Celts or Gaels

By Mrs. Rhoda Home (nee Hannah)

Historians believe that the first people to live in Scotland and Ireland came from the European mainland about 6,000 years ago. It is not known what race they were. Some refer to them as Neolithic. They built boats, used flint tools, and made pottery.

The Celts are surrounded by an aura of Romance. They have been described as a race of ancient mystics; the genius of their artistic craftsmanship has been marvelled at for centuries; and yet they have been reviled for the barbarism and ferocity.

The Celts were the first European people north of the Alps to emerge into recorded history. Their civilization, now 3,000 years old and confined to the islands and peninsulas of northwest Europe, may soon disappear forever. During the reign of the Emperor Claudius, in 51 AD, Rome establisher her rule in southern Britain, marking the end of an epoch for the Celtic people. For a millennium they had spread themselves throughout Europe, originating, it is thought, from the homelands at the headwaters of the Rhine and Danube.

The Celtic Empire was an empire without an emperor or central government, made up instead of independent tribes. Their tribal rulers, both men and women, were elected, Vercingetorix of the Arverni in Gaul and Boudicca of the Icerni in Britain. (Vercingetorix of Gaul surrendered to Julius Caesar and was brought in chains to Capitoline Hill in Rome where he was executed in 56 BC).

The tribes spread eastward into what is now known as Czechoslovakia and along the Danube as far as Black Sea and on to Asia Minor where they established the Galatian State in the third century BC and were also known as Keltoi. They spread west to the British Isles and southwest into the Iberian Peninsula as far south as Gades (Cadiz). They also crossed the Alps and established themselves in the Po Valley of northern Italy, sacking Rome itself in 390 BC.

Their men acted as mercenaries for other nations. They were fierce fighters and treated war as a game, with appropriate celebrations, including human sacrifices before and after battles. These people predominated in Central and Western Europe before the rise of the Roman power and invasion of Germanic tribes. According to one ancient chronicler, they even attempted a coup d'état in the Egypt of the Ptolemy Pharaohs.

From the Urnfield Culture, the Celts emerge as an agricultural people, farmers cultivating their lands and living in a tribal society. By the start of the Hallstatt period in the eighth century BC, the development of iron working enabled the Celtic people to make formidable axes, billhooks and other tools with which they could open roadways through previously impenetrable forests, effect extensive clearances and till the land. An old Irish word for road, avenue or pathway, still in use in modern Irish, is Slighe, from the word sligim, I hew. The development of skill in metalworking, particularly iron, gave the Celts superior armaments that rendered them militarily superior.

It was the Celts who were the great road builders of northern Europe. The ancient roads of Britain, for example, often ascribed to the Romans, had already been laid by the Celts long before the coming of the Romans. Scholars such as Strabo, Caesar and Diodorus Siculus mentioned Celtic roads. Caesar's account of the Gallic campaigns credits much of their success to their speed and mobility to the excellent and extensive Celtic road system.

The Celtic religion is of importance in understanding Celtic attitudes. Immortality was a key feature. It taught that death was just a changing of place and that life went on with all its forms in the fabulous Otherworld. That a constant exchange of places by the soul takes place between the two worlds as people die. The Romans thought this to be an underlying reason for their fearlessness in battle.

About 300 BC the Celts from Western Europe invaded Scotland and Ireland and introduced the use of iron. People of dark complexion called Black Celts settled in France and those of great stature with fair hair and blue or grey eyes occupied Great Britain and Ireland. In Ireland Celts intermarried with the original Neolithic people. They established provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught.

Then Rome began to expand from a city-state into a mighty empire. The Celtic realms began to fall to the unquenchable Roman thirst for conquest and power. The Celts of Cisalpine Gaul fell first, then the Celts of Iberia, of Transalpine Gaul, of Galatia. Of Gaul proper, until finally the Celts of Britain came under the pax Romana.

The Roman army, led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola invaded Scotland in about 80 AD. They called Scotland "Caledonia" and called the people "Picts" (painted people). In Roman days they are said to have worn a sleeved blouse and trousers fitted close to the ankles with a tartan plaid across the shoulders fastened by a brooch (c. Highlander of about 1700 AD). The clan system was deeply rooted and they had musical, poetical, literary and dramatic talent. Gold and beaded ornaments were worn, and enamel decorated their armour. (Ref.1).

The Romans had trouble controlling the Picts and built forts and walls to defend themselves. One of the most famous, Hadrian's Wall, (named after the Roman Emperor, Hadrian), was built across Northern England in the AD 120's. The Romans left in about 400 AD. They had not invaded Ireland. St. Patrick (originally a slave from England) introduced Christianity to the people of Ireland in about AD 432.

Around 500 AD some of the Celtic tribes from Northern Ireland, called Scots (or Gaels) settled in Scotland's West Coast and established a kingdom called Dalriada. The dominant race is Scotland at that time was Pict, a Celtic people of diverse origins who inhabited roughly the north. Strathclyde, in the southwest, was a kingdom of the Celtic Britons, or Welsh, and most of the southeast was Anglo-Saxon.

Saint Columba from Ireland followed the Scots in 563 AD and established a monastery in Iona, off the southwest tip of the Isle of Mull, and with the help of the Scots began to convert the Picts to Christianity. Irish colonies included Wales, Devon and Cornwall.

In 844 AD Kenneth MacAlpin, King of the Scots, became king of the Picts as well. He established Alba, the first United Kingdom in Scotland. Alba is still the Celtic (Gaelic) name for Scotland. Many violent struggles for the throne began in the 900's. Following the Norman invasion of England, many Anglo-Saxon notables took refuge in Scotland. The Norse influence was considerable in the Hebrides, which was controlled by Norway, but eventually it was the Gaelic culture that predominated.

The Vikings invaded Ireland about 795 AD, but in 1014, with the help of the Normans, the Irish were able to defeat the Vikings at Chlorate. Some Vikings were allowed to stay in their seaside towns and were eventually absorbed by the Irish people.

When Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, lost his land in 1160 to Turlough O'Connor, High King Dermot asked Henry 2^nd, Norman King of England, for help promising the Normans a share of the land he regained. By the 1300's the Normans held nearly all of Ireland. They intermarried and adopted their language and customs.

What with invaders, migrants, refugees, intermarriages, etc., there is quite a mixture of races in Scotland and Ireland, and it would be difficult to establish from which race we descended.