At this time there were no cities or major trading centres in the country. People made a living based on crop farming and cattle breeding, and lived in small villages surrounded by defensive walls and dykes. These settlements were either situated on hilltops ( hillforts), or houses clustered together on artificial islands in the lakes ( crannogs). The petty kings or chieftains were both secular and religious leaders. The largest and most important centre of all was Tara in Meath, north of today’s Dublin. Tara had for centuries been a sacred place, and served as a ceremonial arena for the inauguration of the High kings of Ireland – the Árd Rí. The ancient coronation stone – Lia Fáil – was placed here. Archaeological excavations have proved that this place had been of central importance in people’s religious beliefs and ritual practices long before the Celtic migrations took place in the 5th Century BC. From this hilltop (100 metres above sea level) it’s possible to view large areas of the Irish countryside. Simultaneous with this internal struggle for power, the old druidic system of faith began meeting the challenge from Christianity. Among the very first missionaries was Patricius, or St. Patrick, as the Irish prefer to call him. He was born into a wealthy Roman aristocratic family in western Britain in 385 AD. Later he succeeded to escape back to Britain, but returned to Ireland to become a missionary.Īt the age of 16 he was taken prison by Irish “Vikings”, and sold as a slave. Patrick had great success, and before the end of the 5th Century, the majority of the Irish had converted to Christianity, although Druism still was present in peoples minds for a long time.ĭuring the 6th Century a great many monastic centres were erected in all parts of Ireland, mostly for monks, but some also for nuns. Of the nuns, the abbess Brigida has become the most famous. It was primarily the eastern, ascetic form of Christianity and monastic life that was to establish its firm roots in Ireland, although the Roman Catholic mainstream religion eventually replaced it. The pioneer hermit monks searched for the most isolated places, usually uninhabited small islands far out to sea, where they built their tiny beehive stone houses.
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