The Early Irish Monastic Schools A study of Ireland's contribution to early medieval culture

A brief survey of the evidence supplied by each of these may be helpful in determining the nature and extent of Irish pagan culture.

The Brehon Laws:

The laws of a country dealing as they do with man in his relations to his fellow-man and society in general are always an important indication of the state of civilization attained by the race which has evolved them. In this connection a valuable source of information on the social condition and state of culture attained by the pagan Irish is the native code of laws, generally styled the Brehon Laws, but more correctly termed the Féineachas. According to a generally accepted tradition these laws were revised and codified in 438 A.D. by a committee of nine appointed by King Laoghaire at the suggestion of St. Patrick. The committee consisted of three kings (Laoghaire, High King of Ireland; Corc, King of Munster; and Daire, King of Cairnach); three saints (St. Patrick, himself, St. Benin and St. Cairnech); and three learned men (Ross, Dubhthach and Feargus).[8] These laws grew up with the people from the very beginning of society and took cognisance of them from every point of view. They professed to regulate domestic and social relations of every kind, as well as professions, trades, industries, occupations and wages.[9] As laws they are too minute; but this defect renders them valuable to the student who is interested in the social conditions of the period during which they were evolved. As a recent commentator[10] has remarked: “The rigorously authentic character of these laws relating to, and dealing with the actual realities of life and with institutions and a state of society nowhere else revealed to the same extent; the extreme antiquity both of the provisions and the language in which they were written, and the meagreness of Continental material illustrative of the same things endow them with exceptional archaic, archæological and philological interest.” The development of such a comprehensive and detailed code of laws must have been the work of many generations of lawmakers and suggest a relatively high degree of native culture. In this connection one is inclined to quote the emphatic declaration of Dr. George Sigerson who has won honours both as a litterateur and as a scientist. He says: “I assert that, biologically speaking, such laws could not emanate from any race whose brains had not been subject to the quickening influence of education for many generations.”[11] In other words, such a code of laws can be accounted for only on the assumption of a high degree of culture as a racial heritage of the nation which evolved them.

Although no Irish document has been preserved which dates earlier than the seventh century, there is ample intrinsic evidence that the earliest existing documents were copied from manuscripts which go back a century or two earlier and these again may have recorded the traditions of a still earlier period. Authorities are agreed that after the establishment of Christianity in the fifth century the Irish scholars committed to writing not only the laws, bardic historical poems, &c. of their own time, but those which had been preserved from earlier times whether traditionally or otherwise.[16] In a subsequent chapter reference will be made to a common practice of the Irish monks, namely that of making marginal and interlinear glosses on the classical writings they were studying, copying, or teaching. For the present it is sufficient to note that even in the case of the earliest of the seventh century glosses the written language was fully developed and cultivated, with a polished phraseology and an elaborate and systematic grammar having well established forms for its words and for all its rich inflections. To the linguistic student it is inconceivable how much a complete and regular system of writing could have developed in the period which had elapsed from the introduction of Christianity in the fifth century until the general spread of Christian learning in the seventh. Such a period would be much too short, especially when it is recollected that early Irish literature had its roots not in Christianity but in the native learning which was the main, and almost the sole, influence in developing it. This consideration points clearly to the conclusion that native learning was carefully and systematically cultivated before the introduction of Christianity.

Again, Irish poetry owes its development solely to the Lay Schools.[17] It had complicated prosody—with numerous technical terms[18] all derived from the Irish language. These vernacular terms used in Irish grammar contrast strikingly with the terms used to designate the offices and ceremonies of Christianity which were almost all derived from Latin.[19] All this would go to prove that Irish prosodial rules and technical terms, and of course Irish poetry itself, were fully developed before the introduction of Christianity.

Foreign Testimony:

At least one foreign writer bears witness of the fact that the pagan Irish possessed books. A Christian philosopher of the fourth century (some would place him as early as the second or third) whose name is Aethicus of Istria wrote a Cosmography of the World in which he states that on leaving Spain he hastened to Ireland where he spent some time “examining their books” (eorum volumina volvens).[20] Aethicus is not by any means complimentary. He calls the Irish sages unskilled and uncultivated teachers, but he speaks of the Spaniards in a similar strain. Possibly not understanding the Irish language he regarded all learning outside of Greece and Rome as barbarous and beneath notice. However, his statement proves that when he visited Ireland there were books at least a century before St. Patrick’s advent; it also shows that he found them in such abundance that he spent some time in examining them.

Ogam Inscriptions:

The point has now been reached when it is necessary to discuss the kind of writing used in pagan times. As has been stated, none of the books of pre-Christian Ireland are now extant, so evidence as to the kind of writing in use must be sought elsewhere. In the absence of books the coinage of a country has often given valuable information in this connection. In the case of Ireland, however, this source of information is lacking; for though metals were worked from very early times and gold was plentiful no trace of a native coinage has been found. Luckily there remain in the stone inscriptions the clearest proofs that the ancient Irish practised a peculiar kind of writing called Ogam.

The above diagram shows the Ogam alphabet arranged in four groups. A few other characters are occasionally used. It will be noted that crude as this device for writing is, it is applied with considerable skill and is framed with much ingenuity. The simpler sounds are represented by simpler letters than the more complex. Letters in frequent use like the vowels are the easiest to form. The arrangement of the vowels is different from that used in the Latin and English alphabets but corresponds to the more scientific arrangement adopted by modern phoneticians. It is worth noting that the characters in group (ii) stand for the initial sounds of the Old Irish words for one, two, three, four, five, in the order given.

The question of Ogam writing has occupied the attention of many antiquarians and though some of the theories projected by the earlier investigators have been rejected as untenable our knowledge of Ogam at the present time is fairly definite but somewhat limited. It was once thought that Ogam was a cryptic alphabet, but many of the inscriptions have been read by means of the above key which is to be found in the Book of Ballymote. Owing to the fact that a few of the later Ogams have been found with duplicates in Roman letters they have been deciphered independently. As to the distribution of these Ogam inscribed stones it is worthy of note that in Ireland they are found chiefly in the south-west, and in Britain they are confined to those parts where it is known the Irish Gael had settled.[22] Owing to the lack of criteria for dating certain sound-changes in the Irish language it is impossible in the present stage of our knowledge to assign definite chronological limits to these Ogam inscriptions.[23] Mr. Quiggin in his account of Ogam[24] asserts that the earlier inscriptions cannot be later than the fifth century and if pagan they may be a century or two earlier. All Ogam inscriptions with accompanying Roman letters he would assign to a later period than 500 A.D. with the sole exception of the bilingual inscription of Killen Cormac (Cillin Cormac) which is believed to be earlier than 500 A.D.[25] Over three hundred Ogam inscriptions have been found and where they have not been injured or defaced they can generally be interpreted.

Heroes and druids in the older epics are represented as making constant use of Ogam letters, sometimes inscribing them on wooden staves. The state of civilization depicted in these ancient poems and prose narratives seems to belong mainly to pre-Christian Ireland.

There is some difference in opinion as to the means whereby the Irish discovered the use of letters. One thing is certain, the Ogam alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. Some think that the Irish first became acquainted with the Roman alphabet through direct trade with the Continent, but it is more probable as MacNeill has shown[26] that this knowledge was acquired from the Romanized Britons from the first or second century onward. But how or why they invented the Ogam alphabet instead of using the Roman letters, or else Greek ones like the Gauls, is a profound mystery. There can, however, be no doubt that the Ogam alphabet at whatever time invented, is the peculiar possession of the Irish Gael and is to be found only where he had his settlements.