The mystery of Celtic Ireland

An example of an Iron Age aplhabet

One cannot be faulted by being confused about Ireland and its association with the Celts. Folklore, myth, and popular opinion could lead a person to believe that we in Ireland are descended from a fierce warrior tribe that invaded this Island. Scholars and academic disciplines, however, will each give separate accounts of who and what the Celts were. There are five main branches of academia that study the Celts and each one will give an explanation that can be contradicted by another. 

Take archaeology for example, a Celt is described as someone who lived during the Iron Age and used implements from either the Hallstatt or La Tène cultures. They were buried in accordance with the rituals associated with either of these cultures. The linguistic branch will tell you that a Celt is someone who speaks a particular language, be it Irish, Welsh, Scot`s Gaelic, Gaulish, or Celtic Iberian. For the scholars of the ancient world the Celts were simply barbarian tribes that attacked Greece during Alexander the Greats reign, or the ones who nearly destroyed the Roman Empire in 390BC and succeeding razing Rome to the ground. Geneticists will tell us that Celtic people are ones with a predisposition towards cystic fibrosis. Scholars of ancient Irish and Welsh literature will tell us that Celts are the people who inhabit the stories of Táin Bó Cúailgne or the “Battle-Raid of Cooley”. Singularly these academic approaches tell us nothing of the Celts in Ireland. 

What do we know about the Celts? We know the there are records of them in ancient Greek texts as early as the 5^th century BC. According to these texts, from southern France to Hungary was occupied by Celts, however this could be a general term like African or Asian is used to describe people from a vast area with many separate cultures. We also know that they invaded Northern Italy and even sacked Rome until eventually beaten out by the Romans in 225BC. We know that they battled with Alexander the Great in 335BC and sacked Delphi in 279BC. We know their culture from the finds that define the early Iron Age at Halstatt in Austria, and the later Iron Age at La Tène in Switzerland. The dominant image that remains today of the Celts is their Warrior image and their particular geometrical art work.

Is this fella a Celt?

How does this fit into Ireland and its Celtic identity? Irish is a Celtic Language as described by the academics, but how after a few hundred years did it become our tongue by the time of our records from the early Christian period? The language must have been in place a lot longer than a few hundred years otherwise it would be just some words we use, like a lot of languages today adopt modern English words like “computer” and “information”. When the Vikings invaded and assimilated we did not start speaking Danish/Norwegian, so in the same context the presence, or the influence, of Celts in Ireland must predate the 5^th century BC.

Archeological finds of a Celtic presence in Ireland are rare and very few Halstatt or La Tène artifacts have been found, yet in early Christian Ireland the Irish artwork has a distinctive “Celtic” quality. We cannot say that we were invaded and assumed by the Celts, yet we cannot say that hordes of Irish settled in Europe. There is no evidence. Can we really call ourselves Celtic because of a few Ogham stones and the artwork of the Book of Kells? We must look to modern times to understand how Celtic influence spread right across Northern Europe.

An Iron Age Neck Ornament

Consider the impact that modern fashion houses have on the world today. Consider also the impact of the United States on the world in terms of culture. We can look anywhere in the world today and see the homogenous streets, clothes, and language. The spread of American culture is channeled through the music industry, Hollywood and the vast amount of TV programme`s. In thousands of years times archaeologists will find fragments of an American Culture all over the world even though America has not invaded and taken control of the entire world. In my opinion this same model can be applied to the Celts and their influence throughout Europe. Their language, attitudes, and culture spread because it was fashionable and endearing to the various tribes they encountered through trade or battle.

Devoid of any evidence of a Celtic invasion of Ireland, we are still known as a Celtic nation with a Celtic language, as is Scotland, Wales, and Brittany. We share similar traditional music, dance, language and culture. So how did this come about?

When we look further back in time we find evidence of Beaker Folk in Ireland. We can`t find evidence of an invasion of these folk but we know they were in Ireland, trading and living. It is presumed that these folk brought with them the knowledge of metalworking in Copper and Bronze. Their knowledge spread and over time Irish people were working with Copper and Bronze. We also know through trade that Irish goods and copper was exported and artifacts of an Irish origin were found throughout Europe. Interestingly, Iron is produced as a waste product of smelting bronze. In my opinion the beginnings of an Iron Age ran concurrently with the Bronze Age. It would be folly to believe they threw away this wonderfully hard material, iron, there must have been some use for it. Similarly with the Celts there is no evidence of an invasion, but some of them must have come to Ireland to trade and share their knowledge. Their fashion, language and culture, infiltrated everywhere they went until at some point it seemed to the outsider that the whole of Northern Europe was occupied by the same tribe. Just as future archeologists could be forgiven for believing that the Americans had occupied the vast majority of the world today.

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In my opinion the only evidence we have in Ireland of a Celtic influence is through the structures of our society that is documented and continued through to the Norman invasions. We know that Celtic society in Europe consisted of tribes with noblemen and commoners. They measured wealth in cattle and gold. The kings of each tribe had a number of clients, autonomous commoners under the protection of the king each providing services for this protection. There was also intellectual elite such as Poets and Druids. They had well structured laws and each member of society had a value with compensation to be paid in the event of an inflicted injury. This is the same society that we had in Ireland that has been documented.

It is still a conundrum about the Celts in Ireland and how we developed our identity as a Celtic nation. We have seen the influences of the Roman Catholic Church throughout history and each monastery and convent throughout the world acted to the same laws and principles. We have seen the influence of American Culture throughout the world. In the same context it is reasonable to assume that the Celts influenced European society in a similar way.

The Hill of Tara