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
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.
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.
A guide to the principles of Ireland's ancient legal tradition, told through myth and legend. The Demise of the Brehon Laws? Sir John Davies wrote the following in a treatise…
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.
Part VIII of the Living Law series, exploring ritual, skin, and the memory of land. Introduction Before law is written, it is imagined. Before it is spoken, it is formed…