Originally Published June 2009 There is a certain amount of evidence that women in Celtic societies enjoyed more freedom and power in comparison to their Greek, or Roman sisters. While they were far from being treated as the equals of their men, marriages seem to have been a bit closer to a partnership than in […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: Head Hunting
Although scholars debate the exact meaning and depth of the so-called “Head cult” of the Celtic peoples, it is said that the desecration of bodies by the taking of heads was a practice that outraged Classical writers. According the the first century historian Diodorus Siculus: “They (The Celts) cut off the heads of enemies slain […]
Celtic History Newsletter: Magdalene Asylums of Edinburgh
I recently ran across a short paper looking at the Scottish versions of the Irish “Magdalene laundries” that have become infamous in recent years. The paper seems to suggest that the Scottish institutions were less harsh than their Irish counter-parts. Here are some notes from the article. Magdalene Asylums seem to have their earliest origins […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: Lindow Man
Originally Published May 2009 In 1984 a preserved body found at Lindow Moss (15 km south of Manchester) re-awoke an interest in early Celtic religion and possible sacrifices. The top half of a male body was preserved so well that police feared it was a murder murder victim, but radio carbon dating indicated that the […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: The Scots Musical Museum
Originally published April 2009 The Scots Musical Museum is probably the most significant early collections of Scottish tradition song. The first volume was published in 1787 and included three songs by Robert Burns. Burns eventually contributed about one third of the 600 songs contained in the final six volume collection, and in many ways is […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: The Scottish Royal Company of Archers
Originally published February 2009 I was recently looking up something in the book A Short History of the Scottish Dress by R.M.D. Grange (1966) and rediscovered a tidbit that I thought it would be fun to share. Most people assume that the Black Watch was the first official military unit to be assigned a tartan, […]
Celtic History Newsletter: “Bullet” Throwing
Bullet Throwing, also sometimes known as “road bowling” is a sport that seems to go back as far as the 17th century in Ireland and was also played in Scotland and northern England up until the 19th century. It still appears to be played in counties Armagh and Cork and there’s even a Irish Road […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: Beltane in Scotland
Originally published May 2008 Beltane was a traditional festival celebrating the return of summer. Some scholars believe the name may originate in ancient Phoenicia where Baal was a name sometimes used as a god of the rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture. In Babylon the term was “Bel” and in Celtic belief, Belenos. Although other scholars […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: The Darien scheme
Originally published March 2009 The Darien Scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the 1690s. William Paterson was born in Tinwald in Dumfriesshire in 1658. He made his first fortune through international trade, traveling extensively throughout the America’s and West Indies and helped to […]
Newsletter Blast from the Past: Origins of Anglo-Irish Animosity
Originally published July 2008 Some of the roots of the animosity between the Irish and the English go back even further than the religious conflicts of the Protestant Reformation. English kings feared that if they did not dominate the smaller island, some continental power might gain a foothold there, and use it as a secondary […]