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Druids in Ireland

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Thursday, 25th March 2010

  Is there any evidence for druids being active in Ireland? It would seem strange if there were not, but I can't ever recall reading or hearing any reference to them.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Monday, 29th March 2010

  The Irish annals support the idea of a druid class (an individual was a "draoi", the plural "druadh"). Their role is not well defined, though breton law is quite specific about their status (not as high as you might think). Some even get a name-check (Amhairgin, Fechertne etc).
  
  The modern concept of a druid relies heavily on Caesar's description, and it seems that those Romans who came after him tallied with his view. In Roman eyes they were akin to the priest class in Roman society - something Caesar well understood having been Pontifex Maximus himself - and therefore an essential and intrinsic part of decision-making at the highest political level. Ironically Claudius's invasion of Britain and their targeting of this group may even have temporarily elevated them to something near this status, albeit briefly and disastrously for the British druids.
  
  The truth is we don't know what they did in Ireland - the annals and myths have them doing everything from sorcery to schoolteaching. We do know that their status declined as kingship grew, suggesting abrogation or assumption of at least some of their functions by the emerging "super chieftains", or simply a social trend towards more uniform methods of doing what they did. The St Patrick legends have him finding "schools" run by druids which he identified as worth taking over, for example. But then he was equally, if not even more wary of the "filidh", and rightly so. Irish poets held a disproportionate amount of political licence and influence, at least to modern eyes. And perhaps tellingly, christianity obliterated the druid class but never quite eliminated the poets' powers.
  
  But what seems certain is that Ireland never produced a Getafix - affirmed intelligentsia with a status and function synonymous with the chieftain's. One wonders if Gaul ever did either.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by ShaneONeal (U14303502) on Monday, 29th March 2010

  Dont forget the filidh gained their status because they were the historians who recited the vital geneological info upon which the RΓ­ or FlΓ΅ith/lord held his position.
  
  Perhaps in a sense the filidh usurped the former position held by the draoi at the time of Ceasar.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Monday, 29th March 2010

  Hi ShaneONeal (just how many wives did you have anyway???)
  
  I'd be more inclined to believe that the filidh simply carried on what they'd always been doing. The druadh never seem to have had any real political function whereas the filidh most certainly had. As the society developed into a system where political power became more concentrated in ever fewer hands the filidh became more noticeable. Some of them even became a form of Gaelic "superstars" in their own right.
  
  No draoi outside of legend even came close to that, and then it seems the higher their profile the less involved even the mythical ones were in mundane political stuff, being more likely to warn a chieftain against over-ambition while turning himself, the king or any unfortunate passer by into a bird or something than he was to facilitate any political claimant's acquisition or exercise of power.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by charly (U14269583) on Sunday, 4th April 2010

  Tony go to lebor gabala....20
  c1

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