Tradition and Culture

“We can fill our minds with Gaelic ideas, and our lives with Gaelic customs, until there is no room for any other... the spark of native life is still there and can be fanned into flame.
What we have before us is the great work of building up our nation.
No soft road – a hard road, but inspiring and exalting.
Irish art and Irish customs must be revived, and must be carried out by the people themselves”
Michael Collins

Tradition and culture are the crossroads and confluence where the Irish language, arts of all sorts, crafts, dancing, music, and every other form of Irish cultural expression meet and become one single rich flowing river.

We all know about the few large traditions that have been left to us, St Patrick’s day for example, or even Hallowe’en to a lesser degree, but fewer people know about the many local traditions, festivals and customs that used to be celebrated in towns and villages across the country.

Little work has been done to collect and recover, let alone restore, these often beautiful local customs and festivals rooted deep in antiquity, but here are a few websites that have touched on the subject:

https://thefadingyear.wordpress.com/
https://irishfolklore.wordpress.com/
https://emeraldisle.ie/irish-calendar

Every city, town, village and rural area has its own lost traditions, so the best idea is to get in touch with local libraries and historical societies and ask them for ideas about where to look. You will be amazed at what lies just beneath the surface all around you.

Of course many modern festivals do exist, most sadly of a somewhat beige international flavour, scrubbed of any hint of Irish culture, but if you can get involved in their organisation on a committee level you may be able to steer them towards a greater sense of Gaelicism.

Other ways to engage with, share, and encourage the development of our culture include learning, using, and letting other people know you’re using old Irish sayings, called seanfhocail.

There are many words of wisdom which have been forgotten or left by the wayside in the modern era, and these proverbs form an important part of our cultural heritage.

Some good examples to memorise and recall are here:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~pfur/seanfhocailGB.htm
https://weareirish.ie/great-irish-proverbs-seanfhocail/
https://weareirish.ie/irish-language-love-proverbs/

Use them daily!

Ireland also has an incredible written heritage stretching back to the fifth century, although it seems little-taught in schools. The main alphabet that was used to write in Irish for a thousand years, other than Latin, was called Ogham.

This was an intriguing script usually written from bottom to top along a single line, using marks that could be imitated by hand movements, leading to speculation that it also formed a secret sign language.

Ogham was a science unto itself, with different types of Ogham being used by different monasteries for example, or one individual might have developed their own coded Ogham to keep their writing secret! Some forms wound around in a spiral, and others are yet to be deciphered.

For a long time it was considered the only fitting alphabet in which to write Irish. More information can be found here, and a translator as well:

https://www.historytoday.com/story-ogham
https://ogh.am/

Readers are encouraged to not only learn Ogham, but to revitalise its use as a sign language!

Associated with Ogham and often appearing alongside it in ancient historical manuscripts, the Chló Gaelach was an attempt to merge Latin letters with Irish pronunciation, and it worked very well. It began in the early middle ages.

It is far easier to use it to write Irish words than the multitude of silent letters we use today.

We would strongly encourage the restoration of this font (not an alphabet) in Irish education—as is was until fairly recently—in state publications, and everywhere possible.

It is also considered by most to be very beautiful, fittingly for our beautiful language, and easy to read by most people who are familiar with it.

Of course it’s also a great idea to support existing expressions of Gaelic culture, whether that is in Irish dancing, Irish music, Irish fashions and craftwork, sports like the GAA, and other areas.

The GAA itself works on such promotions, including Gaelic games such as Hurling, Football, Handball and Rounders and works with sister organisations to promote Ladies Football and Camogie. The Association also promotes Irish music, song and dance and the Irish language as an integral part of its objectives.

Give them a hand if you’re able to do so!

There are numerous crossing-points between festivals and sports as well, many of which have been forgotten about, such as funerary games which have been held in Ireland since at least the Bronze Age, if not earlier.

The Scottish Highland Games are a great example of the kinds of Gaelic sports-festivals that used to take place at certain times of year and in locations considered to be sacred around Ireland. Many Irish customs and traditions found a safe haven in the Highlands after the invaders stopped them in Ireland, so we can reliably use many of those surviving Scottish traditions as our own.

This understanding led to the widespread adoption of kilts by the original Gaelic Revivalists!

Besides which, as mentioned earlier, the ancient spectacle of stone-lifting is being brought back to life, as well as other customs. These must be strongly encouraged and helped to develop were we can do so.

The very pinnacle of Irish festivals and culture was called the Áenach Tailteann, or Tailteann festival, was convened by the High King and held from the July fortnight to Lughnasadh, sometimes spanning the whole month, being the most important event of the year. People would come from near and far to participate and enjoy it.

They were the greatest spectacle of the ancient world, renowned throughout all the lands for their grandeur and energy. For almost three thousand years they were held without pause or break.

The Annals of the Four Masters tell us that the Tailteann games were held almost every year for many centuries, even noting that one festival was missed in 873 AD, and that the last games before the Norman invasion were held by King Roderick O'Connor in 1168. The horse procession “extended in a continuous line from Tailtenn to Mullach-Ati” which is about ten kilometers.

Chariot and horse racing were the main events for a while, although jockeys and charioteers weren't held in high regard, and this part of the festival was held near to where the Curragh racetrack can be found today. As well as horse races of various sorts, hurling was important, although the teams could be as large as one hundred and fifty young lads to a side! There were also artificial lakes dug and water sports were held upon them.

As well as those events the games featured long jumps, high jumps, spear throwing, contests of strength, sword fighting, archery, swimming, rowing, wrestling, boxing, staged battles and slinging.

The old people of Ireland understood well that there was more to life than physical prowess of course, so there was storytelling, theatre, poetry competitions, music, singing, dancing and Fidcheall competitions, that is the ancient board game of Ireland. Goldsmiths, jewellers, weavers and armourers competed with their wares to win the favour of the nobility and royal house.

Marriages were arranged at the festival and work was prepared for the winter. A peculiarity of the Tailteann festival was that mass marriages were held, a sort of “trial marriage”, and if it didn't work out the couple could separate without a blemish on their reputation by walking away from one another on the separation hills. The old Brehon law texts attest to this practise, which was legal until the thirteenth century. As the tradition was described:

“A number of young men went into the hollow to the north side of the wall, and an equal number of marriageable young women to the south side of the wall which was so high as to prevent them from seeing the men; one of the women put her hand thro’ the hole in the gate and a man took hold of it from the other side, being guided in his choice only by the appearance of the hand.

The two were thus joined hands by blind chance were obliged to live together for a year and a day, at the expiration of which time they appeared at the Rath of Telton and if they were not satisfied with each other they obtained a deed of separation, and were entitled to go to Laganeeny again to try their good fortune for the ensuing year.”

The Tailteann Games were briefly revived in the 1920s, when a full quarter of a million spectators arrived in Dublin, almost overwhelming the city, and five thousand competitors from every nation arrived with them, more than visited the Paris Olympics that summer.

There was every kind of competition, including air races and literary recitals, and overall it went down very well, so it was decided to hold the games every four years, like the Olympics.

Unfortunately a certain political party got into power in the early 1930s and they were bitterly determined to tear down the legacy of those who had come before them, so the games were cancelled and never revived.

It is important that the Games should be restored to their full glory as soon as it is possible to do so.

Another important facet of Gaelic culture is FIdchell or “The Wisdom of the Woods”, Gaelic chess. This was enjoyed for many centuries if not millennia by Irish people, and features in all sorts of stories stretching back to the Tuatha De Danann. A comprehensive guide on how to play Fidchell can be found here: https://anclaiomhsolais.com/the-rules-of-fidchell

Pride of place in the restoration and development of our Gaelic culture should go to the seanchaí or Irish storyteller. Heirs to the Bardic and Druidic schools, the seanchaí were crucial to the preservation of Ireland’s oral legends and lore.

During the long winter nights and on sultry summer evenings, people would gather from around their local area to sit and listen to the seanchaí tell their tales.

By the magic of their voices alone these storytellers wove epics of magic and mystery, laughter and merriment, and kept alive the pure flame of Irish culture for centuries.

Every village in Ireland once had a rambling house, and indeed, some still do. These were old cottages which were used as a meeting place for everyone in the locality. A fire was made the centrepoint and focus, and the chair beside it was an exalted throne.

Local musicians, travellers, storytellers, and poets were made heroes by sitting in it, whether to tell their tales, recite poems, or to play music.

It should be emphasised that these were neither pubs nor restaurants, nobody had to pay an entrance fee to get in, and whatever food you brought was what you ate.

The original Gaelic League also held regular feiseanna, which were not so much festivals as competitions, often with cash prizes, some of whose events included simply speaking in Irish.

These are but a few ideas about different ways to restore and redevelop our magnificent culture. We have everything we need, all that remains is to weave everything together.

Any living culture develops over time, adopting elements of other cultures and building on its own foundations, and Irish culture should be no different.

Consider ways in which we can make everything Gaelic or give it an Irish spin, from the clothes we wear to the buildings we live in, and how they are decorated, to our everyday habits and more.

We must differentiate ourselves by the genius of our own cultural expression, not to be different for its own sake, but because the beauty and richness of our culture demands no less.

Chapter List (click to read):

1. Foreword
2 The Irish Language
3. Reading
4. Making and Shaping
5. The Physical Gael
6. The Warrior Gael
- The Crios Belt
- Open Hand Traditions
- Collar and Elbow Wrestling
- Gaelic Weapons
- Seanbhata
- Seanbhata Basics
- Seanbhata Guards
- Seanbhata Strikes and Blocks
- Seanbhata Close Fighting
- The Heroic Feats
7. Tradition and Culture
8. Organisation