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In this video, I discuss Ireland’s ancient Brehon Laws on the Hill of Uisneach, Westmeath, as a guest speaker at the Uisneach Fire Festival 2015 (uisneach.ie).

‘Brehon Law’ refers to an ancient system of justice that was prevalent in Ireland for 1000’s of years prior to its conquest. Hailed as a true justice system this restituionary based approach for justice rested with the very will of the people.

Uisneach Hill is among Ireland’s most sacred ancient sites. For millennia Druids, Warriors, Poets, and Kings gathered at this Hill as a place of ceremony, worship, and the pronouncement of important laws and customs. Its primary feast was Bealtaine or the Festival of the Bright-Fire, where all fires in all the land were left extinguished on May 1st only for the first great fire of Summer to be lit by the Druids upon Uisneach Hill. Representatives of Clans and Tuatha from all over the land would travel here to gather fire and embers. Bringing these to their homelands every fire in the country was then said to have been lit by the first fire of Summer.

Here, I’ll discuss the Brehon Law, Irish mythology, the rights of women in early Ireland, and the need to consider the old ways for guidance in today’s uncertain world.