Celtic Culture

The Celts first appeared in 600 B.C., 150 years after the founding of Rome. They crossed the Rhine and one group among them settled in present day France, becoming the Gauls. Another tribe settled in the Iberian peninsula of Spain. Some ventured to Greece where they encountered Christianity, through Paul's letters. Siblings of the Gaulish Celts journeyed to Britain as early as 400 B.C. Some of those Britons reached Ireland by 350 B.C., others who were Iberian Celts managed to gain ascendancy over the Britons. These Iberian Celts became the Irish.

The other Celtic tribes were absorbed into other nation-states in a grand-scale cultural assimilation. So, today, Ireland and its people are a living and prospering ancient tribe.

The Celts valued beauty and equality among the sexes and nature. They were artists, poets, warriors and lovers of life. An excellent example of the Celtic sentiment can be found in the poem "Beautiful Dierdre," an ode to a Celtic princess.

-- from A Celtic Anthology, Irish Poems

 

Ireland -- the First and Second Millennia

Many people around the world look upon Ireland in the 20th Century and wonder how and why conflict persists on this green island nation. Since the 5th Century, Ireland has had a regular flow of invaders, some less intrusive than others. The Roman Catholic influence first arrived in the late 4th Century with St. Padraic (Patrick), and gained a lasting foothold on the nation. Viking terrorists laid siege to the island in the 8th Century, which lasted through the 11th Century, until the native Irish drove them away in a series of battles. In the 12th Century, the Normans invaded next. The Irish Normans eagerly adopted the Irish culture, and in a saying of the time, were "more Irish than the Irish themselves." The Normans who invaded England were not so eager to assimilate with the Irish. In the 16th Century they set their eyes upon Ireland's forests and lands, and upon the recommendation of the English poet Spenser, contemplated genocide of the Irish race (the beginning of the "troubles" in the relationship between the two nations).

In the 17th Century, the English Cromwellians nearly implemented the Spenserian suggestion. The 18th century was a time of the Penal Laws, which denied Catholics citizenry, and then the Famine of the 1850's nearly did in the time-tested Irish people.

 

20th Century Ireland

 
William Butler Yeats

A tenacious group, the Irish suffered through the 19th century potato famine. In the early 20th century, a move was afoot to revive the Celtic traditions that had been disallowed by the British. William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Sean O'Casey, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw and other Irish poets, writers and patriots stirred the growing desire for an Irish republic. Enter a young patriot named Michael Collins.

 

Michael Collins and Ireland

Seventy-five years ago, an extraordinary young man of just thirty-one years name Michael Collins was gunned down on a road in West Cork. He was the dynamic leader and patriot who brought the English nation closer to its knees than any had since the American Revolution.

Born in a stone cottage at Sam's Cross between Clonakilty and Rosscarbery, he grew up on a farm. He learned about Irish nationalism from his father and mentors James Santry and Denis Lyons, a Lisavaird schoolmaster and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

At fifteen, Michael Collins passed the boy clerk exam and found a position in London, where he learned finance and had an exacting eye for detail -- traits that would propel him to the directorship of the newly declared Irish Republic when he was only 27.

He led the Irish Republican Army in a series of devastating attacks and killings of British Government and Intelligence officials. Small "flying columns" of men were sent out at Collins' command to break down the British resolve. Lack of good British Intelligence photographs allowed Collins to wander Dublin on a bicycle and stay in over 30 houses, which served as hideouts.

By 1920, the constant attacks by the Irish Republican Army wore down the British and they agreed to sign a treaty recognizing the right of an Irish Republic. Political leader Eamon De Valera shrewdly sent Collins to London to sign the treaty, realizing that it would not be the total victory the Irish Republicans had hoped for. In the bargain, the British wanted the nation split in two, with Northern Ireland remaining under British rule. This compromise was necessary to keep the treaty process intact, but was received with great dissatisfaction by Republicans back in Ireland. Evidence points to this dissatisfaction as the motive of Collins' assassination in 1922.

Michael Collins is considered among some as the greatest hero in the story of modern Ireland. His revolutionary strategies were greatly admired by Israeli nationalists in their struggle to create a nation state.

 

Ireland Today

The island nation is beginning a renaissance that has experienced fits and starts since the 1920's. Dublin, Galway, Cork and other Irish towns are experiencing booms both economically and culturally. The youth of Ireland is taking an active role in the Celtic revival. While many young Irish still leave the nation to find work in America, more are returning to the nation to keep it flourishing.

Music, theater, poetry and literature are flowering in the current environment.

Back to Ireland page

 

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