Insular, not Celtic
Correcting the Celtic Myth in Ireland
A mythos surrounding the culture of a people called Celts has dominated studies of the Irish for more than a century. 'Celtic' began as a linguistic term and may still accurately be used to describe, linguistically, the Irish language. Over time, however, Celtic came to associate the native population in Ireland with a Continental culture that migrated across Europe during the Greek and Roman Classical period, called the Celts.
The Celts immigrated through northern Europe and across the Channel into England; the genetic analysis of Central and Eastern England shows significant Continental ingression compared to the rest of the British Isles (1). Many people therefore assume today that the Celts must also have conquered Ireland, and that the modern Irish are ethnically descendants of the Celts. This notion emerged in the nineteenth century, in large part due to coincidental similarities between Irish art and Celtic art, and a correlation between their languages.
New studies of human remains from Ireland have revealed multiple complete genomes for Bronze Age individuals, and these genomes have been compared with samples from various points in Irish history. In particular, historical geneticists have isolated several mutations (such as the C282Y hemochromatosis allele) that show strong continuity from the Bronze Age through to the modern Irish today. These new analyses “suggest the establishment of the Irish genome 4,000 years ago” (2), meaning that the genetic makeup of the Irish has not changed dramatically since the Bronze Age.
This new information directly contradicts the outdated concept that the Irish are descendents of 'Celtic invaders who moved to and conquered the native Irish around 500 BCE.' Instead, they likely arrived during the Bronze Age, fought with or intermarried with the local population, and faced no new conquest or serious invasions until the Viking Age.
New studies of human remains from Ireland have revealed multiple complete genomes for Bronze Age individuals, and these genomes have been compared with samples from various points in Irish history. In particular, historical geneticists have isolated several mutations (such as the C282Y hemochromatosis allele) that show strong continuity from the Bronze Age through to the modern Irish today. These new analyses “suggest the establishment of the Irish genome 4,000 years ago” (2), meaning that the genetic makeup of the Irish has not changed dramatically since the Bronze Age.
This new information directly contradicts the outdated concept that the Irish are descendents of 'Celtic invaders who moved to and conquered the native Irish around 500 BCE.' Instead, they likely arrived during the Bronze Age, fought with or intermarried with the local population, and faced no new conquest or serious invasions until the Viking Age.
Interestingly, the Irish themselves may have orally preserved this aspect of their own history (they never, until the nineteenth century, claimed to be of Celtic origin). According to the Book of Invasions (3), a compilation of Irish pseudo-histories that includes some written in the early 800's CE, the medieval Irish population descended from settlers who came to Ireland by way of what is today Spain (4). DNA studies today reveal remarkable similarities between the genetics of the Basques of Spain and the Irish, Scottish and Welsh of the British Isles (2), so this legendary account may be accurate.
Furthermore, the book states that these 'Milesians' conquered a native population of settlers, the 'Tuatha de Danaan,' who had conquered settlers that came before them, including the original settlers of Ireland, the 'Fir Bolg' (5). Studies of ancient remains in Ireland from the period between 10,000 BCE and the first millennium BCE suggest that there were, in fact, multiple waves of settlers from the Continent (likely steppe nomads from Eastern Europe, or possibly originating in Egypt) prior to the arrival of the ancestors of the modern Irish during the Bronze Age. Thus modern analyses correspond surprisingly well with the Irish psuedohistories and origin legends.
There are a few “intrusion” burials of British Celts in Ireland, just as there are Romans and British-Romans buried in Ireland, so a few Celts clearly made it to Ireland—just as travelers from other cultures visited and sometimes died on the island. However, these Celtic burials are the exception, not the rule; archaeologists have found enough of these graves surviving intact to know that there could have been more, if more continental Celts had immigrated—but few enough to prove that they are rare and atypical. It is no more empirically sound to claim that these burials prove a Celtic invasion (let alone conquest) than to claim that the Romans successfully invaded and conquered Ireland (which provably did not occur)—and likewise, for the Hallstatt/La Tène/Gallic invasion theories. The evidence for such conquests is too sparse, and the evidence of ethnic, linguistic and cultural continuity within Ireland is too strong.
This leaves the similarity of the Irish language with other Celtic languages to be explained—but this seems to pose no difficulty, either. Writing in 1979, Holly Burton pointed out that linguistic theories place the Old Irish/Goidelic derivative (“Q-Celtic”) of proto-Indo-European languages as a more conservative and archaic form of Celtic language than Gallic and Brythonic (“P-Celtic”) (6). Celtic languages seem to have originated in central and/or eastern Europe, with dates ranging between 4,000 to 2,000 BCE (6) (around the time of the establishment of the native Irish ethnicity, as shown by genomes).
Thus, the migrants who settled in Ireland in the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago, coming from the Near Eastern steppes by way of eastern Europe, could easily have already spoken the original Q-Celtic language. The Celtic language subsequently altered in its central/eastern European cradle to form the P-Celtic languages encountered by the Greeks in the 6th century BCE and, later, by the Romans in Gaul. Certainly there is no need to search for ways to transplant the younger linguistic forms of Celtic, found on the Continent 2,000 years later, into Ireland, where the more archaic linguistic form currently survives. It seems more reasonable to accept that the language moved with the people, some 4,000 years ago, and remained in its more conservative form in Ireland thanks to the preservative isolation of the island setting.
Cultural disparity between Irish natives (as recorded in the earliest law tracts, as well as burial and settlement practices) and Continental Celts further disproves their connection, though the topic could fill multiple research papers and cannot be covered adequately here. Suffice it to say that the Irish are not likely to have been culturally descendents of the European Celts. They may have been distant cousins, having originally come from the same region and linguistic heritage, but with the distance of thousands of years this is hardly relevant (except in the sense that all humans are related).
Ultimately this must invalidate the belief that the medieval Irish were “Celts,” where the term refers to a culture and ethnicity. The ancestors of medieval and modern Irish were already present and well established in Ireland for more than a thousand years before the Celts migrated through the European Continent. Thus, any descriptions and depictions of Celts must now be discarded as sources of information concerning the Irish dress and culture. These must be replaced by new studies into the customs and dress of the “Insular Irish.”
In conclusion, the linguistic term “Celtic” does still apply to the Insular Irish language—but not to the culture or ethnicity of the Irish people.
Sources:
1) Capelli, Cristian; et al. "A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles." Current Biology, 13, 2003. p. 979–984
2) Cassidy, Lara M, Rui Martiniano, Eileen M Murphy, Matthew D Teasdale, James Mallory, Barrie Hartwell and Daniel G Bradley. “Neolithic and Bronze Age Migration to Ireland and Establishment of the Insular Atlantic Genome.” PNAS vol. 113, no. 2, pg 368-373. September, 2015.
3) Leabhar Gabhála. RIA MS 23 K 32
4) Carey, John. “Lebor Gabála Érenn: Textual History and Psuedohistory.” ITS; subsidiary series, 20. London: Irish Texts Society, 2009.
5) Lebor Gabála Érenn
6) Burton, Holly. “The Arrival of the Celts in Ireland.” Expedition Magazine, Vol. 21 Issue 3. March, 1979.
Furthermore, the book states that these 'Milesians' conquered a native population of settlers, the 'Tuatha de Danaan,' who had conquered settlers that came before them, including the original settlers of Ireland, the 'Fir Bolg' (5). Studies of ancient remains in Ireland from the period between 10,000 BCE and the first millennium BCE suggest that there were, in fact, multiple waves of settlers from the Continent (likely steppe nomads from Eastern Europe, or possibly originating in Egypt) prior to the arrival of the ancestors of the modern Irish during the Bronze Age. Thus modern analyses correspond surprisingly well with the Irish psuedohistories and origin legends.
There are a few “intrusion” burials of British Celts in Ireland, just as there are Romans and British-Romans buried in Ireland, so a few Celts clearly made it to Ireland—just as travelers from other cultures visited and sometimes died on the island. However, these Celtic burials are the exception, not the rule; archaeologists have found enough of these graves surviving intact to know that there could have been more, if more continental Celts had immigrated—but few enough to prove that they are rare and atypical. It is no more empirically sound to claim that these burials prove a Celtic invasion (let alone conquest) than to claim that the Romans successfully invaded and conquered Ireland (which provably did not occur)—and likewise, for the Hallstatt/La Tène/Gallic invasion theories. The evidence for such conquests is too sparse, and the evidence of ethnic, linguistic and cultural continuity within Ireland is too strong.
This leaves the similarity of the Irish language with other Celtic languages to be explained—but this seems to pose no difficulty, either. Writing in 1979, Holly Burton pointed out that linguistic theories place the Old Irish/Goidelic derivative (“Q-Celtic”) of proto-Indo-European languages as a more conservative and archaic form of Celtic language than Gallic and Brythonic (“P-Celtic”) (6). Celtic languages seem to have originated in central and/or eastern Europe, with dates ranging between 4,000 to 2,000 BCE (6) (around the time of the establishment of the native Irish ethnicity, as shown by genomes).
Thus, the migrants who settled in Ireland in the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago, coming from the Near Eastern steppes by way of eastern Europe, could easily have already spoken the original Q-Celtic language. The Celtic language subsequently altered in its central/eastern European cradle to form the P-Celtic languages encountered by the Greeks in the 6th century BCE and, later, by the Romans in Gaul. Certainly there is no need to search for ways to transplant the younger linguistic forms of Celtic, found on the Continent 2,000 years later, into Ireland, where the more archaic linguistic form currently survives. It seems more reasonable to accept that the language moved with the people, some 4,000 years ago, and remained in its more conservative form in Ireland thanks to the preservative isolation of the island setting.
Cultural disparity between Irish natives (as recorded in the earliest law tracts, as well as burial and settlement practices) and Continental Celts further disproves their connection, though the topic could fill multiple research papers and cannot be covered adequately here. Suffice it to say that the Irish are not likely to have been culturally descendents of the European Celts. They may have been distant cousins, having originally come from the same region and linguistic heritage, but with the distance of thousands of years this is hardly relevant (except in the sense that all humans are related).
Ultimately this must invalidate the belief that the medieval Irish were “Celts,” where the term refers to a culture and ethnicity. The ancestors of medieval and modern Irish were already present and well established in Ireland for more than a thousand years before the Celts migrated through the European Continent. Thus, any descriptions and depictions of Celts must now be discarded as sources of information concerning the Irish dress and culture. These must be replaced by new studies into the customs and dress of the “Insular Irish.”
In conclusion, the linguistic term “Celtic” does still apply to the Insular Irish language—but not to the culture or ethnicity of the Irish people.
Sources:
1) Capelli, Cristian; et al. "A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles." Current Biology, 13, 2003. p. 979–984
2) Cassidy, Lara M, Rui Martiniano, Eileen M Murphy, Matthew D Teasdale, James Mallory, Barrie Hartwell and Daniel G Bradley. “Neolithic and Bronze Age Migration to Ireland and Establishment of the Insular Atlantic Genome.” PNAS vol. 113, no. 2, pg 368-373. September, 2015.
3) Leabhar Gabhála. RIA MS 23 K 32
4) Carey, John. “Lebor Gabála Érenn: Textual History and Psuedohistory.” ITS; subsidiary series, 20. London: Irish Texts Society, 2009.
5) Lebor Gabála Érenn
6) Burton, Holly. “The Arrival of the Celts in Ireland.” Expedition Magazine, Vol. 21 Issue 3. March, 1979.
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