The island of Ireland offers a huge range of winter breaks — MAL ROGERS reports
Navan Centre and Iron Age Fort — a reconstructed Celtic settlementTHE Celts have been around in Ireland since around 500 BC, honing up their skills in working bronze and gold — at the time they were world leaders in bling, probably.
Now, intricate jewellery aside, lot of recent academic effort has been focused on who the Celts really were, and how they got to Ireland.
According to legend, the Gaels were the last tribe of Celts to appear in Ireland. But historians now increasingly think that no such invasion ever took place. The Celtic civilisation, some reckon, was a culture, a way of life perhaps, that spread from one people to another. Research shows little evidence of a formidable invasion into Ireland anytime during the early Celtic era. So, no handbags, no longboats full of invaders. (that was to come later).
The culture that established itself in Ireland in pre-Christian times certainly could have come about through invasion; but a steady spread from Europe seems more likely; trading of ideas, artefacts, and expertise might be a likelier scenario.
Many places in Ireland focus on the whole topic — and it’s a fascinating journey
Museums north and south
IN THE National Museum of Ireland–Archaeology in Dublin, the stunning Broighter Collar, an Iron Age gold collar found in a hoard in 1896 near Lough Foyle, takes pride of place. The museum also houses other Celtic treasures such as the Tara Brooch, made around the late 7th or 8th century.
In the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Iron Age metalwork such as the Bann Disc is on show.
This wonderful craftsmanship still inspires countless Irish jewellery makers today. Stunning creations from Brian de Staic, Tracey Gilbert and Fada all hark back to pre-Christian times.
Beahgmore Stone Circle, Co. Tyrone (Tourism Ireland)Stone figures and scary statues
THE Celts often used three-sided triskelion and spiral imagery, particularly a tribe in France who created what’s called La Tène art. You can find La Tène designs in Ireland – the Castlestrange stone near Athleague in County Roscommon, a large granite boulder, is decorated in this way.
On the ethereal, mist-shrouded islands of Lough Erne are two scary looking statues. What they’re about no one can be exactly sure.
The gloating Boa Man, also known as the Lusty Man, and the enigmatic Janus Stone stand in Caldragh Cemetery. They could be pagan idols or very early Christian statues, although estimates for the stones’ age has put been as old as 2000 years. So if they are Christian constructions, somebody must have been pretty nippy with the news from the Middle East. Pop along and have a look; see what you make of it. You might even want to write a poem. Seamus Heaney did – called it January God.
“In the wet gap of the year,
Daubed with fresh lake mud,
I faltered near his power - January God.”
See? You don’t even need to find a rhyme for Boa.
The Janus Stone on Boa Island (Tourism Ireland)Forts and peaks
“The Celts” — we got our name from the Greeks. It just means ‘other people’. Those early, far-flung Celts didn’t speak Greek, certainly not Latin, yet their Celtic languages were similar right across the entire swathe of their lands — which stretched from, at one time, from southern Russia to the Atlantic coast of Ireland to
Although perhaps no more war-like than most of their contemporaries, these tribes also shared a reputation for belligerent behaviour — alongside their love of art, poetry, jewellery, and as far as can be surmised, music.
But they knew they had to be well-tooled up for every eventuality, and also needed safe redoubts.
Promontory forts gave the Celts a great view of the landscape and helped protect them from invaders. One of their most stunning forts to is Dún Aonghasa on Inis Mór, County Galway, perched on the edge — basically where the Old World crumbles into the sea.
In Armagh, the huge, 240-metre diameter Navan Fort, is linked to the Celts through a temple built there in 95BC. This impressive site – which now has a visitor centre – is said to have been home to the Kings of Ulster. The Hill of the O’Neill in Dungannon, County Tyrone, is located on another ancient Celtic site linked to Geannan, once an important and powerful Celtic druid.
Halloween beginnings
IN County Meath along Ireland’s Ancient East, there’s another important Celtic spot – Tlachtga or the Hill of Ward. Archaeological excavations suggest the hill was used for feasting and celebration over 2,000 years ago, and it’s believed a huge fire was lit here during Samhain — from which all the fires in Ireland were rekindled. Heritage tours of the hill are available as part of the Púca Halloween Festival.
Royal Meath
THE Hill of Tara in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, is deeply connected to Ireland’s ancient history.
The seat of the High Kings of Ireland, it is suffused with folklore. Ghosts often walked the hill of Tara, and here, at the ancient seat of Ireland's kings, heroes lived and died.
A fitting place, then, for Grainne to ditch her lover Finn in favour of Diarmuid, thus starting a famous chase throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. Somebody needed to sort it all out. No wonder it became a saga.
Today, high on the hilltop of Royal Meath, with views spanning seven counties on a clear day, you can close your eyes and imagine heroes conducting epic love affairs, picture warriors on determined horses spurring up the hillside, or hear the crowds gather in excited ranks.
They would have been there to hear a foreigner, chap by the name of Patrick, ask King Laoghaire if he could speak to the people about something called the Gospel.
According to legend the King agreed, but only after Patrick managed to defeat the local Druids in a contest of magic. Which somehow seems to fly in the face of Christianity; if there was magic abroad in the air, and Patrick could, ahem, conjure it up, surely he was a Druid. But we'll leave that nice religious point to the religious academics. They’ll have a handle on it all.
Although the site is now a peaceful, grass-covered haven, and though the legends may be slightly more fantasy than fact, there can be no doubt that for more than two thousand years Tara was a place of importance. This was unquestionably the heart of the Celtic nation.
The Halloween and Solstice festivals here would have been marked by horse races, fairs, markets, pastoral assembly rites, political discussions and ritual mourning for the passage of summer. The ordinary people rubbed shoulders with ghosts, the undead, banshees — all sorts really. That was the word on the street at any rate.
Mystical connections
THE Tuatha De Danann, the mythical rulers of Ireland appeared out of dark clouds and landed on the slopes of County Leitrim’s Slíabh an Iarainn (Mountain of Iron).
Today, with three looped walks and a visitor centre at the site, Slíabh an Iarainn is quite the place to visit and marvel at the views and wildlife, from badgers to peregrine falcons.
In Cookstown in County Tyrone, you can take a walk to the intriguing – and possibly mystical – Beaghmore Stone Circles.
Tyrone is liberally dotted with megalithic monuments and dolmens — but Beaghmore, open for business since the Stone Age, is one of the most impressive.
The intricate stone circles unquestionably denote considerable pre-historic effort, but their precise purpose can only be guessed at. They were perhaps constructed in relation to the solstice, or to record the movements of the stars. Whatever their purpose, they provide a tangible link with our Tyrone ancestors of some 4,000 years ago.
Although the people who built these stones would have regarded the Celts as social-climbing, nouveau riche, the newcomers were obviously impressed by the old, weather-beaten stones. They are marked with Ogham writing — a Celtic script — indicating that laterally the Celts maybe used the area for rituals
Games and rituals
Because Samhain was a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead became thin, Celts are said to have disguised themselves in costumes to scare off ghosts and demons.
In the North this was called ‘guising’, and is the forerunner of trick-or-treating, which developed when Irish and Scottish emigrants arrived in America.
The games still played at Halloween had roots in the old Samhai traditions. These were not always for recreation - often having a ritualistic and divination role.
There was an ancient Celtic game which resembles the modern children’s game ‘pass the parcel’ and is probably a distant ancestor of it. The Celtic version consisted of passing a sheep’s head (set alight) around a group of people. In this pre-Christian pastime, the person left holding the head might become leader . . . or something much worse. Don’t try this at home folks!
For more information on holidays in Ireland visit the Tourism Ireland website here
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