The Celts
The Celts were an Indo-European group called Keltoi by the Greeks and Galli by the Romans, who spread south from central Europe into Italy and Spain and west through France and Britain. By 500 BC, Celtic language and culture were dominant in Ireland, but there is no evidence of any large-scale invasion or social upheaval. It is probably more accurate to think of their arrival as a gradual and relatively peaceful process that took place over hundreds of years. Their settlements took the form of ring forts (or raths), and they divided the island into about one hundred small kingdoms or Tuatha , each with its own king. The Tuatha were grouped into the Five Fifths or provinces, which were Ulster ( Ulaid ), Meath ( Midhe ), Leinster ( Laigin ), Munster ( Muma ) and Connacht (which retains its Irish spelling). In theory, the High King ( Ard Ri ) ruled over all from his throne on the Hill of Tara - a place long associated with mysterious power - although only rarely did any one figure of sufficient strength emerge to lay undisputed claim to that title. It is hard to separate the truth about the Celts from the stories they told of themselves. Theirs was an oral culture in which the immortality to be gained from being the hero of an epic tale was highly prized. With an enthusiasm for war little short of bloodthirsty, they celebrated battles decided by the single combat of great champions, guided and aided by the unpredictable whims of the gods. They also appropriated the religion and beliefs already current in Ireland and, although they had nothing to do with their building, megalithic sites continued to have great symbolic significance for them. The two greatest heroes of the epics, Cuchulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), have been tentatively identified as warrior champions of the second and third centuries, transformed by legend into semi-divinities in much the same way as King Arthur was in England.
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