the book is of the Ragstone Head of Bohemia currently at the Narodni museum at Prague. Dating from the 1st to 2nd century BC, the face is obviously male. ¨The head has the typical attributes which characterize it as being Celtic: the spiral scrolls of the eyebrows and drooping mustaches, the triangular nose, and the torc. Unlike classical representations of the Celts, the head has a neat hairstyle which is combed back from his forehead and flows smoothly down the back of his head. The figure's eyes are wide and staring, the face is a flat plan with no definition to indicate cheekbones and has a relatively shapeless profile. The head has been reduced to its most important aspects making it recognizable as a human head but it is not meant to be a portrait. (from here)

concerning garb (pp. 68-69)

"...Irish aristocratic dress consisted of two garments, a tunic or shirt, in the earliest without sleeves, and a cloak. This costume was worn by both sexes. The tunic (l'eine) was made of linen, and was worn by men to the knee or below, by women to the ankles. It was gathered round the waist by a belt or girdle (criss). Over this was worn the cloak (brat), made of wool, and four cornered, so probably rectangular, but not oval as were those of the Danish Bronze age. The Irish cloak had no sleeves or hood, being held in position by a brooch. It's length probably depended on the wealth and status of the wearer...
"...Early texts consistently describe coloured cloaks chiefly of purple, crimson and green. Speckled and striped cloaks are also mentioned, and it would seem that ornamental fringes or braids were worked seperately and then sewn on...
"..."It is not known what word if any was used in Ireland for trousers prior to the introduction (through a teutonic medium) of the word bro'c. This, together with the fact that trousers are only mentioned in connection with the costume of servants (charioteers, however, included) would make it seem that either they never formed part of [what would be considered 'normal' garb] of migrant Celtic warriors in the west, or they were early abandoned in conformity perhaps with some existing fashion that still carried prestige in the islands.
"...leather shoes were certainly worn in Ireland.

social institutions (p. 78)
(The Tuatha)

"In Ireland, the community was embodied in the tu'ath, a word that originally meant 'the people' but which had aquired a territorial connotation. The tu'ath in population and in extent was quite small and normally conformed to an area with natural topographical boundaries.
"Social structure within the tu'ath was threefold: King, Nobles and Free Commoners. the king was elected from within the kin of his predecessor, but was not necessarily one of his sons. The king's family belonged to the noble grade, who were the warriors, but in pagan times the class of magician-sage, druid, seer or otherwise was accorded the highest status, although these did not form an hereditary caste. The freemen commoners were mainly farmers, but the grade also included certain catagories of craftsmen.
"...It is also important that the threefold system formed a social and ritual entity within which all were of free status (saor), and of sacred, or ritual qualification (nemed). There was also an unfree population, without status or claims to possession, formed of such subjugated communities, slaves, and degraded families as existed.

"Within the tu'ath, the effective social unit was the kin (fine)...the family within this kinship system was of the joint type: a householder with his wife, or wives, and children, including grown sons with their wives and offspring. It seems that marriages were contracted outside the kin, and perhaps in the case of the noble grade outside the tu'ath.
"The ownership of land was not held by an individual, even the head of a household, but by the kin from whom it could not be alienated.
"Small kingdoms, formed of a single tu'ath, can in no way be considered as States. There was no public administration or enforcement of law, and the procurement of redress, within the terms of the law, was the responsibility of the kin of the contending parties.
"The individual freeman, of whatever grade, possessed an honor-price (l'og n-enech) which was an assessment of his dignity or present weight in the community and this was directly related to his material wealth...but the honor-price fluctuated according to a man's fortunes, and this was an important matter as compensation for wrongs were directly related to it.

the celtic feast (p.135)

"The reward of warriors in all heroic societies was feasting and gifts provided by the king, and the Celts were no exception to this custom. "Beer was everywhere the drink of home production. Pork, either roast, or broiled in a great cauldron, was the favorite dish. In Ireland, a whole porker was reputedly the champion's portion par excellance...the champion's portion was often in dispute, and led to fighting on the spot, as Diodorus, and Athenaeus, report, and as is so well illustrated in the Irish stories of Bricriu's Feast (Fled Bricrend), and the story of MacDatho's Pig (Sc'ela Mucce Meic Dath'o). Everywhere the etiquette of precedence and hospitality was observed. Seating at the feast was according to rank and prowess, strangers were fed before their business was inquired, and everyone had his appropriate joint of meat. In Ireland it was a leg of pork for a king, a haunch for a queen, and a boar's head for a charioteer.
"...Athenaeus noted with approval [the Celts] cleanly, if voracious, way of eating, but the refinements of the banquet lay in the music and oral compositions of the bards, and on their praise or satire hung the reputation of a prince.

Diodorus Siculus - died after 21 B.C., Sicilian historian. He wrote in Greek, a world history in 40 books ending with Ceasar's Gallic Wars. His compilation is uncritical and unreliable.

Athenaeus - circa 200 A.D., Greek writer born in Egypt. His anthological work, the Deipnosophistae (Banquet of the Sophists), is valuble because of the wealth of information it contains on Greek manners and customs.

Rare Books

The following list of books are either rare, expensive, or hard to find books that you should keep an eye out for if you frequent old or used bookshops. This list was compiled by Eachna.

Bone, Antler, Ivory & Horn

by Arthur MacGregor

1985 Croom Helm Ltd in UK, in USA by Barnes & Noble
ISBN 0 7099 32421

A Social History of Ancient Ireland

by P. W. Joyce

1997 Irish Genealogical Foundation, ISBN: 0940134241
This work is in print, but runs about $150 for the hardcover, 2-volume set.
Priced for libraries and schools, not individuals. Covers the whole world
of Irish culture...

(added by Comyn: you can read some of the book online here)

Old Irish and Highland Dress

by H. F. McClintock

(second, enlarged edition)
1950 Dundalgan Press, ISBN unknown

Dress in Ireland

by Mairead Dunlevy

1989 Holmes and Meier in US, ISBN 0-8419-1269-8
This book is still in print, but costs about $60 (hardcover edition only).
The first two chapters are useful for our period

Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials

by Margrethe Hald

1980 The National Musuem of Denmark, ISBN 87-480-0312-3
This book is supposedly still available from the National Museum.

Dress in Anglo-Saxon England

by Gale R. Owen-Crocker

1986 Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-1818-8

The Poolbeg Book of Traditional Irish Cooking

by Biddy White

Lennon
Poolbeg Press, ISBN 1-85371-092-X

Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink

by Bríd Mahon

Poolbeg Press, ISBN 1-85371-142-X

On the manners and customs of the ancient Irish

by Eugene O'Curry

(multiple volume set)

A Guide to Early Irish Law

by Fergus Kelly

The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland

By Nancy Edwards

Treasures of Early Irish art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D."

from the collectionsof the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin / exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ... [et al.] Published in New York by the Metropolitan Museum of Art [1978, c1977]

Treasures of Ireland : Irish art 3000 B.C.-1500 A.D.

Published in Dublin by the Royal Irish Academy, [c1983]

Irish art in the early Christian period, to 800 A.D.

by Henry, Francoise.

Published in Ithaca, N.Y. by Cornell University Press [1965]

The Essentials

Essential Books for your Celtic Re-enactment Library

The books listed here are the "must have" books reccomended to have or at least read. They represent the basics of what every member should know.

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The books listed here are the "must have" books reccomended to have or at least read. They represent the basics of what every member should know.

The World of the Celts

By Simon James

If you only ever get one book on the Celts, this book should probably be it. This book is broken up into short chapters that are easy to read and is packed with color illustrations and pictures. Topics range from general appearance of the Celts to farming methods to archeological finds. The book contains an Index, Glossary, and Gazetteer of museums with Celtic collections throughout Europe.

Hardcover - 192 pages (October 1993) Thames & Hudson; ISBN: 0500050678

Brassey's History of Uniforms
Barbarian Warriors: Saxons, Vikings, Normans

By Dan and Susanna Shadrake

This book is poorly named as it covers the dress, tactics, temperament, and equipment of fighting men in Britain from the Roman occupation to Norman times. It has an entire chapter dedicated to Irish and Picts. What makes this book so valuable is it being crammed with full color pictures of hard core re-enactors who have constructed equipment from the time period ranging from shoes and tunics to helmets and swords. The equipment presented in this book sets a standard by which all our own efforts should be judged.

Hardcover - 144 pages (1997) Brassey; ISBN: 1857532139

Life and Death of a Druid Prince

By Anne Ross, Ph.D. and Don Robbins

This book is a touch more advanced and more abstract than others listed here, but if you want the inside scoop on the religion of the pagan Celts and some possible insight on their views of human sacrifice, this is the book to read. Anne Ross uses archeological data collected from the Lindow bog man and draws comparison to late surviving folk customs in an attempt to reconstruct and explain the most infamous aspect of Celtic paganism. Some of the conclusions she draws are a bit tenuous but in all a good interpretation.

Softcover - 176 pages (1993) Touchstone; ISBN: 0671741225

Early Irish Law

By Fergus Kelly

Unfortunately, this book is more of a "must read" as it is currently out of print. Kelly examines the ancient laws of Ireland and outlines forms of legal procedure and redress in early Ireland. Honor price is dealt with at length as is the Celtic methods of suing in addition to describing the laws themselves. This book is especially valuable because Kelly conveniently describes the structure and components of Irish Celtic society in the first chapters of the book. This gives us a good schematic for how we, as re-enactors, can add a more period, socially interactive, element to our hobby.
by Fergus Kelly

(added by Comyn, Mar. 16, 2007)
A general account of legal practice in the seventh and eighth centuries with discussion of social background and later `brehon' families
1988 (repr. 1991, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2005). xxiv + 358 pp., pll. (vol. III)
ISBN 0 901282 95 2

Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars

(Osprey Men at Arms, 154)

by David Nicolle, Angus McBride

This book addresses the historical setting for the real King Arthur. It presents the time period we re-create and highlights the differences between the Romano-Britains, Welsh, Irish, Picts, and Saxons both in text and color plates. It contains line drawings of different blades used by the Irish of our time period (and one of the few books that address that topic). This book would be worth having for the illustrations by Angus McBride alone.

Paperback - 48 pages (June 1984) Stackpole Books; ISBN: 0850455480

The Tain

Trans. By Thomas Kinsella

This is the story of the Cu Chullain, the great cattle raid, and all the legends that surround it. Druids, Gods, heros, and warriors in an epic struggle for life, fortune, glory, and honor. This edition is not a re-telling but a translation of the original texts containing the myths. Read it, and if you can, retell part of it by the fireside.

Information forthcoming

What the ancient Irish wore

Amateur clothing historian and owner of the online business Reconstructing History (which makes sewing patterns and other accoutrement for re-enactment groups), Kass McGann has done her homework and offers a concise essay on what we know about ancient Irish clothing here:
http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/irish/legendary.html
Anyone interested in assembling a set of period ancient Irish clothing should at least skim this essay!

Celtic Steel

While researching a little about the Ringgriffmesser described by Gobae, I found the following which might be of interest to smiths, and decided to post it here for lack of anyplace else to stick it.

Steel Materials in Celtic and Roman Periods – Part 2
Journal BHM Berg- und Hüttenmännische Monatshefte
Publisher Springer Wien
ISSN 0005-8912 (Print) 1613-7531 (Online)
Issue Volume 152, Number 7 / July, 2007

Summary

Celtic steel was a commodity much sought-after in the Roman Empire due to its outstanding quality. 34 Celtic steel artefacts from the archaeological sites of Gründberg/Linz and Magdalensberg/Carinthia, dating from Roman times (100 B. C. – 100 A. D.), have been subjected to microanalysis. As shown by the analysis of specimens based on steel samples from the province of Noricum, the single pieces consisted of numerous components of different steel grades. The result is a banded structure of the artefacts, which can be attributed to the forging technique usual in the Celtic era. First, several crude steel blanks were hammered into a bar. The workpiece was then got from these steel bars by fire-forging. Depending on the hardness and toughness required, unalloyed or alloyed steel grades were used. In the course of forging, hard elements were embedded in a matrix of softer metal (multilayer material). To achieve the desired hardness of the steel bars, one method was to add phosphorus or carbon. Alternatively, annealing in a charcoal bed at 1000 °C followed by rapid cooling was in use during Roman times. The results of the metallurgical assessment prove that the designation "quality product" for "Norican steel" is fully warranted.

DNA evidence for Irish myths

A study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in 2005 entitled A Y Chromosome Signature of Hegemony in Gaelic Ireland describes how researchers sampled DNA from about 800 men from across Ireland and seem to have found genetic evidence in Northwestern Ireland which supports the idea that the historical ruling family of Ireland from the 7th through the 11th centurys (the O'Neills) may indeed be descendants of the 'mythological' Niall of the nine hostages as their name suggests (literally 'descendants of Niall'). For the biologically minded, you can download the article in PDF here.

Historians have long suspected that the Irish myths may contain accounts of real historical events distilled through time and retelling, and that the long lists of relations in the myths may turn out to be genealogically accurate to some degree. This study seems to suggest that thinking is correct.

A Y Chromosome Signature of Hegemony in Gaelic Ireland
Am. J Hum. Genet., 78: 334–338, 2006
Laoise T. Moore,1,Brian McEvoy,1,Eleanor Cape,1 Katharine Simms,2 and Daniel G. Bradley1
1Smurfit Institute of Genetics and 2School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity College, Dublin
Received September 29, 2005; accepted for publication November 18, 2005; electronically published December 8, 2005.