Irish History Articles - Prehistory, Myth and Legend by Dr. Samuel Couch

Article: Irish History - Prehistory, Myth and Legend

by Dr. Sam Couch, Ph. D.
Owner, Rising Road Tours

Prehistory, Myth and Legend

Around 6000 BCE the first people settled in Ireland following the receding of European glaciers. Historians and archaeologists call these the Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic people. They were hunters and gatherers who lived by lakes and rivers.

Circa 3000 BCE, Neolithic people arrived. These were farmers and flint masters who constructed axes to cut down forests for pastures and farmland. Agricultural surpluses lead to the creation of a priestly class who knew astronomy. The magnificent passage tomb at Newgrange is a product of this time.

The Bronze Age peoples arrived around 2000 BCE and introduced a culture with high artistic form. Society continued to stratify and great tribal clans led by powerful chieftains arose. This society may represent the time period chronicled in Irish legends such as the Tain bo Cuailgne.

About 600 BCE the Celts arrived from Europe. These were military peoples who had conquered Europe from France to Turkey. The Celts even pillaged Rome. The Romans thought their nasal intonations sounded like "ba-ba" which gave rise to a Greek word (later adopted into Latin) describing these ruthless peoples — "barbarians." The La Tène culture of the European Celts, however, was noted for its artistry, music and poetry. The Celts were militaristic, had a rigidly hierarchical class system, a mature and complex theology and a strong faith. They brought the Iron Age to Ireland as they were marginalized to the edges of Europe. Their arts, language and social patterns were imposed on the sophisticated Bronze Age society on the island. It should be noted that some contemporary scholars question the existence of a great "Celtic tribe."

This is what we know of documented history.

And now, the myths......

Mythic legends tell of successive waves of invasion. The first mythic settler, Partholon, died of plague with all his followers. Next came the followers of Nemed, a band of continental marauders, who were harassed by the Fomorians, a vicious tribe from Tory Island. The Fomorians demanded 2/3 of the settler's corn, their milk and their newborn children. When Nemed and his forces could not defeat the Fomorians, they returned to Spain. The next set of invaders was called the Fir Bolg. This described the men (fir) of a Celtic tribe Caesar feared, the Belgae (Belgium). Fir Bolgs were aggressive, dark, stocky, tough, and inelegant. In later years, people would deny pedigreed descent from the Fir Bolgs. They tended to claim lineage from the Tuatha De Danann, people of the Goddess Dana. The divine Tuatha had a quirky pantheon. Angus was the god of love, Lugh the sun god (Lughnasa, the great summer harvest festival honors Lugh), Manannan god of the sea. Manannan's sister Finola and her three brothers were central characters in a legend which has resonance even today. Their barren stepmother changed them into swans and told their father Lir the children were dead. She actually cursed them to 1000 years as swans. When the curse was up the children were returned to human form by the ringing of church bells according to Christian tradition. Many Irish consider themselves descended from the Children of Lir.

Many legends link to or echo other legends in Western history. The cauldron of Dagda and the stone that could tell a real king from a pretender by crying out when he stepped on it remind us of the Arthurian legends. The god Ogma is linked with writing, letters made of lines carved on the edges of stones comprise ogham script — the oldest form of written communication on the island. Manannan is related to the Isle of Man. Lir is the prototype for King Lear. The early church adopted many of these pagan figures. Brigid the goddess of fire became St. Bridget, along with Patrick and Columba, one of Ireland's three patron saints.

According to myth the Milesians arrived to overthrow the Tuatha about the time of Alexander the Great. They consigned the Tuatha to dark caverns and burial mounds or sidhe, where they now hide and protect their treasures. Sidhe is the Irish word used to describe the faery host. Milesians were followers of Mil from Spain. Mil's son Goidel married Scota. Their descendants are known as Scots, Milesians or Gaels. Although the stories of wars and conquest may be mythic, the sites of these battles have yielded weapons and human bones. The Cuchulain legend, centerpiece of the Red Ulster Cycle, may be about heroism for the Irish people but it mirrors a long, historical cattle war between Ulster and Connaught.

Pagan Kings and Celtic Saints

Early Irish society was highly stratified. Warrior aristocracy and pagan priests advised kings. Below kings and aristocrats were men of importance whose distinction resided in their memories and eloquence. These were bards, genealogists, scribes, jurists, historians and artists. They did not inherit their state but won the positions by merit. Below them were farmers and soldiers, next came slaves. This rigid hierarchy lasted until the times of Cromwell.

During the years Ireland was ruled by pagan kings, Europe was changing. Rome ruled from Britain to Syria. Christianity governed much of the continent. Religion united the empire and thrived in cities under priests and bishops, and in monastic communities ruled by abbots. As Asiatic hordes compromised Roman rule, the empire withdrew from Britain around 410 CE. After this happened Angles and Saxons conquered Britain. Those Celtic Britons who did not assimilate fled to the west and north of Britain and to Ireland. They brought this new religion with them. Although Christianity was stern in comparison to the irresponsible ways of Irish society, it took root in the country and within 100 years brought Ireland to a golden age during which Ireland formed a lifeline between Europe locked in the throes of the Dark Ages and then-current knowledge.

Christianity came to Ireland first as a monastic enterprise. Monasticism fit well with the Irish design of tightly controlled local kingships. St. Patrick is credited with leading a band of missionaries who spread the religion across the island. He had been a captive as a youth in Ireland. After his escape and return to Britain, he took holy orders and dreamt of his mission to convert his former captors. From 431 to 462 he led a tough and uncompromising mission which utterly eradicated paganism. The most popular pilgrimage in Ireland is the last Sunday in July as the faithful climb Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo where the saint may have tended sheep in his youth. It is much more popular in Ireland than the saint's feast day on March 17.

The age of saints which follows often strains credulity in tales of interaction between man and nature. One such legend is that of St. Kevin and the birds. His love of animals often was counterpoised against distaste for women. The same Saint Kevin threw a woman over a cliff when she refused to leave him alone.

Monastic Achievements

Poetry and artwork are hallmarks of this period. In the early 9th century monks created illuminated manuscripts, the most famous being the Book of Kells. These ornamented gospels are masterworks of Celtic art. Irish architecture found perfection in Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, with cones, arches, slit windows, pillars, carved capitals and bright frescoes surrounded by gables and interlacings of stone serpents. Monasteries were rife in the century following Patrick's death. They were characterized by strict rules and had such intellectual reputations that monks from the continent sometimes came to study. It was in these monasteries that the knowledge of Europe was husbanded during the Dark Ages and finally transferred back to the continent after those times of ignorance and despair. Only a doctrinal clash sent Irish monastic missionaries home from England and the continent. Charlemagne actually called Irish monks to Paris in 800 to enhance his court's reputation. Other monks chose lives of self-imposed exile. Their beehive ascetic huts dot the landscapes of the Skelligs off the coast of Kerry and all along the Dingle Peninsula.

Perhaps the greatest legacy left by the monks was the drive to find out what was beyond the Atlantic. Some scholars believe that St. Brendan the Navigator set off in the early 6th century on a voyage that took him perhaps to America. Although the story is rife with tales from legend, there are geographic features that coincide with places described in the Navigation of St. Brendan. The Sargasso Sea, Greenland, the Orkneys. Some believe that Moctezuma let Cortez into Mexico City because legend told that the bearded dark-haired people would return from the east.

The End of a Golden Age

Ireland had a strong place in early European history until their stubbornness led them to draw fire from Rome. The Synod of Whitby in Yorkshire (664) condemned the Irish for ignoring a new calculation of Easter. This led to self-imposed exile of Irish churchmen back to the island. People continued to send young scholars to the forty-five monastic schools in Ireland but the devotion to the early church was never matched. For the next thousand years the Irish were to be plagued by incursion and invasion by men from the North. This would signal the beginning of the end of Irish independence.

This series of articles is based on lectures given by Dr. Samuel Couch to Irish Studies courses at Georgia Southern University and Young Harris College between 1997 and 2004. Documented sources come from Couch's research and studies in American universities and with scholars in Ireland. The articles are in no way intended to be comprehensive.

Background materials come from, but are not limited to, readings in the following books:

Duffy, Sean, ed., Atlas of Irish History. Gill & Macmillan: Dublin. 1997.
Joyce, P.W., Outlines of the History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1905. M.H. Gill & Son: Dublin. 1909.
Killeen, Richard, A Short History of Ireland. Gill & Macmillan: Dublin. 1994.
Smyth, Daragh, A Guide to Irish Mythology. 2nd ed. Irish Academic Press: Dublin. 1996.

Any lack of attribution to primary sources is unintentional and the sole responsibility of Dr. Couch.

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