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The Brehon Laws were statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Ireland until the Norman invasion of 1171 (the word "Brehon" is an Anglicisation of breitheamh (earlier brithem), the Irish word for a judge). The laws were written in the Old Irish period (ca. 600–900 AD) and are assumed to reflect the traditional laws of pre-Christian Ireland. These secular laws existed in parallel with, and sometimes in conflict with, Canon law throughout the early Christian period.
The laws were a civil rather than a criminal code, concerned with the payment of compensation for harm done and the regulation of property, inheritance and contracts: the concept of state-administered punishment for crime was foreign to Ireland's early lawmakers. They show Ireland in the early medieval period to have been a hierarchical society, taking great care to define social status, and the rights and duties that went with it, according to property, and the relationships between lords and their clients and serfs.
Women and marriage
Prior to the Brehon Laws and the Cáin Adomnáin, women were essentially subordinate to their husbands and fathers. After the adoption of the Brehon Laws, Irish society continued to be male-dominated, but women had greater freedom, independence and rights to property than in other European societies of the time. Divorce was provided for on a number of grounds, after which property was divided according to what contribution each spouse had made to the household. A husband was legally permitted to hit his wife to "correct" her, but if the blow left a mark she was entitled to the equivalent of her bride-price in compensation and could, if she wished, divorce him. Property of a household could not be disposed of without the consent of both spouses. However, women were still largely subject to their fathers or husbands and were not normally permitted to act as witnesses, their testimony being considered "biased and dishonest".
The Celts also practised a form of marriage where a couple would be married for one year. If the marriage was successful the couple would stay married. However, if it failed the couple could be instantly divorced. This was normally carried out during Bealtaine (Spring) and could be started as easily as the couple walking towards each other.
Kingship
The basic unit of political organisation provided for was the tuath (tribal or petty kingdom), headed by a rí (king). Kingship of a tuath was not inherited by primogeniture: a new king would be elected by the aristocracy of the tribe (the derb-fine or close kinship group up to and including second cousins)from a number of eligible candidates. Any adult male who was the son, grandson or great-grandson of a previous king, in direct male line, was eligible. Often, a king would choose a tánaiste (heir apparent, literally "second") who would be best placed to succeed at his death. Kings were themselves subject to the law and had little power to create laws or issue edicts except in emergencies.
These tuatha were, by convention, grouped into four over-kingdoms or provinces: Laighin (present day Leinster), Ulaidh (Ulster), Mumhan (Munster), and Connachta (Connacht). Each province had a king, normally chosen from among the kings of the tuatha, who exercised some power over the other kings in the province. The provincial kings were supposedly subject to a High King, who ruled from Tara in the "fifth royal province" of Mide (present day Meath).
Clientship
A member of the property-owning classes could advance himself by becoming a "free client" of a more powerful lord. The lord would make his client a grant of property (sometimes land, but more usually livestock) for a fixed period of time. The client would owe service to his lord, and at the end of the grant period would return the grant with interest. Any increase beyond the agreed interest was his to keep. This allowed for a certain degree of social mobility as an astute free client could increase his wealth until he could afford to have clients of his own, thus becoming a lord in his own right.
A poorer man could become a "base client" by selling a share in his honour-price, making his lord entitled to part of any compensation due him. The lord would make him a smaller grant of land or livestock, for which the client would pay rent in produce and manual labour. A man could be a base client to several lords simultaneously.
Decline of the Brehon Laws
The laws fell into disuse after Ireland was progressively divided over the years into Norman-controlled zones, one English-controlled zone (The Pale), and some native Irish kingdoms. Although the Norman barons eventually adopted Irish culture and language and married in with the native Irish, Ireland remained divided between Norman-Irish kingdoms and Gaelic-Irish kingdoms. Due to this, the Brehon Laws would never be readopted on an official basis, although some modernized concepts survive in the laws of the Republic of Ireland.
In one exceptional case, as pointed out by Wylie, vestigial rights have been recognised in recent Irish case law in reference to the survival of Brehon law-governed fishery rights in Tyrconnell, once the last bastion of Gaelic sovereignty until 1601. The rights survived the end of Tyrconnell's independence, and also survived the Elizabethen conquest.
Trivia
The Brehon Laws and associated themes from Celtic Ireland have been fictionalised in the Sister Fidelma novels by Peter Tremayne.
References
- Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (1995), Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200, Longman
- Fergus Kelly (1988), A Guide to early Irish Law, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, ISBN 0-901282-95-2.
- Professor J.C.W. Wylie, Irish Land Law, Butterworths.
External links
- The Brehon Law
- The Law of the Couple: translation of an Irish legal text on marriage
- The Brehon Law Project
- Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies - School of Celtic Studies Catalogue of relevant publications
History of Ireland | Ancient Ireland | Legal history | Legal codes | Irish law
"Brehon Laws"