A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland

By P W Joyce

1906

Chapter 1

The people were divided into tribes and clans, each group, whether small or large, governed by a king or chief; and at the head of all was the high king of Ireland. But these kings could not do as they pleased: for they had to govern the country or the district in accordance with old customs, and had to seek the advice of the chief men on all important occasions much the same as the limited monarchs of our own day. There were courts of justice presided over by magistrates and judges, with lawyers to explain the law and plead for their clients.

The houses were nearly all of wood, and oftener round than quadrangular, the dwelling of every comfortable family being surrounded by a high rampart of earth with a thorn hedge or strong palisade on top, to keep out wild animals and robbers. Beside almost every homestead was a kitchen-garden for table vegetables, and one or more enclosed spaces for various purposes, such as out-door games, shutting in cattle at night, or as haggards for corn-stacks. In some places the dwellings were clustered in groups or hamlets, not huddled close as the houses in most of our present villages, but with open spaces between. The large towns which, however, were very few lay open all round, without any attempt at fortification.

The people were bright and intelligent and much given to intellectual entertainments and amusements. They loved music and singing, and took delight in listening to poetry, history, and romantic stories, recited by professional poets and shanachies; or, in the absence of these, by good non-professional storytellers, who were everywhere to be found among the peasantry. They were close observers of external nature, too, and had an intense admiration for natural beauty a peculiarity everywhere reflected in their literature, as well as in their place-names.

In most parts of the country open-air meetings or fairs were held periodically, where the people congregated in thousands, and, forgetting all the cares of the world for the time, gave themselves over to unrestrained enjoyment athletic games and exercises, racing, music, recitations by skilled poets and storytellers, jugglers' and showmen's representations, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. So determined were they to ward off all unpleasantness on these occasions, that no one, at the risk of his life, durst pick a quarrel or strike a blow: for this was one of the rules laid down to govern all public assemblies. An Irish fair in those times was a lively and picturesque sight. The people were dressed in their best, and in great variety; for all, both men and women, loved bright colours; and from head to foot every individual wore articles of varied hues. Here you see a tall gentleman walking along with a scarlet cloak flowing loosely over a short jacket of purple, with perhaps blue trousers and yellow headgear, while the next showed a colour arrangement wholly different; and the women vied with the men in variety of hues. Nay, single garments were often particoloured; and it was quite common to see the long outside mantle, whether worn by men or women, striped and spotted with purple, yellow, green, or other dyes.

But outside such social gatherings, and in ordinary life, both chiefs and people were quarrelsome and easily provoked to fight. Indeed they loved fighting for its own sake; and a stranger to the native character would be astonished to see the very people who only a few days before vied with each other in good-natured enjoyment, now fighting to the death on some flimsy cause of variance, which in all likelihood he would fail to understand if he made inquiry. These everlasting jars and conflicts though not more common in Ireland than in England and Scotland brought untold miseries on the people, and were the greatest obstacle to progress. Sometimes great battles were fought, on which hung the fate of the nation, like those we have seen contested in Ireland within the last two or three hundred years. But the martial instincts of the people were not always confined within the shores of Ireland; for Irish leaders often carried war into the neighbouring countries both of Great Britain and the Continent.

In all parts of the country were monasteries, most of them with schools attached, where an excellent education was to be had by all who desired it, for small payment, or for nothing at all if the student was poor; and besides these there were numerous lay schools where young persons might be educated in general learning and for the professions.

FIG. 3. Ruins on Inishcaltra or Holy Island in Lough Derg on the Shannon. Island Monastery founded by St. Camin (died 653). Here was one of the Munster Colleges where many distinguished men were educated. From the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal.

The teaching and lecturing were carried on with life and spirit, and very much in the open air when the weather permitted. In the monasteries and schools, as well as in some private houses, there were libraries of manuscript books containing all the learning then known: but when you walked into the library room, you saw no books on shelves; but numbers of neat satchels hanging on hooks round the walls, each containing one or more precious volumes and labelled on the outside.

Learning of every kind was held in the highest estimation; and learned men were well rewarded, not only in the universal respect paid to them, but also in the solid worldly advantages of wealth and influence. Professional men physicians, lawyers, builders, &c. went on their visits, each attended by a group of scholars who lived in his house and accompanied him to learn their profession by actual practice.

Some gave themselves up to the study and practice of art in its various forms, and became highly accomplished: and specimens of their artistic work remain to this day, which are admitted to be the most perfect and beautiful of the kind existing in any part of the world.

In numerous districts there were minerals, which, though not nearly so abundant as in the neighbouring island of Great Britain, were yet in sufficient quantity to give rise to many industries. The mines were worked too, as we know from ancient documents; and the remains of old mines of copper, coal, and other minerals, with many antique mining tools, have been discovered in recent times in some parts of Ireland. Gold was found in many places, especially in the district which is now called the county Wicklow; and the rich people wore a variety of gold ornaments, which they took great pride in. Many rivers produced the pearl mussel, so that Ireland was well known for its pearls, which were unusually large and of a very fine quality: and in some of the same rivers pearls are found to this day.

FIG. 4. Specimens of the Ancient Irish Art of Bookbinding. From Miss Stokes's Early Christian Art in Ireland.

Though there were no big factories, there were plenty of industries and trades in the homes of the people, like what we now call cottage industries.

Coined money was hardly known, so that all transactions of buying and selling were carried on by a sort of barter, values being estimated by certain well-known standards, such as cows, sacks of corn of a fixed size, ounces of gold and silver, and such like. To facilitate these interchanges, the people had balances and weights not very different from those now used.

The men of the several professions, such as medical doctors, lawyers, judges, builders, poets, historians; and the tradesmen of various crafts carpenters, smiths, workers in gold, silver, and brass, ship and boat-builders, masons, shoemakers, dyers, tailors, brewers, and so forth all worked and earned their bread under the old Irish laws, which were everywhere acknowledged. Then there was a good deal of commerce with Britain and with Continental countries, especially France; and the home commodities, such as hides, salt, wool, etc., were exchanged for wine, silk, satin, and other goods not produced in Ireland.

As the population of the country increased, the cultivated land increased in proportion. But until a late time there were few inhabited districts that were not within view, or within easy reach, of unreclaimed lands forest, or bog, or moorland: so that the people had much ado to protect their crops and flocks from the inroads of wild animals.

All round near the coast ran, then as now, the principal mountain ranges, with a great plain in the middle. The air was soft and moist, perhaps even more moist than at present, on account of the great extent of forest. The cleared land was exceedingly fertile, and was well watered with springs, streamlets, and rivers, not only among the mountainous districts, but all over the central plain. Pasture lands were luxuriant and evergreen, inviting flocks and herds without limit. There was more pasture than tillage, and the grass land was, for the most part, not fenced in, but was grazed in common.

Some of the pleasing features of the country have been well pictured by Denis Florence M'Carthy in his poem of "The Bell Founder":

"O Erin! thou broad-spreading valley, thou well-watered land of fresh streams,
When I gaze on thy hills greenly sloping, where the light of such loveliness beams,
When I rest on the rim of thy fountains, or stray where thy streams disembogue,
Then I think that the fairies have brought me to dwell in the bright Tirnanogue."

Ireland, so far as it was brought under cultivation and pasture in those early days, was as the Venerable Bede calls it "a land flowing with milk and honey"; a pleasant, healthful, and fruitful land, well fitted to maintain a prosperous and contented people.

Though the period from the sixth to the twelfth century has been specified at the opening of this chapter, the state of things depicted here continued, with no very decided changes, for several hundred years afterwards; and many of the customs and institutions, so far from being limited backwards by the sixth century, existed from prehistoric times.

All these features, and many others not noticed here, will now be examined in the following chapters of this book.