Brehon Laws

The Ancient Wisdom of Ireland

Jo Kerrigan

• Publisher: The O'Brien Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781788491938
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

A fascinating look at the lifestyle and values of ancient Ireland

Thousands of years ago, Celtic Ireland was a land of tribes and warriors; but a widely accepted, sophisticated and surprisingly enlightened legal system kept society running smoothly.

The brehons were the keepers of these laws, which dealt with every aspect of life: land disputes; recompense for theft or violence; marriage and divorce processes; the care of trees and animals.

Transmitted orally from ancient times, the laws were transcribed by monks around the fifth century, and what survived was translated by nineteenth-century scholars.

Jo Kerrigan has immersed herself in these texts, revealing fascinating details that are inspiring for our world today.

With atmospheric photographs by Richard Mills, an accessible introduction to a hidden gem of Irish heritage

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CHAPTER ONE

A Brief History

The brehon laws are very old indeed, dating from long before the coming of the Celts. Certainly some of the laws relating to women appear to stem from that earlier culture. Their origin may be concealed within the legends of the golden people, the Tuatha de Danaan. They are said to have inhabited Ireland before the militant Celts, arriving from Spain, drove them into the magical underground world they are said still to inhabit today. Most legends have some basis in sound fact, and the predecessors of the Celts – tall, fair-haired, lovers of music and the arts – certainly existed, even if they were not quite the fairy folk we have made them.

The oldest traditions hold that the laws were first collected into one body by a great judge, Ollamh Fodhla, somewhere between 700 and 1000 years BC. Collected, not invented. Fodhla gathered together what had already been developed over a very long time. (The world ollamh is still in use in modern Irish, denoting ‘professor’ or ‘very learned person’. In ancient Irish it was used both for judges and senior poets.) 1415

16

A hilltop meeting place.

Strictly speaking, this collection of laws should be called the Fenechus, or the laws of the Feini, the land-tillers, or common people. That is the key to the whole concept – legislation and regulation of everyday life, evolving from actual events and occurrences, and carried down from generation to generation as a true expression of natural justice. The Irish word for judge is breitheamh, and so these regulations became familiarly known as the brehon laws. 17

It should be noted from the beginning, however, that the brehons did not actually mete out justice. They studied the particular circumstances of a grievance and pronounced what fine, reparation or restitution was due. The community within which the offence had occurred would see that justice was done.

THE PLACE OF MEETING

Judgements were given at known gathering places, so that everyone who wanted to could attend: for example, on a high hill that could easily be spotted from a distance for those travelling from afar; at one of the ancient monuments or stone circles known since time immemorial; or under a special sacred tree within a community. The important thing was that the occasion should be seen to be open to all, as befitted a law system of the people. As kingdoms developed, these events often took place during fairs or other state occasions, the ruler and his chief brehon attending to see that justice was administered or that new and necessary legislation was put into place.

Kilclooney dolmen, County Donegal.18

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The Brehon’s Chair, Rathfarnham, County Dublin.20

Judgements were given at known gathering places such as ancient monuments or under a sacred tree.

21Over time, the codex of laws inevitably expanded as they reflected new circumstances and events. It became too extensive, too detailed, for any but the most learned minds to encompass and preserve for future generations. They thus became the province of the wisest, the acknowledged holders of knowledge and wisdom; that is, the elite, learned class formerly known as druids.

ASK THE WISE ONES

Much has been written, and much more imagined or fantasised, about the druid class of ancient Ireland, but quite simply they were the wise ones, the holders of the most important knowledge and wisdom, the only ones who could be relied upon to recite from memory a complex family history, or recount the details of an important strategic battle. They were well versed in medical knowledge and the lore of herbs; they could anticipate the movements of the sun, moon and stars, and forecast weather patterns. Besides this, they were the holders and preservers of the most ancient legends, songs and epic poems, which encapsulated priceless folk memories of the dim and distant past. In this they were similar to the wise ones of many other cultures, the original natives of places such as Russia and North America. 22

REMEMBER, REMEMBER …

Druids held in their prodigious memories the laws and decisions made and passed on over centuries. They were able to recall these to public hearings, where judgements were based on them. In druidic circles, memory was all. Ancient Ireland certainly knew of writing, and had indeed evolved its own unique form of coded communication known as Ogham, a system of straight lines cut at different angles into rods of yew, rowan or hazel, to send messages. Ogham was also used to cut inscriptions on to standing stones, and while the ogham rods have, alas, not survived, the stones have. They can still be seen all over Ireland.

Gurranes Stone Row, near Castletownshend, County Cork.23

Ogham stone at Kilmakedar, County Kerry.

24It was a central belief of druidic learning that their arcane knowledge should never be written down, but instead committed to memory. In this way, it could be guarded from those who might seek to use it wrongfully. Much the same belief is still followed in magical circles today, when a specific ingredient, word or action is deliberately left out of a recorded spell, only to be inserted at the final moment by one of the elect.

The Senchus of the men of Erin: What has preserved it? The joint memory of two seniors, the tradition from one ear to another, the composition of poets, the addition from the law of the letter, strength from the law of nature; for these are the three rocks by which the judgments of the world are supported. [Senchus Mór]

The amount of information to be committed to memory was thus enormous. Not just the case law of previous judgements, but also family histories, epic poems and legends, and general natural knowledge. This was achieved principally by putting the details into poems or rhyme, which made them easier to remember.

Ogham stones hold secrets of the past.

25THE GREAT LAW SCHOOLS OF ANCIENT IRELAND

There were many schools where students were trained in this demanding discipline, and such academies of learning were known throughout Europe. Kings and nobles sent their children to be educated here, for even if they had no intent or ability to become druids, the education and training they got would stand them in excellent stead in future years. At one time, there were students from no fewer than eighteen different countries studying at Durrow, and there was a school specialising in the teaching of medicine at Tuam Brecain (modern Tomregan, near Belturbet in County Cavan). Alfrith, son of Oswy, who ruled Northumbria in the seventh century, came to Ireland in his youth to learn, and there is also evidence that King Alfred of England, the man credited with collecting and establishing a system of laws in that country, received his first training in an Irish law school around the ninth century.

Some great families of brehon teachers continued for centuries, and were still running law schools right up to Tudor times, among them the Mac Aodhagáins or MacEgans of Tipperary and the O’Davorens of Clare.

King Alfred the Great of England.

The earliest surviving manuscripts of several law compilations (i.e....