Gaelic Ireland (Irish: Éire Ghaelach) was the Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, that existed in Ireland from the late prehistoric era until the 17th century. It comprised the whole island before Anglo-Normans conquered parts of Ireland in the 1170s. Thereafter, it comprised that part of the country not under foreign dominion at a given time (i.e. the part beyond The Pale). For most of its history, Gaelic Ireland was a "patchwork" hierarchy of territories ruled by a hierarchy of kings or chiefs, who were chosen or elected through tanistry. Warfare between these territories was common. Traditionally, a powerful ruler like Niall of the Nine Hostages where acknowledged as High King of Ireland. Society was made up of clans and, like the rest of Europe, was structured hierarchically according to class. Throughout this period, the economy was mainly pastoral and money was generally not used. A Gaelic Irish style of dress, music, dance, sport and art can be identified, with Irish art later merging with Anglo-Saxon styles to create Insular art.
Gaelic Ireland was initially pagan and had an oral culture maintained by traditional Gaelic storytellers/historians, the seanchaidhthe. Writing, in the form of inscription in the ogham alphabet, began in the protohistoric period, perhaps as early as the 1st century. The conversion to Christianity, beginning in the 5th century, accompanied the introduction of literature. In the Middle Ages, Irish mythology and Brehon law were recorded by Irish monks, albeit partly Christianized. Gaelic Irish monasteries were important centres of learning. Irish missionaries and scholars were influential in western Europe and helped to spread Christianity to much of Britain and parts of mainland Europe.
In the 9th century, Vikings began raiding and founding settlements along Ireland's coasts and waterways, which became its first large towns. Over time, these settlers were assimilated and became the Norse-Gaels. After the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169–71, large swathes of Ireland came under the control of Norman lords, leading to centuries of conflict with the native Irish. The King of England claimed sovereignty over this territory – the Lordship of Ireland – and the island as a whole. However, the Gaelic system continued in areas outside Anglo-Norman control. The territory under English control gradually shrank to an area known as the Pale and, outside this, many Hiberno-Norman lords adopted Gaelic culture.
In 1542, the Lordship of Ireland became the Kingdom of Ireland when Henry VIII of England was given the title of King of Ireland by the Parliament of Ireland. The English then began to extend their control over the island. By 1607, Ireland was, from the perspective of the British Empire, fully under English control.
Culture and society
Gaelic culture and society were centred around a kinship structure known as the (derb)fine. Gaelic Ireland had a rich oral culture and appreciation of deeper and intellectual pursuits. Filí and draoithe (druids) were held in high regard during Pagan times and orally passed down the history and traditions of their people. Later, many of their spiritual and intellectual tasks were passed on to Christian monks, after said religion prevailed from the 5th century onwards. However, the filí continued to hold a high position. Poetry, music, storytelling, literature and other art forms were highly prized and cultivated in both pagan and Christian Gaelic Ireland. Hospitality, bonds of kinship and the fulfilment of social and ritual responsibilities were highly important.
Like Britain, Gaelic Ireland consisted not of one single unified kingdom, but several. The main kingdoms were Ulaid (Ulster), Mide (Meath), Laigin (Leinster), Muma (Munster, consisting of Iarmuman, Tuadmumain and Desmumain), Connacht, Bréifne (Breffny), In Tuaiscert (The North), and Airgíalla (Oriel). Each of these overkingdoms were built upon lordships known as túatha (singular: túath). Law tracts from the early 700s describe a hierarchy of kings: kings of túath subject to kings of several túatha who again were subject to the regional overkings. Already before the 8th century these overkingdoms had begun to replace the túatha as the basic sociopolitical unit.
Religion and mythology
Paganism
Before Christianization, the Gaelic Irish were polytheistic or pagan. They had many gods and goddesses, which generally have parallels in the pantheons of other European nations. Two groups of supernatural beings who appear throughout Irish mythology—the Tuatha Dé Danann and Fomorians—are believed to represent the Gaelic pantheon. They were also animists, believing that all aspects of the natural world contained spirits, and that these spirits could be communicated with. Burial practices—which included burying food, weapons, and ornaments with the dead—suggest a belief in life after death. Some have equated this afterlife with the Otherworld realms known as Magh Meall and Tír na nÓg in Irish mythology. There were four main religious festivals each year, marking the traditional four divisions of the year – Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh.
The mythology of Ireland was originally passed downorally, but much of it was eventually written down by Irish monks, who Christianized and modified it to an extent. This large body of work is often split into three overlapping cycles: the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, and the Fenian Cycle. The first cycle is a pseudo-history that describes how Ireland, its people and its society came to be. The second cycle tells of the lives and deaths of Ulaidh heroes and villains such as Cúchulainn, Queen Medb and Conall Cernach. The third cycle tells of the exploits of Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fianna. There are also a number of tales that do not fit into these cycles – this includes the immrama and echtrai, which are tales of voyages to the 'Otherworld'.
In Gaelic Ireland each person belonged to an agnatic kin-group known as a fine (plural: finte). This was a large group of related people supposedly descended from one progenitor through male forebears. It was headed by a man whose office was known in Old Irish as a cenn fine or toísech (plural: toísig). Nicholls suggests that they would be better thought of as akin to the modern-day corporation. Within each fine, the family descended from a common great-grandparent was called a derbfine (modern form dearbhfhine), lit. "close clan". The cland (modern form clann) referred to the children of the nuclear family.
Succession to the kingship was through tanistry. When a man became king, a relative was elected to be his deputy or 'tanist' (Irish: tánaiste, plural tanaistí). When the king died, his tanist would automatically succeed him. The tanist had to share the same derbfine and he was elected by other members of the derbfine. Tanistry meant that the kingship usually went to whichever relative was deemed to be the most fitting. Sometimes there would be more than one tanist at a time and they would succeed each other in order of seniority. Some Anglo-Norman lordships later adopted tanistry from the Irish.
Gaelic Ireland was divided into a hierarchy of territories ruled by a hierarchy of kings and chiefs. The smallest territory was the túath (plural: túatha), which was typically the territory of a single kin-group. It was ruled by a rí túaithe (king of a túath) or toísech túaithe (leader of a túath). Several túatha formed a mór túath (overkingdom), which was ruled by a rí mór túath or ruirí (overking). Several mór túatha formed a cóiced (province), which was ruled by a rí cóicid or rí ruirech (provincial king). In the early Middle Ages the túatha was the main political unit, but over time they were subsumed into bigger conglomerate territories and became much less important politically.
Gaelic society was structured hierarchically, with those further up the hierarchy generally having more privileges, wealth and power than those further down.
The top social layer was the sóernemed, which included kings, tanists, ceann finte, fili, clerics, and their immediate families. The roles of a file included reciting traditional lore, eulogizing the king and satirizing injustices within the kingdom. Before the Christianization of Ireland, this group also included the druids (druí) and vates (fáith).
Below that were the dóernemed, which included professionals such as jurists (brithem), physicians, skilled craftsmen, skilled musicians, scholars, and so on. A master in a particular profession was known as an ollam (modern spelling: ollamh). The various professions—including law, poetry, medicine, history and genealogy—were associated with particular families and the positions became hereditary. Since the poets, jurists and doctors depended on the patronage of the ruling families, the end of the Gaelic order brought their demise.
Below that were freemen who owned land and cattle (for example the bóaire).
Below that were freemen who did not own land or cattle, or who owned very little.
Below that were the unfree, which included serfs and slaves. Slaves were typically criminals (debt slaves) or prisoners of war. Slavery and serfdom was inherited, though slavery in Ireland had died out by 1200.
The warrior bands known as fianna generally lived apart from society. A fian was typically composed of young men who had not yet come into their inheritance of land. A member of a fian was called a fénnid and the leader of a fian was a rígfénnid. Geoffrey Keating, in his 17th-century History of Ireland, says that during the winter the fianna were quartered and fed by the nobility, during which time they would keep order on their behalf. But during the summer, from Bealtaine to Samhain, they were beholden to live by hunting for food and for hides to sell.
Although distinct, these ranks were not utterly exclusive castes like those of India. It was possible to rise or sink from one rank to another. Rising upward could be achieved a number of ways, such as by gaining wealth, by gaining skill in some department, by qualifying for a learned profession, by showing conspicuous valour, or by performing some service to the community. An example of the latter is a person choosing to become a briugu (hospitaller). A briugu had to have his house open to any guests, which included feeding no matter how big the group. For the briugu to fulfill these duties, he was allowed more land and privileges, but this could be lost if he ever refused guests.
A freeman could further himself by becoming the client of one or more lords. The lord made his client a grant of property (i.e. livestock or land) and, in return, the client owed his lord yearly payments of food and fixed amounts of work. The clientship agreement could last until the lord's death. If the client died, his heirs would carry on the agreement. This system of clientship enabled social mobility as a client could increase his wealth until he could afford clients of his own, thus becoming a lord. Clientship was also practised between nobles, which established hierarchies of homage and political support.
The Gaelic Irish society has been described by some as a nearly anarcho-capitalist society. According to Professor Joseph Peden and Murray Rothbard, the túath was the basic political unit, composed of "a body of persons voluntarily united for socially beneficial purposes" with its territorial claim being limited to "the sum total of the landed properties of its members". Civil disputes were settled by private arbiters called brehons and the compensation to be paid to the wronged party, was insured through voluntary surety relationships. Regarding the kings in Gaelic Irish society, Murray Rothbard stated,
The king was elected by the túath from within a royal kin group (the derbfine), which carried the hereditary priestly function. Politically, however, the king had strictly limited functions: he was the military leader of the túath, and he presided over the túath assemblies. But he could only conduct war or peace negotiations as an agent of the assemblies, and he was in no sense sovereign and had no rights of administering justice over túath members. He could not legislate, and when he himself was party to a lawsuit, he had to submit his case to an independent judicial arbiter.
Law
Gaelic law was originally passed down orally, but was written down in Old Irish during the period 600–900 AD. This collection of oral and written laws is known as the Fénechas or, in English, as the Brehon Law(s). The brehons (Old Irish: brithem, plural brithemain) were the jurists in Gaelic Ireland. Becoming a brehon took many years of training and the office was, or became, largely hereditary. Most legal cases were contested privately between opposing parties, with the brehons acting as arbitrators.
Offences against people and property were primarily settled by the offender paying compensation to the victims. Although any such offence required compensation, the law made a distinction between intentional and unintentional harm, and between murder and manslaughter. If an offender did not pay outright, his property was seized until he did so. Should the offender be unable to pay, his family would be responsible for doing so. Should the family be unable or unwilling to pay, responsibility would broaden to the wider kin-group. Hence, it has been argued that "the people were their own police". Acts of violence were generally settled by payment of compensation known as an éraic fine; the Gaelic equivalent of the Welsh galanas and the Germanic weregild. If a free person was murdered, the éraic was equal to 21 cows, regardless of the victim's rank in society. Each member of the murder victim's agnatic kin-group received a payment based on their closeness to the victim, their status, and so forth. There were separate payments for the kin-group of the victim's mother, and for the victim's foster-kin.