15 - Religion and society in Ireland

Summary

society, religion and the coming of christinanity

Christianity had originally spread westwards within the Roman Empire via the mosaic of cities around the Mediterranean; but Ireland lay outside that empire and had an entirely rural society, with no cities or even small towns, no urban lower and middle classes, no coinage, no mass production of goods, and very little trade. The Roman Empire was a hierarchically organised state, with an emperor at the top, and regular subdivisions down the geographical scale to the level of provinces, and within those provinces, the cities with their dependent territories. Ireland, however, was not unified politically; and although the highest-ranking overkings might have their overlordship recognised across an extensive area, this rested on recognition given by the kings of the many individual tribes or túatha (singular túath). These little túatha were the basic political entities, and people had no rights in another túath unless (as often happened) there was an agreement between that and their own túath.

Although different from the late Roman Empire, however, early Irish society was in many respects comparable with other early medieval societies. The basic unit was not the individual, but the kin group. This would be held responsible for the wrong-doing of one of its members, and for their protection. Besides its peace-keeping role, the kindred was also of fundamental importance in that most agricultural land was ‘kin-land’: although it could be farmed on an individual basis, it could not be granted away from the kin group, except with its consent. In addition to an individual’s blood relations, close bonds were formed through the widespread custom of fosterage.