Kill the wrong dog in early medieval Ireland and it could cost you ten cows and a replacement hound. Let your own dog foul a neighbour's land and you might…
For over a thousand years, Ireland ran a legal system with no police force, no prisons, and no state courthouse, and it worked. Disputes were heard, judgements were handed down,…
Myles Dillon spent fifty years arguing that early Ireland and ancient India shared more than a distant ancestor — this is his story, and his case
What follows is a 10th-century poem describing events set in the seventh century. It records an imagined conversation between King Guaire (Guare) of Connacht and his brother Marvan (Marban), a…
Muirbretha, the "sea-judgements," is the main surviving Brehon law text on maritime affairs, and it survives only because a handful of scribes thought it worth copying fragments of it into…
In 1317, Irish chieftains led by Domhnall Ó Néill sent a remarkable plea to Pope John XXII, arguing centuries before the Enlightenment that Ireland had every right to rule itself.
OR, A Hypothetical Timeline of Irish History Note – Anno mundi, (Latin: “in the year of the world”), abbreviation A.M, the year dating from the year of creation in Jewish chronology, based on rabbinic calculations.…
Auraicept na n-Éces, or The Scholars' Primer, is one of the most important and fascinating surviving texts from medieval Ireland. It stands as the earliest known native Irish treatise on grammar, poetics, and the philosophy of language.
Osborn Joseph Bergin (1873–1950) was a towering figure in Celtic studies. Read on to learn more about this veritable master of the Irish language, in all its historical forms, a brilliant philologist, an exacting editor of manuscripts, and a dedicated teacher who helped shape the next generation of scholars, including Myles Dillon.
The Battle of Tailtiu, a pivotal event in Irish mythology, marked the decisive confrontation between the Milesians, the ancestral Gaels, and the Tuatha Dé Danann, the divine race that ruled…