Proto communist Ireland?

by TheBlackStuff1

I've read before the Norman invasion of Ireland the preexisting Gaelic system was a type of proto communist society. How true is this and what was it like for the people of that time?

callanquinn

Yes and no. Gaelic Ireland operated on more of a class system, common throughout Europe at that time, with slaves at the bottom, farmers,craftsmen and the like next, above them the Aos dána who consisted of the artistic and cultured individuals in Irish society such as Druids, Poets and Bards who served as a sort of advisory council to a Cheiftan and the ruling clann (to this effect they had to take oaths similar to that of a doctor; bards and poets could spend up to 10 years learning their particular field to know every song and saga off by heart). Finally you had the ruling chieftains and their family.

However, whilst a class divide of sorts did exist, Gaelic Irish laws held most people in equal esteem, and most interestingly women had an equal legal standing to men. For example, a woman could divorce a man, and woman could be judges (or Brehons as they were known). This changed obviously with the introduction of Christianity.

I can't seem to find any articles on the subject apart from a wiki one (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Irish_law#Origins), and I know I've dealt with a period before Norman introduction to Ireland, but hopefully someone more specialized in this area on the reddit can shed more light

petros08

According to T. M. Charles-Edwards, (Early Christian Ireland , 2000), this was not the case. Ireland was a hierarchy obsessed with status. Legal scholars developed complicated systems to rank and compare different social roles. In each community there was a king, bishop and senior legal/artistic figures. The main distinctions were between aristocrats, base clients and slaves. War was a key part of these social roles with free men being the warriors. Aristocrats controlled livestock, the key means of production, and granted them to the clients.

Public status or "face" was also essential. Satire had real social effects.

As far as I can tell the idea that Gaelic Ireland was created in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. James Connolly, Pearse and others seem to have confused the non-feudal Gaelic system with proto-communism, although Connolly admitted that feudalism would have developed without the Normans.