Who were the early Celts?
Modern historians are now starting to form the conclusion that there was never a race of people called the Celts. What the Celtic Peoples were in fact a collection of tribes, rather warlike tribes who united at times to fight the common enemy which was 2000 years ago Rome. I will continue to call them Celts for the purpose of this article. So if we take that as a fact who were the peoples that settled in Ireland?
The problem is that historically not just in Ireland but in any of the lands that were settled by the Celts there were no written records kept (there is a theory that they may have tattooed their history on their skins). The only written evidence of them is written by their enemies the Romans; who referred to them as being the Keltoi. The Romans point of view was that they were noble savages. They, as a people had an oral tradition and stories and laws were passed down verbatim from one generation to the next. It was the druids and poets who were responsible for this role; a tradition that is still honoured today in the eisteddfods in Wales where poets gather yearly to compete.
Archaeological article based evidence puts the origins of the people that we now refer to as the Celtic people to the area that is the Balkans going west into Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany. By 6000 BC farming had spread to this southeastern part of Europe. Population Growth and temperature changes lead to these practices spreading throughout Europe by 5000 BC. This stabilising of the food source led to these peoples expanding westward to the fringes of the world which was at that time Ireland.
Archaeological article based evidence puts the origins of the people that we now refer to as the Celts to the area that is the Balkans going west into Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany.
By 6000 BC farming had spread to this southeastern part of Europe. Farming meant a shift from the previous hunter-gatherer lifestyle. It meant that there was more surety of the food supply and this lead to population growth. This factor and temperature changes lead to these practices spreading throughout Europe by 5000 BC. The increasing population required more lands which led to these peoples expanding westward to the fringes of the world which was at that time Ireland.
No matter where the early settlers originated from one thing is sure they left behind a legacy of language. The Irish language beginning widely recognised as being the least changed Protoceltic language still extant today.