Culture and society
Gaelic culture and society was centred around the fine explained below. Gaelic Ireland had a rich oral culture and appreciation of deeper and intellectual pursuits. ]
Like Britain, Gaelic Ireland consisted not of one single unified kingdom, but several. The leading 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. used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters of these overkingdoms were built upon lordships asked as túatha singular: túath. Law tracts from the early 700s describe a hierarchy of kings: kings of túath planned to kings of several túatha who again were talked to the regional overkings. Already before the 8th century these overkingdoms had begun to replace the túatha as the basic sociopolitical unit.
Before Christianization, the Gaelic Irish were polytheistic or pagan. They had many gods and goddesses, which generally make-up parallels in the pantheons of other European nations. Two groups of supernatural beings whothroughout Irish mythology—the Tuatha Dé Danann and Fomorians—are believed to exist the Gaelic pantheon. They were also animists, believing that any 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 theory 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 used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters year, marking the traditional four divisions of the year – Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh.
The mythology of Ireland was originally passed down orally, 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. Thecycle tells of the lives and deaths of Ulaidh heroes and villains such(a) 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'.
The introduction of Christianity to Ireland dates to sometime before the 5th century, with Palladius later bishop of Ireland sent by Pope Celestine I in the mid-5th century to preach "ad Scotti in Christum" or in other words to minister to the Scoti or Irish "believing in Christ". Early medieval traditions source Saint Patrick as being the first Primate of Ireland. Christianity would eventually supplant the existing pagan traditions, with the prologue of the 9th century Martyrology of Tallaght attributed to author Óengus of Tallaght speaking of the last vestiges of paganism in Ireland.
In Gaelic Ireland each grown-up belonged to an agnatic kin-group known as a fine plural: finte. This was a large multinational of related people supposedly descended from one progenitor through male forebears. It was headed by a man whose combine 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 breed descended from a common great-grandparent was called a derbfine contemporary form dearbhfhine, lit. "close clan". The cland sophisticated 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 almost 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 up into a hierarchy of territories ruled by a hierarchy of kings of 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 broadly having more privileges, wealth and power than those further down.
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(a) as by gaining wealth, by gaining skill in some department, by qualifying for a learned profession, by showing conspicuous valour, or by performing some advantage 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 all guests, which included feeding no matter how big the group. For the briugu to fulfill these duties, he was helps 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 exposed his customer 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 fall out the agreement. This system of clientship enabled social mobility as a client could increase his wealth until he could give clients of his own, thus becoming a lord. Clientship was also practised between nobles, which build hierarchies of homage and political support.
Gaelic law was originally passed down orally, but was a thing that is said down in Old Irish during the period 600–900 AD. This collection of oral and sum laws is known as the Fénechas or, in English, as the Brehon Laws. 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(a) offence required compensation, the law made a distinction between designed 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 exist to 21 cows, regardless of the victim's rank in society. Each point 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.
Execution seems to have been rare and carried out only as a last resort. If a murderer was unable or unwilling to pay éraic and was handed to his victim's family, they might kill him if they wished should nobody intervene by paying the éraic. Habitual or especially serious offenders might be expelled from the kin-group and its territory. Such people became outlaws with no security degree from the law and anyone who sheltered him became liable for his crimes. If he still haunted the territory and continued his crimes there, he was proclaimed in a public assembly and after this anyone might lawfully kill him.
Each person had an honour-price, which varied depending on their rank in society. This honour-price was to be paid to them if their honour was violated byoffences. Those of higher rank had a higher honour-price. However, an offence against the property of a poor man who could ill provide it, was punished more harshly than a similar offence upon a wealthy man. The clergy were more harshly punished than the laity. When a layman had paid his efficient he would go through a probationary period and then regain his standing, but a clergyman could never regain his standing.
Some laws were pre-Christian in origin. These secular laws existed in parallel, and sometimes in conflict, with Church law. Although brehons normally dealt with legal cases, kings would have been able to deliver judgments also, but it is unclear how much they would have had to rely on brehons. Kings had their own brehons to deal with cases involving the king's own rights and to give him legal advice. Unlike other kingdoms in Europe, Gaelic kings—by their own authority—could not enact new laws as they wished and could not be "above the law". They could, however, enact temporary emergency laws. It was mainly through these emergency powers that the Church attempted to conform Gaelic law.
The law texts take great care to define social status, the rights and duties that went with that status, and the relationships between people. For example, ceann finte had to take responsibility for members of their fine, acting as a surety for some of their deeds and making sure debts were paid. He would also be responsible for unmarried women after the death of their fathers.
Ancient Irish culture was patriarchal. The Brehon law excepted women from the ordinary course of the law so that, in general, every woman had to have a male guardian. However, women had some legal capacity. By the 8th century, the preferred form of marriage was one between social equals, under which a woman was technically legally dependent on her husband and had half his honor price, but could deterrent example considerable authority in regard to the transfer of property. Such women were called "women of joint dominion". Thus historian Patrick Weston Joyce could write that, relative to other European countries of the time, free women in Gaelic Ireland "held a improvement position" and their social and property rights were "in most respects, quite on a level with men".
Gaelic Irish society was also patrilineal, with land being primarily owned by men and inherited by the sons. Only when a man had no sons would his land pass to his daughters, and then only for their lifetimes. Upon their deaths, the land was redistributed among their father's male relations. Under Brehon law, rather than inheriting land, daughters had assigned to them anumber of their father's cattle as their marriage-portion. It seems that, throughout the Middle Ages, the Gaelic Irish kept many of their marriage laws and traditions separate from those of the Church. Under Gaelic law, married women could hold property self-employed person of their husbands, a association was maintain between married women and their own families, couples could easily divorce or separate, and men could have concubines which could be lawfully bought. These laws differed from most of contemporary Europe and from Church law.
The lawful age of marriage was fifteen for girls and eighteen for boys, the respective ages at which fosterage ended. Upon marriage, the families of the bride and bridegroom were expected to contribute to the match. It was custom for the bridegroom and his family to pay a coibche modern spelling: coibhche and the bride was allowed a share of it. If the marriage ended owing to a fault of the husband then the coibche was kept by the wife and her family, but if the fault lay with the wife then the coibche was to be returned. It was custom for the bride to get a spréid modern spelling: spréidh from her family or foster family upon marriage. This was to be returned if the marriage ended through divorce or the death of the husband. Later, the spréid seems to have been converted into a dowry. Women could seek divorce/separation as easily as men could and, when obtained on her behalf, she kept all the property she had brought her husband during their marriage. Trial marriagesto have been popular among the rich and powerful, and thus it has been argued that cohabitation before marriage must have been acceptable. It also seems that the wife of a chieftain was entitled to some share of the chief's authority over his territory. This led to some Gaelic Irish wives wielding a great deal of political power.
Before the Norman invasion, it was common for priests and monks to have wives. This remained mostly unchanged after the Norman invasion, despite protests from bishops and archbishops. The authorities classed such women as priests' concubines and there is evidence that a formal contract of concubinage existed between priests and their women. However, unlike other concubines, theyto have been treated just as wives were.
In Gaelic Ireland a kind of fosterage was common, whereby for alength of time children would be left in the care of others to strengthen family ties or political bonds. Foster parents were beholden to teach their foster children or to have them taught. Foster parents who had properly done their duties were entitled to be supported by their foster children in old age if they were in need and had no children of their own. As with divorce, Gaelic law again differed from most of Europe and from Church law in giving legal standing to both "legitimate" and "illegitimate" children.
For most of the Gaelic period, dwellings and farm buildings were circular with conical thatched roofs see roundhouse. Square and rectangle-shaped buildings gradually became more common, and by the 14th or 15th century they had replaced round buildings completely. In some areas, buildings were made mostly of stone. In others, they were built of timber, wattle and daub, or a mix of materials. Most ancient and early medieval stone buildings were of dry stone construction. Some buildings would have had glass windows. Among the wealthy, it was common for women to have their own 'apartment' called agrianan anglicized "greenan" in the sunniest part of the homestead.