The Religion of Ancient Ireland—Many Writers say it was Worship of the
Sun, Moon, and Elements
WE have mentioned that sun-worship was one of the forms of ancient Irish
paganism. There is much difference of opinion on this point, and the
late learned Gaelic expert, Professor Eugene O’Curry, holds that there
is no reliable proof of either sun-worship or fire-worship in antique
Irish annals. On the other hand, we have the excellent historian, Abbé
McGeoghegan, chaplain of the famous Franco-Irish Brigade of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, supported by other authorities,
instancing the sun as, at least, one of the objects of Irish pagan
adoration. Other writers, including the painstaking McGee, seem to
accept the startling assertion that human victims were occasionally
sacrificed on the pagan altars. This, however, is open to doubt, as the
Irish people, however intense in their religious convictions, have never
been deliberately cruel or murderously fanatical. We quote on these
sensitive subjects—particularly sensitive where churchmen are
concerned—from McGeoghegan and McGee, both strong, yet liberal, Catholic
historians. On page 63 of his elaborate and admirable “History of
Ireland,” McGeoghegan remarks: “Great honors were paid to the Druids and
Bards among the Milesians, as well as to those among the Britons and
Gauls. The first, called Draoi in their language, performed the duties
of priest, philosopher, legislator, and judge. Cæsar has given, in his
Commentaries, a well-detailed account of the order, office,
jurisdiction, and doctrine of the Druids among the Gauls. As priests,
they regulated religion and its worship; according to their will, the
objects of it were determined, and the ‘divinity’ often changed; to
them, likewise, the education of youth was intrusted. Guided by the
Druids, the Milesians generally adored Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Apollo,
the sun, moon, and wind; they had also their mountain, forest, and river
gods. These divinities were common to them and to other nations of the
world.... According to the Annals of Ulster, cited by Ware, the
antiquarian, the usual oath of Laegore (Leary) II, King of Ireland, in
the time of St. Patrick, was by the sun and wind.”
McGee, writing of the same subject, on pages 5 and 9 of his “Popular
History of Ireland,” says: “The chief officers about the kings, in the
first ages, were all filled by the Druids or pagan priests; the Brehons,
or judges, were usually Druids, as were also the Bards, the historians
of their patrons. Then came the Physicians, the Chiefs who paid tribute
to or received annual gifts from the sovereign, the royal Stewards, and
the military leaders, or Champions.... Their religion in pagan times was
what the moderns call Druidism, but what they called it themselves we
now know not. It was probably the same religion anciently professed by
Tyre and Sidon, by Carthage and her colonies in Spain; the same religion
which the Romans have described as existing in great part of Gaul, and,
by their accounts, we learn the awful fact that it sanctioned, nay,
demanded, human sacrifices. From the few traces of its doctrines which
Christian zeal has permitted to survive in the old Irish language, we
see that Belus or Crom, the god of fire, typified by the sun, was its
chief divinity—that two great festivals were held in his honor on days
answering to the first of May and last of October. There were also
particular gods of poets, champions, artificers, and mariners, just as
among the Romans and Greeks. Sacred groves were dedicated to these gods;
priests and priestesses devoted their lives to their service; the arms
of the champion and the person of the king were charmed by them; neither
peace nor war was made without their sanction; their own persons and
their pupils were held sacred; the high place at the king’s right hand
and the best fruits of the earth and the water were theirs. Old age
revered them, women worshiped them, warriors paid court to them, youth
trembled before them, princes and chiefs regarded them as elder
brethren. So numerous were they in Erin, and so celebrated, that the
altars of Britain and Western Gaul, left desolate by the Roman legions,
were often served by hierophants from Ireland, which, even in those
pagan days, was known to all the Druidic countries as the Sacred
Island.”
The two greatest battles fought in Ireland during the early Milesian
period were that near Tralee, in Kerry, where the Milesian queen-mother,
Scota, perished, and the conflict at Taltean, in Meath, where the three
Danaan kings, with their wives and warriors, were slain. After these
events, Heber and Heremon divided Ireland between them, but eventually
quarreled. A battle ensued, in which Heber fell, and Heremon was
thereafter, for many years, undisputed monarch of all Ireland. A large
majority of the Celtic families of the island are descended from the two
royal brothers and bitter rivals. Their most famous Milesian successors
in pagan times were Tuathal (Too-hal), the Legitimate, who formed the
royal province of Meath, which existed for many ages, and is now
represented, but on a much smaller scale, by the modern counties of
Meath and Westmeath. The province itself was dismembered centuries ago,
and, since then, Ireland has had but four provincial divisions instead
of five. Tuathal is also credited with having originated the Borumah
(Boru) or “Cow Tribute,” which he imposed on Leinster as a penalty for a
crime committed against two of his daughters by the king of that
province. This tribute was foredoomed to be a curse to the Irish nation
at large, and its forceful imposition by successive Ard-Righs caused
torrents of blood to be shed. It was abolished toward the end of the
seventh century by the Christian king of all Ireland, Finacta II,
surnamed the Hospitable. “Conn of the Hundred Battles” made a record as
a ruler and a warrior. Cormac MacArt, because of his great wisdom, was
called the Lycurgus of Ireland. Niall of the Nine Hostages—ancestor of
the O’Neills—was a formidable monarch, who carried the terror of his
arms far beyond the seas of Ireland. His nephew, King Dathi (Dahy) was
also a royal rover, and, while making war in northern Italy, was killed
by a thunderbolt in an alpine pass. Dathi was the last king of pagan
Ireland, but not the last pagan king. His successor, Leary, son of the
great Niall, received and protected St. Patrick, but never became a
Christian. After Leary’s death, no pagan monarch sat on the Irish
throne.
Ancient Ireland was known by several names. The Greeks called it Iernis
and Ierni; said to have meant “Sacred Isle”; the Romans Hibernia, the
derivation and meaning of which are involved in doubt, and the Milesians
Innisfail, said to mean “the Island of Destiny,” and Eire, or Erinn, now
generally spelled Erin, said to signify “the Land of the West.” Many
learned writers dispute these translations, while others support them.
Within the last six centuries, the island has been known as Ireland,
said to signify West, or Western, land, but, as the savants differ about
this translation also, we will refrain from positive assertion.
The Roman legions never trod on Irish soil, although they conquered and
occupied the neighboring island of Britain, except on the extreme north,
during four hundred years. Why the Romans did not attempt the conquest
of the island is a mystery. That they were able to conquer it can hardly
be doubted. Strange as the statement may seem to some, it was
unfortunate for Ireland that the Romans did not invade and subdue it.
Had they landed and prevailed, their great governing and organizing
genius would have destroyed the disintegrating Gaelic tribal system,
which ultimately proved the curse and bane of the Irish people. They
would also have trained a nation naturally warlike in the art of arms,
in which the Romans had no superiors and few peers. With Roman training
in war and government, the Irish would have become invincible on their
own soil, after the inevitable withdrawal of the Legions from the
island, and the Anglo-Normans, centuries afterward, could not have
achieved even their partial subjection.
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