Celtic Ireland  
Last Updated    11/27/2007     11/26/2007

Introduction
Around 500 BC, people from Europe, belonging to the superior Iron-Age Halstatt culture, arrived in Ireland. The people of this culture are more popularly known as the Celts.   Roman legions led by Julius Caesar invaded and conquered Britain in 55 BC.   The Romans had a difficult time ruling some of the areas.  The conquered Celts, also called the kelts, were not interested in or influenced by Roman culture.   The Romans were called home in the 300s AD.  After 410 AD, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from northern Germany and Denmark overran England.  These groups united to form the Anglo-Saxons.  They built settlements and set up several small kingdoms. The southern part became known as Angleland, or England.  Most of the Celts fled to Ireland.  In time Ireland became the major center of Celtic culture. 



Houses
Bronze Age Irish lived in rectangular or circular houses.
They were constructed from timber beams.
They had wattle-and-daub walls and thatched roofs made from reeds.
The circular houses would have been from 4 to 7 metres (13 to 23 feet) in diameter.
They were supported by a central post.
Some houses may have been constructed of sod within a wooden frame.
Many houses would have had a circular wooden fence making an enclosure in front of the house.
There was sometimes a circular ditch around the whole property.
This was both defensive and kept animals in.

Cooking
A wood-lined trough was dug in the ground and filled with water.
Beside the trough, a fire was lit and stones heated in the fire.
These stones were then thrown into the water.
Once it was hot enough, meat could be boiled in the water.
The broken, used stones were hurled off to one side.
Over the course of some years, a distinctive horseshow mound formed.
These fulacht fian are very common in Ireland, particularly in the south-west.
Experiments have shown that the water can be brought to the boil in 30 minutes.
A 4.5kg leg of mutton was successfully cooked in just under 4 hours.
This method was also used to heat water for washing.

Language
The language that the Bronze Age people of Ireland spoke is unknown.
Celts brought a central European language with them.
It was these Celtic languages that would be the origins of the modern Irish language. .

Agriculture
Lowland forests were cleared to make farmland.
Farmland was used for grazing or for growing cerial crops.
Wealth was determined by the number of cattle owned.
The climate changed during the Bronze Age (850 - 650 BC).
Making a living from the land may have become harder.
The use of metal tools probably offset any disadvantage.

Seafaring
Made boats called coracles.
Made from stretched cow hides ovewr a wooden frame.
They could hold as many as 30 people.
Coracles handled well at sea.
They were used for travel, trade, and fishing.

War
Bronze Age farmers traded with nearby farming communities.
Population pressures may also have sparked off wars between communities.
Bronze weapons are the first that seem to have been designed with humans in mind.
Irish were free of attacks from Germanic tribes.
Scholars, artists, merchants, and monks from Europe came to Ireland.

Society
Ireland had no cities.
The people were divided into clans.
There was a reduction in extremely large-scale burials.
A number of items of gold have been found.
This indicates that there must have been at least some form of an aristocracy.

Christianity
Irish Church was founded by St. Patrick.
As a bishop, he converted the Irish to Christianity.
Ireland lost contact with Rome.
Pope could not lead the Irish Church.
Abbots lead each monastary.

Monastaries
They were the center of Irish life.
Most were a group of huts surrounded by a stockade.
Irish monks began to follow practices different from the Roman Church.
Their hair was different.
The rituals were not the same.

Monks
Monks could move from one monastary to another.
Many monks chose to be hermits.
Some set up schools to each Christianity.
Some became missionaries.

St. Columba
He set up a monastary on Iona
Worked with non-Christian Celts along the coast.
Ionan monks went to northern England to preach to Anglo-Saxons.
Others went to northern Europe and built churches and monastaries.
Irish scholars became part of Charlemagne's palace school.
This helped spread Christianity.

Bibliography
Abbot Patrick. "The Bronze Age."  Travel Through Ireland Story.... 2001.  26 Nov. 2007. http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/bronze_age.html.

Greenblatt, Miriam, and Lemmo, Peter. Human Heritage A World History. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2001.