Celtic Constructions

Royal Sites

During the Iron Age, there was a general consolidation of territories and kingdoms. Most of these territories had a defended hilltop fort as their centre of power. However, a number of very large-scale works were undertaken. Referred to as the 'royal sites', these consisted of earthworks of various kinds, burial mounds and enclosures. Most of these were constructed around the 2nd century BC.

EEmain Macha, main Macha - Now called Navan Fort, in county Armagh, today consists of a circular enclosure with a mound in the centre. In the late Iron Age it was the royal seat of the Ulaid during their rise to power in Ulster, making it certainly the most important such site in Ulster. The most famous king of the Ulaid was Connor and the legendary warrior Cu Chulainn. However, the events that took place at the construction of Navan Fort are remarkable. Around 100BC, a huge circular building was constructed: 43 metres (143 feet) in diameter. It was made from a series of circles of progressively taller wooden poles, and the entire cone-shaped building was thatched. This was a huge building in Iron Age standards. However, even more remarkable was the fact that the building seems to have been partially burned and partially demolished shortly after its completion, and covered over with a mound of limestone and earth. This all suggests that the building was part of some large-scale ritual and was not used for any domestic purpose. To compound the mystery, the remains of a Barbary Ape was also found on the site - an animal native to north Africa which was probably an exotic gift. Navan today boasts an extensive visitors' centre.
 

Dun Ailinne

 Dun Ailinne, in county Kildare, appears to have been the royal site of south Lenister. It underwent several transformations, but at its height it seems to have included a circular enclosure 29 metres (96 feet) in diameter with several tiers of benches around it. Around the time of Christ, a circle of timbers was built, then burned and buried in a mound. Like Emain Macha, Dun Ailinne seems to have served a ritual purpose.

Tara

The Hill of Tara in county Meath is home to a large number of monuments. There is a Neolithic passage tomb called the Mound of the Hostages as well as some post-Iron Age ringforts. Around the main part of the site is a large earthen enclosure. Tara was an important site throughout the Celtic period where it was a royal centre and, ultimately, the seat of the High King of Ireland.

Celtic Constructions
Decorated Stones

A large number of carved stones were created in the last centuries BC. Probably serving a ritual purpose, they were stones up to 2 metres (7 feet) in height and feature complex swirling patterns of a style common with central European Celtic cultures. We can only speculate on what kind of ritualistic purpose it may have served. Some have argued that these are the most durable of a variety of materials used for these objects, such as wood. The most famouse example is the Turoe Stone, in county Galway, which is pictured on the left (Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland).

Celtic Constructions
Hilltop and Promontory Forts

Most kingdoms, or Tuath, in Ireland had a hilltop fort which was used either as a permanent residence for the king or as a temporary refuge in times of conflict. They are typically built on the top of a hill and surrounded by a stone wall. Often these sites coincide with previous Bronze Age burials, and frequently they showed a lack of respect for these previous monuments, sometimes re-using their stones. Unlike the royal sites, which were made from earthen banks, they had very well constructed stone walls made from close-fitting cut stones. Some of the most well defended hillforts were built with one edge at the top of a cliff. So-called promontory forts were built both on inland mountains and coastal cliffs.

Everyday Life in Celtic Ireland

Although very like the Celtic cultures of the rest of Europe, that of Ireland had been influenced in part be the preceding Bronze Age culture. So Ireland's culture was not totally like that of mainland Europe. However, in many regards it was very similar. Much of what we know about specifically Irish culture has come down through the years in the form of Heroic Tales, such as the Ulster Cycle which tells of the exploits of Cu Chullain, the Hound of Ulster. Once thought to be historicaly unreliable, these Heroic Tales describe a way of life that fits well with what we now know about the Celts of mainland Europe. Thus it seems that, while the events described may have been embelished over the years, the underlying themes and props in the stories may be accurate descriptions of life in Iron Age Ireland.

It was, in many ways, a culture based around war. Ireland was divided into dozens - possibly hundreds - of petty kingdoms. Within the kingdoms, it was the blacksmiths, druids and poets who were held in high esteem: the blacksmiths for making the weapons of war, the druids for making prophesies and soothsaying, and the poets for putting the exploits of warriors to verse, to be sung around the cooking fires. The aristocracy in this culture was made up of the warriors, who sought fame and recognition by doing battle with their enemies. The young warrior would be initiated by mounting his chariot (a two wheeled wooden cart pulled by two horses), before proceeding to battle and cutting off the heads of his enemies to bring them home as trophies . At the celebratory banquet afterwards, the warriors would compete for the "hero's portion" of the food being served. The weapons brandished by these warriors consisted of round wooden, bronze or iron shields, with iron spears or swords. The spear seems to have been more common than the sword.

Political Structure

By the later Celtic period, Ireland was ruled by a series of perhaps 100 to 200 kings, each ruling a small kingdom or tuath. The kings came in three recognised grades, depending on how powerful they were. A ri tuaithe was the ruler of a single kingdom. A 'great king', or ruiri, was a king who had gained the allegiance of, or become overlord of, a number of local kings. A 'king of overkings', or ri ruirech, was a king of a province. Ireland had between 4 and 10 provinces at any one time, because they were always in a state of flux as their kings' power waxed and waned. Today's 4 provinces (Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught) represent only the final state of these borders. Each province had a royal site, a place where important events took place. In 100AD there were royal sites at Emain Macha, near Armagh; Tara, county Meath and Dun Ailinne, county Kildare as well as other locations (see Celtic constructions above).

For most of the civilian population, however, life was spent in small farming units consisting of a wooden or wattle-and-daub house within a circular enclosure. Most would have had access to common land on higher ground on which to graze animals. Dairying was common, but almost everyone grew grain crops such as corn, oats, barley, wheat and rye. The land was ploughed using wooden ploughs pulled by oxen. Almost all farming was subsistence-based, and there was very little trade in food.

The only interruption to the daily ritual of grazing animals and growing crops would have been cattle-raids from neighbouring warriors, who may have pillaged and burned on their way to battle, although in general warfare seems to have been a highly formalised affair in which the peasants were usually not involved. By 400AD there were probably between half a million and 1 million people living in Ireland. This number would have fluctuated due to the recurrent plague and famine which affected all prehistoric cultures in Europe.

Brehon Law

The law that the Celts of Ireland used has been called Brehon law. Forms of Brehon Law were used in Ireland for hundreds of years. A full treatment of Brehon Law is beyond the scope of this article, but the idea was that a person's identity was defined by the kingdom in which they lived. A peasant had no legal status outside the tuath, with the exception of men of art and learning. Those who were tied to their tuath were unfree and worked for the king. All land was owned by families, not by individuals. Wealth was measured in cattle, and each individual had a status measured in terms of wealth. Almost any crime committed against an individual could be recompensed by paying a fine equal to the status of the individual. For example, a 50 cows for an important person, 3 cows for a peasant. There was no death penalty; but, an individual could be ostracised from the tuath in certain circumstances.

Coolmagort Ogham Stone

The language spoken by the Celts in Ireland was Celtic, a variant of the Celtic languages which were used across Europe. In the British Isles, there were at least two dialects in use: Brittonic (P-Celtic) which was spoken in southern Britain and France, and Goidelic (Q-Celtic) which was spoken in Ireland and northern Britain. Brittonic is the root of modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton. Goidelic is the root of modern Irish and Scots-Gaelic. Brittonic and Goidelic must have been heavily influenced by the Bronze Age languages of Ireland.

The first written Irish appeared in the fifth century, around the same time as the initial Christianisation of Ireland. Called Ogham script, it consists of a series of grooves on the corner of a stone. Each combination of grooves represents a different letter of the Latin alphabet, and a number of Ogham stones have been found in Ireland and in Wales. Those in Ireland are mostly along the south coast. Usually they give the name of a person or ancestor and were probably commemorative.

Coming of Christianity

Jesus Christ spent around 30 years in Palestine (what is now Israel) around the year 1AD. His ministry must have been extraordinary, for his followers spread rapidly across the known world with the message that he had taught. The early missions around the eastern Mediterranean are chronicled in the book of Acts in the Bible, as well as the letters of St Paul. Despite widespread persecution under the Romans, during which time thousands of Christians were thrown to the lions or crucified, the Roman Empire ultimately adopted Christianity as its religion. From the Mediterranean it spread northwards into Gaul and it reached Ireland around the late 300s or early 400s.

The first recorded missionary to Ireland was Palladius, who was probably from Gaul [France]. He was sent by the Pope to be bishop to the "Irish who believe in Christ". Patrick himself stated that Palladius' mission was a failure. However, other historical documents from outside Ireland indicate that the mission of Palladius was very successful, at least in Laigin (Leinster), and that he set up a number of churches. [1]. Tradition says that Palladius' visit to Ireland was in the year 431.

St Patrick Perhaps the most famous missionary to Ireland was St Patrick. However, a small point of caution is needed here. It is widely believed by historians that the missions of St Patrick were embellished and enshrined by Patrick's monastery at Armagh in their (ultimately successful) bid for primacy over the church in Ireland. In creating what is referred to as the 'Cult of Patrick', Armagh exaggerated the importance of Patrick and diminished the importance of the other missionaries, possibly even attributing some of the work of these other missionaries to Patrick. That said, St Patrick is such an important part of Irish culture that it would be a mistake to ignore him.

We know very little for certain about Patrick. According to his own "Confession", he was born in Roman Britain - probably near Hadrian's Wall in northern England - the son of a wealthy official. His mother may have come from Gaul [France]. When he was 16, sometime in the early 400s, he was kidnapped by an Irish raiding party and sold into slavery in Ireland. As Roman Britian collapsed, it was increasingly common for Irish, Pict and Saxon raiders to pillage its coastal settlements and it seems that Patrick fell victim to one of these raids. Patrick worked as a slave for 6 years tending sheep, traditionally believed to be on Slemish Mountain, county Antrim, but it seems possible that he was, in fact, somewhere near the Atlantic Ocean in county Mayo or Sligo.

Patrick says in his Confession that he discovered God during his time of captivity, and took to praying a hundred times a day. After 6 years, Patrick managed to escape from captivity, walked the 200 miles to the east coast and managed to negotiate passage aboard a trading ship to Gaul [France]. There, he probably trained to be a Christian Priest and spent time in Auxerre. He then received prophetic dreams where he heard the people of Ireland near the 'western sea' call him to come and walk among them again. He then travelled to Ireland as a missionary, and it seems that he never left. The year traditonally given is 432, but it seems more likely to have been around 460.

Patrick concentrated his work in north-east Ireland, and his first church was at Saul, near present-day Downpatrick. He preached to the Kings and their households and met with varied levels of success. One of his methods was to 'Christianize' the Celtic Pagan festivals. For example, Patrick reputedly lit an Easter bonfire on Slane Hill near the Hill of Tara while the King was having his own Pagan bonfire there. The King was enraged, but he took the opportunity to preach and managed to make some converts. He is famously said to have used the 3-leaved Shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity: God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (although this story is almost certainly a myth). Patrick died in Ireland and is traditionally believed to be buried on the Hill of Down in Downpatrick, county Down. A stone marking the traditional burial spot was added in 1901 and the site is now a popular tourist attraction.

The Rise of Monasticism.

The churches set up by Patrick and other missionaries were fairly simple affairs. During the late 400s, hundreds of churches were set up. They were unlike the churches that we would recognise today: most were small wooden buildings, with the occasional small stone structure and would not have accommodated more than a few dozen people at a time. Each tuath (petty kingdom) had a 'bishop' to oversee the church's work in it.

In time, the Irish church matured and by the 500s a number of monasteries were set up. Initially intended to be places of retreat from the world, they attracted the patronage of the kings and the rich and became influential institutions in their own right. Many extended control over other monasteries, with Armagh ultimately claiming primacy over all churches in Ireland. The network of buildings that eventually grew up on monastic settlements - the hired workers, craftsmen and artisans - were, in a sense, the first 'towns' in Ireland. A Celtic monastery was not of the church-and-cloisters type that appeared in the middle ages. Rather, it usually consisted of an enclosure with a small stone church and a number of cells were the monks lived individually. By their nature, some were in the most remote areas imaginable. Sceilg Mhicil was perched on an outcrop of rock in the stormy north Atlantic off the coast of county Kerry. Many monasteries were set up in connection with the ministry of Patrick, for example the great monastery of Armagh.

One of the most prominent Irish Saints was St Colum Cille (also known as St Columba and St Colmcille). Colum Cille was of the province of the northern Ui Neill (in present-day Donegal), a prominent relative of the King who became a Christian and evangelised in the Irish colony of the Dal Riata in Scotland (see Celtic Iron Age for details). Colum Cille believed in people becoming "Exiles for Christ", by leaving their homes to go and live with other Christians in isolated places, thereby coming closer to God. He set up monasteries in Ireland, such as that at Derry, before setting up the monastery of Iona off the western Scottish coast in the year 563.  Colum Cille's establishment successfully converted the Dal Riata before converting Northumbria [Northern England] by 627. The great Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne was founded in 635. Thus, Britian was Christianised by a missionary from north-west Ireland. Iona and Armagh together became the most influential monasteries in Ireland. The map below shows the principal monasteries in Ireland as they were around the year 650 .

The Irish church was fairly simple, because the hierarchical structure of the continental church was found to be incompatible with the network of small kingdoms in Ireland. However, Roman missionaries had arrived in southern England and there were disagreements between the Celtic church and the Roman church. This was resolved at the Synod of Whitby of 664 in which it was decided that the church in Britain would follow the Roman practices. However, the people in Ireland resisted the changes and so Romanism did not have much impact in Ireland.