Preserving Our Celtic Heritage - The Brehon Law Academy

Under the Druidical traditions of Celtic Ireland, Gaelic law was passed down orally and was first captured in writing beginning around 450 AD as the Christian scribes began their work. This collection of oral and written laws is known as the Brehon Laws. The Brehons were the jurists of Celtic culture and it took a lifetime of study to become a true proficient. Today the Brehon Law Academy seeks to preserve the ancient Celtic Laws.

" For thousands of years the people of Ireland lived by a native set of laws known as ‘Brehon Law’. This ancient and just system held the fabric of Irish society together. The Brehon Law Academy is dedicated to restoring a modern awareness for the laws, myth, and culture of early Ireland, connecting the wisdom of the old ways with today's world. The Brehon Law Academy aims to rekindle a common interest in the laws and customs of early Ireland and is dedicated to restoring a modern awareness for the laws, myth, and culture of early Ireland, connecting the wisdom of the old ways with today's world. Our online courses and materials give participants a rare opportunity to discover some of the lesser known yet important aspects of Irish heritage. – Brehon Law Academy Website

Peter Berresford Ellis is a Celtic historian and author of the international bestselling Sister Fidelma historical mysteries under his pseudonym of Peter Tremayne. The heroine of the series, Sister Fidelma, is a lawyer or counselor (Dalaigh) to the Brehon Courts of Medieval Ireland. Ellis was a prominent advocate of Pan-Celticism in the 1960s joining the Celtic League in 1966.

In Transceltic’s January 2013 interview with Celtic Historian Peter Beresford Ellis we posed the following question:

Transceltic:How significant were the Brehon Laws in forming Celtic Culture?

Ellis: We should reverse question as it was Celtic Culture which produced the Brehon Law system. Technically, they were the Laws of the Fenechus (laws of the tillers of the land), which we call Brehon Law, from the use of the word breitheamh (a judge).  That there was a similar law system across the Celtic world can be seen by comparisons with the Laws of Hywel Dda codified in Wales in the 9th Century. Professor John Cameron, in his 1937 study Celtic Law, pointed out the traces of an early Celtic system of law in Scotland which had been submerged after the rise of the Normans there.  Even Gildas in his reference to the Molmutine Laws of Celtic Britain, references seized upon by Iolo Morganwg, show concepts linking to known Celtic systems. Then, of course, we have recent discoveries like the legal Celtic text on a bonze tablet recently found in Botoritta near Saragossa.  And there are traces of law references in 16th Century Breton documents. All of which point to the Celts having a fairly common legal system.

Being an Indo-European people, there are similarities to the Hindu Laws of Manu.  Professor Myles Dillon (1900-1972) of University College, Dublin, used to urge his students, studying Old and Middle Irish, to also study Sanskrit. I found his Osborn Bergin Memorial Lecture ‘Celt and Hindu’ truly inspiring.  But his greatest work was his book Celts and Aryans: Survivals of Indo-European Speech and Society, published by the Indian Institute for Advance Study, in Simla 1975. Sadly published after his death, this was a truly exciting study and one that showed the ancient cultural importance of the Celtic languages while, at the same time, showing how nonsensical any pseudo ‘racial’ definition of the Celts. 

But to return to the intent of the question; the first known to be codified of the Brehon Laws, that is a written form, was in AD 438 when the High King Laoghaire (AD 428-465) set up a nine man commission to study the existing Irish law system and remove anything which would be contrary to the new Faith (Christianity).  Laoghaire sat on this commission with two important provincial kings (Munster and Ulster); with three leading judges (Brehons) and three leading churchmen, of which St Patrick was one. Thus we can correct the idea that it was Patrick alone who caused the Irish to set down their laws. Moreover, the law system already existed as chroniclers refer to Ollamh Fodhla, a High King in the 8th century BC, as ordering a compilation of the Irish laws. Quibble as one might on this point, it is obvious that the Brehon Laws, when Patrick arrived, were an ancient, sophisticated legal system, developed over many centuries, and their comparison with the Hindu Laws of Manu from the common Indo-European parent reinforces the argument that the Celts had separated from the common Indo-European parent around 2000 BC, perhaps earlier. So in having such as fascinating codified system, surviving despite colonial ravages, we have what could be claimed as northern Europe’s oldest legal system. 

http://www.brehonlawacademy.ie/