The Irish Celts

The Irish Celts society started around 700 B.C. The word "Celt" comes from the Greeks, who called the tribes to their north the "Keltoi", but there is no proof that the Celts ever acknowledged themselves by that name. The Celts originally came from Southern Germany and Austria (Although by 500 B.C the Celts settled in Ireland). The whole country at the time was divided into over one hundred and fifty small kingdoms, called Tuaths. The Tuaths are close to what we see as the modern concept of a tribe or a clan. The Celts were an extremely intelligent and self-efficient society made up of five groups.

The Celtic society was broken up in to five groups royalty, nobles, Aes Dana, commoners, and slaves. The royalty of Celts society were the RI and his family, although he was not known as the ultimate judge or lawgiver he was known as the king. RI is an ancient Gaelic word meaning King. It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings. The RI’s most important job was to be a war leader and defend his kingdom against all enemies at any cost. The requirements to become the RI were that one must be a blood relative to one the former RIs. This was because the RI’s position was rarely directly inherited because it was able to go back as far as five generations. Another requirement was that one must be a male and be physically fit.

The fact that you had to be a male to be the RI is strange due to the fact that the Celts were way ahead of their time when it came to women’s rights. In fact women played an important part in political, social, and religious life. Women could be nearly anything from warriors to doctors. Lots of women were actually such strong warriors that they trained the young men of their Tuath for...

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