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…
When people imagine early Irish law, they usually picture the brithem — the brehon — weighing evidence and handing down a careful judgement based on precedent. That's true enough for…
Imagine a political idea so old and so serious that a king who told a lie could, in theory, cause the harvest to fail.
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.
Born into one world, stolen into another — Standing Bear's journey back to himself is one of the most powerful stories you'll ever hear. Wayne "Standing Bear" Snellgrove is Saulteaux/Anishinaabe…
How an ancient faith didn't die — it transformed...
Long before modern contract law, before the Anglo-Norman invasions rewrote Ireland's social fabric, and centuries before the Church imposed its singular vision of marriage across the land, the early Irish had developed one of the most nuanced legal frameworks for human relationships in the ancient world.