Page 32 - Demo

32 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
may have chosen Druim Cairn, the Beautiful Hill, as it was once known, as the burial site of Tea, his sister-in-law.This would later be named Tea, then Teamhair,and anglicized as Tara. For many years the Kings of Munster lived at Teamhair Luachra –the Tara of the people
of Luacar, which was located on the borders of Cork, Kerry and Limerick, but later, when they became more powerful, they occupied Cashel in Tipperary.
At first each province was independent of the others, but as time passed some kings endeavoured to spread their influence beyond their own territories. But before we come to that, perhaps we should first touch briefly on the way of life and customs in Celtic Ireland.
The people were graded according to their position in life. There were two main grades or classes-those who possessed property in land, and those who did not. But other qualifi- cations, as, for instance, skill in certain arts and crafts, or education in a bardic school, for example, were equivalent to the ownership of land. Those people who neither owned land, nor had the other qualifications just mentioned, were not permitted to have any voice or influence in the direction of public affairs, nor were they allowed to plead for themselves in a court of law.
Ancient Irish law had a maxim that said ‘Is fear fer a chiniud’, ‘A man is better than his birth.’ This meant that people could use their own talent and industry to raise themselves to a higher class than the one into which they were born.
It was, therefore, in the power of any Irishman or woman to “rise in the world,” as we would say nowadays, and the fact that there were no immovable barriers between the high and the low was one of the finest attributes of Celtic Ireland.
The Kings of the provinces and sub-kings of the tuatha, were elected by the assembly. The nobles and distinguished persons held their meeting-place apart from the general as- sembly, and formed, in fact, a sort of upper chamber or senate. A candidate for the kingship or sub-kingship would have to have ‘belonged’ to the direct line of the royal family-that is, he would have had to have been either the son, grandson, or great-grandson of a former ruler. The Kings and sub-kings were subject to the laws, and moreover, they could be de- throned if they ruled badly.
These Kings kept no regular armies, except during the period of the Fianna (about 200-300 A.D.) and when wars were waged, the combatants were the men of the province or tuath, who were called up to serve for a fixed period, and returned home when the period was over.
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